Former Oilers coach reveals reason for Dallas Stars losing back-to-back years to Edmonton

In June, the Dallas Stars fired their head coach, and in early July, replaced him with Edmonton's former assistant coach, Glen Gulutzan, who was behind the Oilers bench during the last two Western Conference Finals.

It seems that the Stars felt it was incumbent on them to hire one of the coaches responsible for developing the Oilers' game plans, which helped to shorten Dallas' Playoff runs.

In a recent article by The Hockey News the new Dallas head coach was asked about Edmonton's playoff success against Dallas, and suggested the latter's pre-game preparation was lacking, and failed to make the necessary adjustments to their game plan, when it was obvious it wasn't working.

"Really, what I would like to do, and what I did in Edmonton, "Gulutzan said, "was we were able to adapt and create offense against different defenses. I wouldn't say we completely changed, but if we had a road trip and we are going to LA and then going to Vegas, we knew we wanted to do things differently in the O-zone."

The Oilers were proactive, and changed their games plans accordingly, making key adjustments to address deficiencies and defensive breakdowns.

Dallas, on the other hand, failed to make the key adjustments to their game plans, and lost as a result. Having Glen Gulutzan behind their bench will help Dallas identify where they might have gone wrong, and what they can do better against their playoff nemesis.

Gulutzan spent 3 seasons as an assistant coach with the Oilers, from the 2022-23 season, through to the end of the 2024-25 campaign, and was instrumental in developing the teams' successful powerplay.

It was a bold move on Dallas' behalf to hire their rivals' coach, one that should help them address the team's playoff shortfalls.