Kris Knoblauch’s best quality. His calm is impressive. His tactics have often been on the mark. But the thing I keep coming back to is his great patience, how he never throws players under the bus in public, invariably has their back, and is willing to stick with a player even as he’s struggling mightily.
That quality is on display today as Knoblauch is sticking with rookie d-man Alec Regula, even as Regula had such a rough game against Carolina, a dz-turnover kicking off the sequence of pain on one goal against and him getting flat-out beat on a bull rush to the net the major contributor to a second goal against.
After such a game, many coaches — and many previous Oilers coaches — would have had a rookie d-man in the pressbox before you could say Dit Clapper.
But Knoblauch is not any coach.
At Monday morning’s skate at least, The Patient One had Regula back with his partner Brett Kulak on the third pairing.
This in from Tony Brar of Oilers TV, the lines and pairings with Stu Skinner in the starter’s net:
Savoie – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Roslovic
Mangiapane – Henrique – Frederic
Janmark – Philp – Lazar
Tomasek
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Walman
Kulak – Regula
Emberson
Skinner
Pickard
My take
1. A lot of NHL coaches would have had Regula in the pressbox after the Canes fiasco. But Knoblauch has his own ways. He’s shown astonishing patience with a number of players such as Evan Bouchard and Stuart Skinner, and he and the Oilers have often been rewarded for the coach’s approach. Right now Knoblauch is sticking with struggling winger Trent Frederic in the Top 9, even as the forward seems to have lost all confidence with his gas tank on empty. And he’s sticking with Regula, even as there’s a solid replacement on hand in Ty Emberson.
Oilers
2. Both Kurt Leavins and I said after the Carolina game that we hoped Knoblauch would indeed stick with Regula, though neither of us would have been upset if Frederic got sent to the pressbox for a few games. Frederic is a veteran grinder who should know by now he’s got to hustle like a Hyman to stay in the line-up. But maybe Knoblauch is right about Frederic and I’m wrong here. Who can say? The coach is certainly in a superior position to judge what’s best for Frederic. The coach has knowledge that the rest of us lack, so best to be humble in the face of that fact.
3. Knoblauch has been blasted this year for not being fast enough to go to the whip. Many wanted him to take severe action early on with Bouchard, but the coach was as immovable as Mount Robson, essentially letting Bouchard sort out his game, give or take on short recent in-game benching.
4. As for Regula if he’s ever to become a regular he’s got to play. He missed all of last season with injury after tripping it up the year before in the AHL as one of that league’s best d-men. I’m not sure why Boston waived the play but from what I see I’m glad they did. He’s tall, lanky, with decent mobility and excellent calm with the puck.
At the Cult of Hockey
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