"The Edmonton Oilers are a useless franchise"

[Locke]

Originally Posted by dash_pinched

For what it's worth, Steve Tambellini was on HockeyCentral earlier today and says they're playoff contenders this year and was quite adamant about it.

Honestly, I agree with him.

Remember last year when the Oilers were on top for a few weeks? A shortened season really shifts the dynamic and eliminates the long grind. If they come out of the gates hard they could accumulate enough points to make the playoffs.

Shortened season is the ultimate wild card. The Oilers could very well make the playoffs this year because there isnt enough time for them to fail.

Of course, the same can be said of pretty well any team.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Locke

Honestly, I agree with him.

Remember last year when the Oilers were on top for a few weeks? A shortened season really shifts the dynamic and eliminates the long grind. If they come out of the gates hard they could accumulate enough points to make the playoffs.

Shortened season is the ultimate wild card. The Oilers could very well make the playoffs this year because there isnt enough time for them to fail.

Of course, the same can be said of pretty well any team.

They started 8-2-2 because Khabby was absolutely lights out.

After that, they were the worst team in the league.

Twelve games is substantially less than 48.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

They started 8-2-2 because Khabby was absolutely lights out.

After that, they were the worst team in the league.

Twelve games is substantially less than 48.

While true, its still a full quarter of the season on the back of a few months of extra rest. Could happen man. I hope it doesnt, but then I thought the whole season should have been cancelled a long time ago.

[Metro Gnome]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

This is written by Thomas Drance, a Canucks blogger, and one of the more accomplished stats nerds writing for the Nation and NHLNumbers. Why he decided to do a troll hit piece on the oilers, I am unclear. Perhaps I shall ask him.

He did it that way more or less because that's the type article vice asked for.

I may have a chance to do the Canucks hit piece if the series continues.

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

They started 8-2-2 because Khabby was absolutely lights out.

After that, they were the worst team in the league.

Twelve games is substantially less than 48.

After 48 games last year, the Oilers had 40 points, and were in 29 place in the league.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Plett25

After 48 games last year, the Oilers had 40 points, and were in 29 place in the league.

Thats re-assuring. I'm just saying, short-season on the back of a lockout, almost anything can happen because there isnt enough time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[MisterJoji]

Originally Posted by Locke

Ultimately though, there has to be a serious attitude and tactical adjustment made, without which they'll never be successful.

There's a reason Detriot remains a top team despite having low draft picks. Solid scouting, development, and a culture of winning. The Oilers have created a culture of losing and that it's acceptable. That's going to be a hard stank to get rid of.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by DarkSaturn

Scores clutch goals in the WJ's... "Not pro hockey - doesn't count, was just burying gimmies anyway"

Has a 19% shooting percentage over a year in the NHL... "One season anomaly, he'll never repeat that, was playing easy minutes anyway"

Improves to 24% shooting percentage in the AHL during the lock-out "Can't convert numbers from the AHL to the NHL, goaltenders in the AHL suck anyway"

You're right - ignore my post where I actually broke down how ridiculous it is to claim that a 19% shooting percentage is realistic moving forward. You won this round with this persuasive argument. Clearly Eberle is going to continue potting goals on 5% more of his shots than other elite scorers. He's clearly going to finish in the top 20 all time for shooting percentage, in the same range as elite scorers from the 80's - when a .900 goalie save% was unheard of.

Quick question - why was his shooting percentage only at 11.4% his rookie year if he's a 19% shooter moving forward? What the hell happened there? It's almost as if it takes a few years to normalize itself.

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by Metro Gnome

He did it that way more or less because that's the type article vice asked for.
I may have a chance to do the Canucks hit piece if the series continues.

If you do can you try to not include hackneyed cringe-inducing "Sedin Sisters" and "riot" jokes? There should be plenty to mock without repeating that old material.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

If you do can you try to not include hackneyed cringe-inducing "Sedin Sisters" and "riot" jokes? There should be plenty to mock without repeating that old material.

How about Keslersault and Great Save Tanev!?

[AR_Six]

Keslersault is enough in and of itself to base a Canucks hit piece on.

[Flash Walken]

This thread is shaping up to be bumped at seasons end, much to embarrassment of certain posters.

[Metro Gnome]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

If you do can you try to not include hackneyed cringe-inducing "Sedin Sisters" and "riot" jokes? There should be plenty to mock without repeating that old material.

Of course. There's miles of material to mine for the Canucks.

[Ezio]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

Well, if 4 games is a very small sample size than 9 games is a small sample size.

There's no denying that RNH is a skilled player that will probably be very productive in the NHL. I don't think too many are suggesting otherwise. I think some are suggesting that although his skill level was ready for the NHL that his physical stature may not have been.

Sure, he and the Oilers were playing well for the first 9 games. But did they really believe that 9 games was enough of a sample size to convince them that the team that finished 30th the previous two seasons improved enough to burn a year of his contract AND put a relatively immature frame up against the monstars in the NHL?

I suppose hindsight is 20/20 but there was very little for the Oilers to gain by playing him last year and there was a lot to lose.

In any case, the author of the article may be off in some of the details but he is right in his premise: The Edmonton Oilers ARE a useless franchise.

