Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Nothing can save the Oilers. A franchise generational player didn't save the Oilers. A bevy of inexperienced and experienced coaches didn't save the Oilers. Nothing that this organization does will save themselves. They are paying for their previous cups that they have won - not for winning them, but for how they built the team that won them. May they continue to provide a lot of giggles to us Flames fans, even though they won tonight.
|
The Oilers remind me of the Calgary Stampeders after Wally Buono left and before John Hufnagel took over (2003-2007). The football decisions were horrible and the team wasn't being run like a football team but like a toy for the owner and his family.
The Oiler's owner and his family are running this team like a toy... the owner is not hiring mangers for their management skills, but rather he's hiring his boyhood hockey idols for his own ego and so he can hang out with them and impress them. It's a classical mid-life crisis scenario.
So the Oilers... just like the Stampeders, can be saved... they just need to cure the real cause of their problems and not just go after some fringe symptom and/or scapegoat excuse. In 2005, the Stampeder's owner sold the team to what has now become the
Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (formerly Calgary Flames Limited Partnership). They quickly cleaned house of all ineffective management and started running the team like an actual football team. In Edmonton.... you need Katz to do the same, he doesn't necessarily have to sell the team, but he needs to purge all (or most) of the management team, and rid the team of all his former idols (and I mean ALL). The problem with having subordinates as idols is that you don't really manage them, you let them convince you that the problems lie elsewhere and they really control you (Katz).
After the purge, Katz needs to step away from all day to day operations and let his new management team run the team like an actaul hockey team. His boy can't greet new draft picks on draft day - that's not stepping away, his entire family needs to step away. Only then... can the Edmonton Oilers begin to recover and win again - just like the Stamps did. It's a hard lesson to learn, but they can be saved, but not until these drastic measures are taken.