How much longer do you think the Oilers will be this bad for?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Despite what some posters have said about a "losing culture" being a myth I think EDM needs to be wary of it. If they don't change the culture of that room soon with certain guys coming in then their young stars will start to rot, start to become complacent, start to learn to lose instead of learn to win, and may find losing acceptable as the losses pile up and pile up with no change.

MacTavish does need to make some bold moves. Perhaps moving a key young guy between now and next season will shake the young guys and add a new presence in the room. Looking back we all should have realized that just handing the reins of a team to a bunch of teenagers and young guys in their early 20's would backfire.

Luckily there's no Chris Pronger to acquire and show them how to win. But MacTavish better hope he can add somebody who can make a difference and teach the young guys how to win more consistently. As I said above they could use size at centre, a powerforward or a big, strong top pairing defenseman. Those kind of elements will make them harder to play against.

[cowtown75]

As long as Lowe is in charge, I don't see much changing. They need to get away from the Oiler's good 'ol years and change the culture from the top down. Recycling MacTavish back as GM was pretty surprising. I see another few bad years ahead of them.

[Erick Estrada]

I agree with FDW. The Oilers are the classic example of maybe taking the best player available too many years in a row rather than addressing team needs. It seems like Lowe and company figured that picking players based on talent over size, leadership intangibles and position would form a team that could win on sheer talent alone which is a stunning oversight for a management team that gets paid to know the basics of building a competitive NHL hockey team. Kevin Lowe really needs to get over the 80's as he's simply not ever going to be able to re-create that team. Ever.

Craig MacTavish may be able to trade into a top 2 defenseman but I hope he and Oilers fans realize that the price is going to be very steep for one in his prime. Likely one of Eberle, Yakupov, RNH + draft picks/prospects/players for a defenseman such as Subban or Weber. The Flyers paid a steep price for a 3/4 defenseman like Schenn and the Oilers need to shoot for a better defenseman than him. It's why they really should be drafting a player like Nurse with their first round pick but we all know that doesn't scream 80's Oilers so Nichushkin or Barkov will likely be the pick.

[Azhouse]

I am not sold on Duber in net as well. If he doesn't prove himself next year he will be a perenial backup ala Jeff Drouin Deslauries (the previous prospected franchise goalie for the Oil) .

[DuffMan]

The Oilers today remind me of the Oilers years ago, when they lost the last 17 games of the season or whatever it was.
In both cases they just look like they want the season to be over with already.

[CaptainCrunch]

The fan raised a great point today I think it was Warrener.

At this time of year winning should almost be easy in Edmonton and Calgary's situation.

You have a bunch of young guys, with no real pressure, fighting to make an impression and make it easier to secure a NHL job for next year.

Winning is harder when your fighting for that playoff spot.

Edmonton for a so called superstar ladenteam, has not shown much character, resiliancy of desire since they had that easy win against a demoralized Flames team a few weeks back.

They're like those girls in that reality show the Hills, "Everything is sooooo Hard". That Oilers team needs a leadership transplant from top to bottom.

They don't have it right now.

At this point, pretty much four years into a rebuild that features a ton of high draft picks and a open budget for them to be at this point is a massive failure.

They are actually on track for slightly less points then last year based on a 82 game season.

They are on track for less goals for over an 82 game season then they were last year.

Their goals against has come down, but that's not due to good defense its due to Dubnyk and Khabby the drinker having career high seasons.

You can't even look at the Oilers anymore and say they're on an improving track. And their lack of fight has to be disturbing to their fans.

[Ashasx]

It's funny that Hall and Eberle make $6M next season. Wasted ELCs.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It's funny that Hall and Eberle make $6M next season. Wasted ELCs.

At least it will take away comparing themselves to Chicago.

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

He probably will. But it's going to be pretty difficult for him to break the chains that are currently holding him back, much like it was for Iginla. When a player is around teams this bad for this long. They might lose site of what a top end team really is. Which is something I think happened to Iginla. He like Hall played on some great Junior teams, but started his NHL career on some bad ones.

Iginla never played on a team as bad as the Oilers teams of the last couple of years.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by nik-

At least it will take away comparing themselves to Chicago.

...and Pittsburgh. So I guess with them out, their rebuild was more in the Florida/Columbus/NYI mold. Except they managed to move the bar even lower. It is good to know we won't be hearing the Chicago and Pittsburgh rebuild comparisons.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Azhouse

I am not sold on Duber in net as well. If he doesn't prove himself next year he will be a perenial backup ala Jeff Drouin Deslauries (the previous prospected franchise goalie for the Oil) .

