Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainYooh
Man, oh, man... I read all this stuff about troubles in the Oilers' land with a grin on my face, because misery loves company and they are worse than Flames, at least for now. The dark thought in the back of my head is: are we gonna have to read a similar letter in two–three years from now? As much as we ridicule Katz and Lowe for lack of any credible plan, do we have one? I can't say we do...
|
As long as they have that management team they will always be worse than the Flames. People have been trotting out that line about the Oilers for a long time now. Just you watch, sure their bad now, but just give Hall and Eberle a few years. Wait till the pieces have been put in place. That's what makes it so funny. It has been a few years! And they're worse than ever! They are actually in the running for having their worst season ever point wise. Even worse than the two previous 30th place finishes. Hall and Eberle are already in their second contracts. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be next year That's what makes it so funny! They're still worse than us. They're still horrible. And yet people still parrot that phrase. They've had one year they were better than us, last year, and just barely. That was well into their rebuild in a year we got rid of all our stars. This year we are bare bones and we're better than them again. They've got three players they think are worth 6 mill plus the top pick from 2 years ago!
Lighten up and have some fun. There's a lot of things going on up there that aren't just part of a natural teams cycle. There's a level of incompetence and arrogance that you just don't see even with teams on the downswing. There's 100 reasons why their story isn't our story. That's not to say we're going to be awesome in a few years, I'm fully aware we are in for some pain. But the Oil? Wow. They are redefining the word suck. Management isn't just unaware of how to fix the team, but they are unaware there is a problem and are unaware they are causing it. At least in Calgary people lose their jobs over bad performance. Up there? They get promoted!
We've just started our first year in the rebuild. They are in year four by the organizations own admission, year five by most Edmonton fans admission, and year six by most other hockey observers. They have had consecutive finishes of 30, 30, 29, 24, and are looking at locking down another 30th place finish in five short years. On a year where they were supposed to compete for a playoff spot, if not make it to the second round or better. They've surpassed our shame filled 7 year streak without playoffs that we used to get mocked about and are looking like they may pass the league record of 10! Their #1 picks seem to either have been ruined by their development and coaching system, or completely fed up with it and tuning it out. And, through all of it, they are getting close to the cap, and still have nothing to show for it. Even though we are bad, and have some tough years ahead of us, there is no reason why we should be that bad.
As for not having a plan, well like I said, it's year one of a rebuild. There isn't going to be much of a plan, and isn't going to be much going on. But there has been accountability, and outside their #1 picks, which really shouldn't be called prospects except for maybe Yak, our prospect pool looks as good as theirs if not better.
There are many signs that their story will not be ours. Like I said, this doesn't mean I'm expecting what they were, a Chicago type turn around here in Cowtown. Heck, I'm not expecting very much. I'd like to get to the playoffs before our streak hits eight, which isn't that far away, cause we wasted those few years before the rebuild. But I do know we won't be nearly as bad as they have been, and I'm getting close to thinking we might make the playoffs before they do, even though they are many years ahead of us in rebuilding.
Cause they ain't going anywhere.