How Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch became master of the midseries adjustment

SO OFTER THE details get lost in the big picture -- which might be the most apt way to describe what Kris Knoblauch has done over the past 18 months to make the Edmonton Oilers one of the NHL's top Stanley Cup challengers.

Every path has an origin. Initially, it might appear that the Oilers' march to a consecutive Western Conference finals first began with their first-round rally against the Los Angeles Kings after going down 2-0.

But a deeper look suggests the Oilers' first steps were in November 2023 when they decided to move on from Jay Woodcroft to hire Knoblauch. Since then, Knoblauch has guided the Oilers to what has arguably been the most prosperous stretch the franchise has enjoyed since their last Stanley Cup back in 1990.

"He's a pretty analytical guy and pretty composed," Oilers forward Connor Brown said. "I think he sees it clearly in these high-pressure situations. I think his judgement is pretty clear. When he got hired last season, we ended up putting together a couple win streaks. It was the beginning. We were crystal clear on our positioning, our roles individually and then we started to roll from there."

Coaching is a nuanced profession by nature. There is the macro view -- looking at the totality of a team -- while blending in the micro, weighing how each player works or doesn't work within the system. It's knowing that those real-time, in-game decisions can be the difference between being a winning franchise or one that wonders what would have been if better choices had been made.

It's about having confidence in Plan A. But it's about having even more confidence in knowing when to shift away from Plan A in favor of Plan B, Plan C or an entirely different plan altogether at a moment's notice.

Knoblauch has gotten to this stage by navigating those lanes while understanding the consequences of those actions. That becomes even more amplified upon the acknowledgment that this is still his first NHL head coaching job.

Regardless of what happens in a Game 1, the adjustments made in Game 2 are going to play a role in how a series moves forward. This is a lesson Knoblauch knows well, and it's what makes Friday even more alluring. He watched the Oilers build a 3-1 lead in Game 1 against the Dallas Stars -- only to see his team surrender five unanswered tallies in a 6-3 loss.

Now it's a matter of seeing what alterations Knoblauch makes as the Oilers seek a return to the Stanley Cup Final.

"He pushes the right buttons, and we have an experienced group in here that knows how to play the right way and knows what it takes to win hockey games this time of year," Oilers star center Leon Draisaitl said. "That part helps a lot, of course. But we've seen him do a great job of sending the right messages at the right times."

IT'S NOT LIKE recent Oilers teams hadn't encountered success before hiring Knoblauch. They had, but it was a different kind of success. They qualified for the playoffs in four straight seasons between 2019 and 2022, with their crowning achievement coming during the 2022 postseason when they reached the conference finals.

The last time the Oilers had more than four straight seasons in which they made the playoffs was between 1996 and 2001 when they did it in five consecutive campaigns.

Advancing to consecutive conference finals is something the Oilers haven't experienced since 1987 and 1988. So what is Knoblauch doing to get the best out of a roster, bringing the most prosperity in the past 30 years?

"His demeanor, that calm demeanor works for our group," Brown said. "It works really well with our group. We're a very self-motivated team. You don't need as much rah-rah, especially in the playoffs because guys are ready to go. Having that composed demeanor behind the bench is beneficial for us."

Knoblauch's demeanor -- and the impact it can have -- was on display throughout their second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights. Even after the Oilers allowed the first two goals in Game 1, Knoblauch remained calm behind the bench before using intermission to make necessary adjustments.

Those adjustments resulted in the Oilers allowing just one shot on goal in the second period -- and also led to them scoring four unanswered goals over the next two frames. How each coach reacted to the comeback was also an exercise in contrast. Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy was visibly frustrated from the bench, whereas Knoblauch was the same throughout the game despite the fact the Oilers had reason to celebrate.

Not only did they win their first game of a playoff series in nearly a calendar year, but it was also their fifth consecutive comeback win in the postseason, which set an NHL record. The Oilers used another comeback effort to take Game 2 en route to winning the series against Vegas in five games; notably, three contests were decided by one goal, with two of them going to overtime.

"It's just not changing our mindset or the way that we want to play," Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said of that stretch. "We never really go chasing a game. We stick to our game and know that if you do enough things the right way, the results will come in our favor. I think that's the biggest thing about our group. There's no real panic. We're just sticking to our game and not getting away from it."

But that's the thing about Knoblauch: He gets his teams invested in a way where players don't panic. It's not just a one-time event. It becomes so frequent that it is an ingrained part of the team's identity.

THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS were fifth in goals per game in the regular season, and in the top 10 in shots per game, scoring chances per game and high-danger chances per game. They had 11 players finish with more than 30 points, and 11 players finished with more than 10 goals.

But against the Oilers, they struggled to get consistent offensive production from their primary and secondary scorers. They didn't get a single goal from top stars like Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl, while breakout performers like Pavel Dorofeyev, who missed the first two games, and Brett Howden, who scored a career-high 23 goals, were also held without a goal.