Bizarre thing to say after he's posted a .920 save% behind a pretty rotten team defense. He'll never be an elite NHL goalie and he'll have his stinkers, but it's pretty clear Dubnyk is a legitimate starting goalie at this point. The Oilers might need an upgrade on him eventually if they want to contend, but they have a lot bigger problems on their team than goaltending.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by JayP

Bizarre thing to say after he's posted a .920 save% behind a pretty rotten team defense. He'll never be an elite NHL goalie and he'll have his stinkers, but it's pretty clear Dubnyk is a legitimate starting goalie at this point. The Oilers might need an upgrade on him eventually if they want to contend, but they have a lot bigger problems on their team than goaltending.

He's the biggest reason why the Oilers were anywhere near sniffing for a playoff spot and not drafting first overall.

[The Yen Man]

The justification for taking BPA has always been "worst case scenario, we can flip the BPA player drafted for better organizational needs". Edmonton's problem is that they're reluctant now to give up one of their guys for the organizational need. In order to make the team better, they're going to have to bie the bullet and trade one of them IMO.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

They are actually on track for slightly less points then last year based on a 82 game season.

Not only that, but despite the fact their goaltending pulled out career years, they are showing even less ability to generate winning streaks than they had even in 2010-11 during their 62-point "first year" of the rebuild:

            2012-13  2011-12  2010-11
Win 4+       0        1            1
Lose 4+      2        1            1

Win 3        1        1            3 
Lose 3       1        6            2

Win 2        1        4            1
Lose 2       3        5            4

It's amazing how much a short season and a short 4-0-1 stretch did to mask the Oilers' problems before the wheels fell completely off over the last three weeks.

[IamNotKenKing]

I got this from the Edmonton Journal. It made me smile. Apparently he rates players after every game, from 1-10. Justin Schultz garnered a 1.

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/201...idents-trophy/

#19 Justin Schultz, 1. It’s been hard to watch the promising young defender’s game come off the rails as the season has gone on. Wednesday night may have been a new low, as the Oilers were outshot 14-0 during Justin’s (team-leading!?) 17 minutes at even strength. In that time the Oilers attempted just 5 shots, 4 of which got blocked; the Hawks meanwhile had 23 attempts, just 1 of which was blocked. I’d think about that a little more except my head hurts already.

He ain't no Bobby Orr...He might not even be Bobby Fischer...

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

I got this from the Edmonton Journal. It made me smile. Apparently he rates players after every game, from 1-10. Justin Schultz garnered a 1.

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/201...idents-trophy/

#19 Justin Schultz, 1. It’s been hard to watch the promising young defender’s game come off the rails as the season has gone on. Wednesday night may have been a new low, as the Oilers were outshot 14-0 during Justin’s (team-leading!?) 17 minutes at even strength. In that time the Oilers attempted just 5 shots, 4 of which got blocked; the Hawks meanwhile had 23 attempts, just 1 of which was blocked. I’d think about that a little more except my head hurts already.

He ain't no Bobby Orr...He might not even be Bobby Fischer...

To defend Schultz on one hand, this is the longest season that he's played in a long time, I would think that fatigue set in and lead him to a pretty disastrous second half.

However watching him play, he's a disaster in his own end, he needs a lot of work on that end of his game, and maybe building his fitness and strength to an NHL level.

Right now he has more in common with MA Bergeron then anything else.

I'm not too sure that I would trade Brodie straight across for him.

[PlayfulGenius]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To defend Schultz on one hand, this is the longest season that he's played in a long time, I would think that fatigue set in and lead him to a pretty disastrous second half.

However watching him play, he's a disaster in his own end, he needs a lot of work on that end of his game, and maybe building his fitness and strength to an NHL level.

Right now he has more in common with MA Bergeron then anything else.

I'm not too sure that I would trade Brodie straight across for him.

not sure??? ... I think you're fairly sure... that's a no deal.

[Robbob]

Yeah I wouldn't do it either.

[Kaine]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To defend Schultz on one hand, this is the longest season that he's played in a long time, I would think that fatigue set in and lead him to a pretty disastrous second half.

However watching him play, he's a disaster in his own end, he needs a lot of work on that end of his game, and maybe building his fitness and strength to an NHL level.

Right now he has more in common with MA Bergeron then anything else.

I'm not too sure that I would trade Brodie straight across for him.

Don't even joke about that.

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To defend Schultz on one hand, this is the longest season that he's played in a long time, I would think that fatigue set in and lead him to a pretty disastrous second half.

However watching him play, he's a disaster in his own end, he needs a lot of work on that end of his game, and maybe building his fitness and strength to an NHL level.

Right now he has more in common with MA Bergeron then anything else.

I'm not too sure that I would trade Brodie straight across for him.

Schultz has been hot garbage for probably 15-20 games now. Guy should be starting on the bottom pairing though, that's on management.

Petry looked pretty rough in his rookie season and has come around nicely. Will be interesting to see if Schultz can do the same. I think he will. Those who had dreams of him being a number #1 are probably going to be disappointed however.