Huh? The Oilers gained a valuable point producer and Calder nominee. It would have been the biggest blunder for this franchise in a long, long time to keep down a player who produced at the rate of a first line player. And that's saying a lot since.. well, they are the Edmonton Oilers, team notoriously known in pro sports for being possibly the most incompetent franchise over the last few years.

I've been an Oilers fan since 2002 and I've seen my fair share of mistakes. I highly doubt that keeping up a Calder nominee and #1 draft pick on the NHL team was a bad decision. But you could be right I suppose.

[Robbob]

Until the puck is dropped we can't talk in absolutes, which is why a lot of people get annoyed. Being as bad as the Oilers have been, the fan base (and media it seems) should really let it play out for a bit before anointing them the 8th wonder of the world.

For the record it has been 1828 days (Jan 2008) since the Oilers could be in a relevant hockey discussion in terms of playoffs on a January 17th. You could even put an asterisk beside today because until we drop the puck the only reason they are still in a conversation is because everybody is still tied because there have been no games played.

Honestly, they should be a better team and if they don't make a significant push heads should roll.

[CsInMyBlood]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

If you do can you try to not include hackneyed cringe-inducing "Sedin Sisters" and "riot" jokes? There should be plenty to mock without repeating that old material.

The riots should be constantly brought up, Canucks fans earned that.

[DarkSaturn]

Originally Posted by JayP

You're right - ignore my post where I actually broke down how ridiculous it is to claim that a 19% shooting percentage is realistic moving forward. You won this round with this persuasive argument. Clearly Eberle is going to continue potting goals on 5% more of his shots than other elite scorers. He's clearly going to finish in the top 20 all time for shooting percentage, in the same range as elite scorers from the 80's - when a .900 goalie save% was unheard of.

Quick question - why was his shooting percentage only at 11.4% his rookie year if he's a 19% shooter moving forward? What the hell happened there? It's almost as if it takes a few years to normalize itself.

I'm just pointing out that there still seems to be an awful lot of doubt about Eberle's game, despite the fact that he seems to meet or exceed expectations at every level.

I agree that it's probably unlikely that he will maintain a 19% shooting percentage moving forward, but all signs point to him being an above average shooter.

Why did Stamkos only shot 12.7% in his, if he's a 17% shooter moving forward (almost exactly the number he put up in his second season). I'm not actually suggesting Eberle is on the same level as Stamkos, just that for a player with only 2 years in the league, I'm going to give more weight to their 2nd year statistics than their first. In this case we also have some third year statistics that rightfully deserve an asterisk as they are AHL numbers, but they continue to paint a picture that Eberle can and will shoot a higher percentage than his peers, even though 2 of those peers happen to be first overalls (soon to be 3).

[White Out 403]

I have rotten timing as an Oiler fan to have gone back as a fulltime Jets fan... but I still think it's laughable my friends and family up in E-town are predicting such a great turn around for the Oil and a Flames basement finish. Iggy is still Iggy and Kipper will again give the Flames a chance every night. The Jets and Oilers are still on the outside looking in, in my opinion. I love Trouba and Scheiffele though; Winnipegs building very well... where as Edmonton seems to be building a team that would dominate in a shoot out only format. Best of luck either way

[boggledepot]

I wouldn't go so far as saying the Oilers are useless, however I would go so far as saying the Oilers are the most annoying franchise in the NHL. I have nothing against their players. I don't hate Oiler fans (fans in Alberta are pretty delusion about their teams in general). But from top to bottom the Oilers brass piss me off.

1. Darryl Katz--Holds the city of Edmonton hostage, threatening to relocate the team, so the government will subsidize the building of new arena, saying such a building is a service for the good of the people of Edmonton. At the same time, him and his buddies have shut down the league, and all those servers, bartenders, security guards, parking lot attendants living in Edmonton, who will be paying for this super arena with their taxes, have hit hard-times because there is no hockey being played. dick move

2. Hockey Canada--Was it a conflict of interest for Kevin Lowe to name Ryan Murray to Canadian WHC team? Hockey Canada never names undrafted prospects to the Canadian senior team, but last year they did. I guess Ryan Murray did not impress enough because the Oilers didn't even draft him.

3. Serving notice to the rest of the league saying, "here we come."--Did Taylor Hall really have to be on the podium to draft Nugent-Hopkins? Did Nuge have to be on the podium to draft Yakupov? Hot-doggin it at the NHL draft, in front of twenty-nine other GM's, is actually pretty stupid.

4. Business model, 'Scorched Earth'--Why does tanking it have a totally epic name? Creating a losing culture is nothing to brag about. It's actually insulting to your season ticket holders who pay thousands of dollars every year to watch an inferior team.

5. Building for the future Part 2--I'm still surprised Lowe traded Ryan Smyth as trade dead-line rental to, of all teams, the New York Islanders. dick move

6. Building for the future Part 1--I'm still surprised the Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky for fifteen million dollars. double dick move

[Quincy Egg]

Pretty stupid article. Edmonton easily has the better forwards, Calgary is a bit better on D, but both are bad, and Calgary is better in net. Both teams will probably get around the same amount of points, and not make the playoffs.