Yawney adds penalty-kill expertise to team
Oilers’ new assistant coach hopeful group effort can turn things around
A great penalty kill at a time in the game to win it usually starts with the faceoff and getting the puck down the ice.
You could call Trent Yawney the Hoarse Whisperer when he’s talking about the penalty kill.
He’ll talk about what makes them tick until he’s out of voice.
There may not be a better PK instructor in the NHL, and while you obviously need the horses for that job, they seem to do what the new Edmonton Oilers assistant coach wants.
It’s worked in San Jose, it’s worked in Anaheim. In five of his seven years there, his PK units were first, fourth and fifth three times with only two outlier seasons — 15th in Anaheim and 24th in San Jose.
It helped for sure in Anaheim that they had terrific faceoff people in Ryan Kesler and Antoine Vermette in particular, and in San Jose where Logan Couture is so good. But teams that kill penalties well feed off that and they also win, which seems simplistic but true.
Only one team, Calgary, in the top 10 in penalty kill, failed to make the playoffs this season.
So, with an Oilers PK that’s been 17th, 18th and 25th the last three years, hopefully a new set of eyes and vocal cords will turn that around, although the penalty kill this past season was a gobsmacking 31st at home and first on the road, 40 goals allowed in 41 games at Rogers Place, only 17 away.
They were dead-last overall until the last three months when they were No. 2, changing things up under Jim Johnson, who also handled the defence. But they had probably lost 10 home games because of their awful PK (50 per cent) before things improved.
“It’s about the language and the message getting through to the players, but ultimately it’s about the execution,” said Yawney, who says it’ll be a collaborative effort with the coaching staff.
“In Anaheim, Cogs (Andrew Cogliano), Kes (Ryan Kesler) and Getzy (Ryan Getzlaf ) took a lot of pride in the penalty kill. It dug us out of a lot of holes there the last couple of years, because the Ducks were the most penalized team in the league.
“Cogs made sure the younger guys took as much pride in it as he did, and I know when Getzy wasn’t on it, he was mad because in a roundabout way he felt the penalty kill rounded out his game and he wanted to be out there.
“The other thing we emphasized was the importance of the faceoff play, winning them. That comes back to the pride thing. It shows up in the stats sheet to an extent, but a great penalty kill at a time in the game to win it usually starts with the faceoff and getting the puck down the ice.”
You can expect Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to continue to get PK time here, even if there have been cries to spare McDavid because he already gets 60-80 seconds on the power play, or in case he busts a foot blocking a shot, or Draisaitl takes a ripper off his hand.
Occupational hazards for guys who kill penalties, stars and foot soldiers.
“Like I said, Getzlaf wanted to be out there, and with Connor and Leon killing penalties rounds out their game. It’s a structure part of the game you can’t really cheat on,” said Yawney.
“If you cheat, you’re going to get exposed and it’s a pride thing for the stars. Like with Getzlaf, every once in a while he’d fill a shooting lane and take a shot off his shin pad and raised the whole bench. When guys like him were doing it, became pretty hard for the third and fourth line guys to do the same.”
CONTRACT NOT RENEWED
After Bruce Boudreau was fired in Anaheim and when Carlyle got the head gig, Yawney was his right-hand man. But when his contract ran out this year they didn’t renew it and brought up farm team assistant Marty Wilford instead. There’s talk that if the Ducks stumble out of the gate next season, ex- Oilers head man Dallas Eakins will move up from San Diego to take over.
“I did what I needed to do and they wanted to go in another direction. In all fairness to Randy, he probably needed his own guy there. He inherited me,” said Yawney.
MOVING ON
With Swift Current’s Manny Viveiros also joining the Oilers, it is six consecutive years the coach of the WHL champion has gone to the pros right afterwards. Steve Konowalchuk (Seattle) went to the Ducks as an assistant coach.
In 2016 Kelly McCrimmon (Brandon) joined Vegas as assistant GM, and in 2015, Dan Lambert (Kelowna) left for Buffalo as assistant coach.
In 2014, Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal joined Dallas Stars as their farm coach and in 2013, Travis Green left Portland to be the Vancouver Canucks’ farm boss.