Knoblauch and his staff created a plan that held the Golden Knights to zero goals in Games 4 and 5, after Edmonton lost Game 3 on a fluky, last-second goal. They did all this after reinserting goaltender Stuart Skinner into the lineup after Calvin Pickard sustained an injury. Bear in mind that Mattias Ekholm -- one of their top defensemen -- has missed the entire postseason with an injury.

"He's a smart coach," Edmonton forward Corey Perry said about Knoblauch. "Those are things that smart coaches do in-game, in game-to-game, day-to-day and it's worked, it continues to work and hopefully it continues even more."

What is it that allows Knoblauch to unlock his team's potential while keeping opponents guessing?

"I think when you have a lot of good players and you have a good team that when you hit Plan B, things look like that was a good plan and that was a good idea to do that," Knoblauch said.

But before he continued, he had someone who was near him telling him to "take the credit."

"In my time here, we've had a lot of good players and a lot of guys who maybe haven't been in prominent roles," Knoblauch explained. "Then when you change things up, it gives them a little spark, a little energy, a little just -- it changes things up. You also think sometimes, when you don't make a change, things were going to change anyway. It was just the flow of the game."

AFTER EXPLAINING HIS PHILOSOPHY, Knoblauch dives in on how the decision to make a change is balanced by knowing when to not make a change.

This isn't just a coach saying the right things for the camera. This is how he operates, and it's an approach that his players have become quite familiar with.

"He has a knack for making adjustments at the right time and not making an adjustment just to make one," Nurse said. "I think if the game is not going the way you want it to go sometimes, there are adjustments that are made that are probably unnecessary. But he's got a great mind to see when they are necessary."

Nurse said that became evident from the moment Knoblauch took over the Oilers in November 2023, and it's been part of the Oilers' identity since.

Knoblauch inherited a team that won three of its first 13 games before he and his staff laid the foundation for them to win 46 of the next 69 contests. It was about finding those additional lanes that allowed Zach Hyman to become a 50 goal scorer, or Evan Bouchard to cement his place as a top-pairing defenseman, while seeing other players carve a place so that the Oilers become more than superstars Connor McDavid and Draisaitl.

Then it was a question of whether it could carry over into the 2023/24 postseason. Knoblauch replaced Skinner with Pickard in Games 4 and 5 in the second round against the Vancouver Canucks, before Skinner returned in Game 6 to help them win the series in seven games.

They fell into another 2-1 series hole in the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Stars, only to come back and win in six games -- and avoid a winner-takes-all battle against what might be the greatest Game 7 coach in North American sports history in Peter DeBoer.

Yes, they lost the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final. But they came back to force Game 7, and were within one goal of pulling off what would have been arguably the greatest comeback in Stanley Cup Final history.

Brown, like McDavid, was part of an Erie Otters team in the OHL that went from missing the playoffs to making them in Knoblauch's first full year with the club.

"He was like that even back then too," Brown recalled. "He took a team that was struggling and put together some amazing series in Erie and it's a lot of similarities from back then. I think he's done a good job of staying true to himself and sticking to what has worked for him."

FAST-FORWARD TO this year. Knoblauch handled being down 2-0 to the Kings in the first round after giving up 12 goals in two games; he went back to Pickard, made the changes to win the series and start a comeback streak that extended into the second round. And then when Pickard got hurt, he tapped Skinner, who authored shutouts in Games 4 and 5.

Another adjustment that now looks brilliant? The decision to play Kasperi Kapanen -- whom the Oilers claimed on waivers in November -- in Game 5. Kapanen scored the game- and series-winning goal in overtime, making him the 14th Oilers forward who scored this postseason.

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Oilers call series after Kasperi Kapanen scores OT winner

Kasperi Kapanen somehow gets his stick on the puck last on a scramble in overtime as the Oilers clinch the series vs. the Golden Knights.

These are more than just good moves. They are living, breathing proof that Knoblauch and his ability to make adjustments are the details that might get lost in the big picture -- in fact, they're one of the major reasons there's a big picture in the first place.

They are also why in a league in which there is so much shuffling among coaches that Knoblauch is the 10th-longest-tenured head coach in the NHL -- and why he might be one of the premier minds behind a bench right now.

"I think there's a deep sense of belief in this team," Brown said. "So when we're down, the seed of doubt isn't in our head. We truly believe we can come back on any lead on any team. When you believe that, you stick to business and it happens."

Knoblauch said coaches throughout the NHL are always thinking about the different avenues they can take to make their teams better. One of the ways he's tried to do that is by getting feedback from his players.

Say there's a player who is doing well. Knoblauch is going to remember what works. But when they're not doing well? He's going to think back to the conversations he's had with players about who they like playing with, in the hope that creating a new line can help a struggling player turn into a successful one.

"Those are things I take note of and obviously, the coaching staff [does too]," Knoblauch said. "It's thinking about if we need to be a little more physical against this line. Or we have to be a little more defensive. A little more speed to it.

"Then we have those conversations also and during the game when we have to make that decision, it's 'Who is playing?' and then all that information you took before, you can use it to make your next decisions."