[OOT] December 15, five games.

[nik-]

The crappy thing is that an Ekblad is exactly what that disaster of a team needs. It's going to be such a shame to see him go there.

[CaptainCrunch]

The bottom line is that at this point the talking points on TSN and sportsnet and hockey night in Canada have to keep up the line about the Oilers, because they backed them so hard with the somethings special crap year after year.

For them to turn around and say that they were wrong is not going to happen.

Deep down everyone of them know that the Oilers are a failed franchise who are a strong bottom 6, entire blueline, at least 2 centers and a decent long term goaltending solution away from even competing for a playoff spot.

On top of that, because of drafting failures outside of their first round picks their prospect pipeline is heading rapidly towards questionable at best.

With their big 4 playing lazy give away hockey and with the weaknesses above, a terrible coach, a GM who has no experience and a President who's mark on the franchise is breaking fans into tiers, the Oilers are in huge trouble. The potential here is to become Florida Pantherish in terms of franchise success values.

I would think if the Oilers finish bottom 5 again that they are stuck, they really can't fire Mac-T he needs to be given a couple of years to figure it out, they can't keep firing coaches even though Eakins is a disaster who seems to have lost the room early on based on the lack of effort most nights. They certainly won't fire Lowe because Katz adores him in a semi gay kind of way.

What they'll do is dump one of the two assistants and maybe a scout or two and then proclaim themselves as ready to compete for a playoff spot next year, this will happen after fan optimism goes through the roof in the last 10 games of the season when the Oilers playing pressure free hockey reel off some wins.

The Oilers don't have much to look forward to in the pipe outside of Nurse who could be a very good defensemen, but is years away from that.

Drafting another uberkid does the franchise no good due to development time.

I think that the Oilers are as near to unfixable as possible without a change in philosopy and another two years of re-structuring.

Oh and on top of that, outside of having to massively overpay for middling or aging players on the free agent market (boyd, Ferrence) Its not the city that makes it hard to attract free agents, its the franchise itself.

It used to be fun making fun of Oiler fans, now its kind of like kicking a puppy that's just looking for a bit of love.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by nik-

The crappy thing is that an Ekblad is exactly what that disaster of a team needs. It's going to be such a shame to see him go there.

Chances are that they'll wreck the kid like they have everyone else.

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The bottom line is that at this point the talking points on TSN and sportsnet and hockey night in Canada have to keep up the line about the Oilers, because they backed them so hard with the somethings special crap year after year.

Last Saturday during the first intermission of the Flames Oilers game, the whole HNIC panel were tearing the Oilers apart. It was much more than just that game or this season that they were talking about, but rather emphasizing what we all know: The Oilers are losers and that culture runs deep and pervasively. I was pleasantly surprised.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Chances are that they'll wreck the kid like they have everyone else.

Yeah, probably. It adds to the shame.

Originally Posted by Major Major

Last Saturday during the first intermission of the Flames Oilers game, the whole HNIC panel were tearing the Oilers apart. It was much more than just that game or this season that they were talking about, but rather emphasizing what we all know: The Oilers are losers and that culture runs deep and pervasively. I was pleasantly surprised.

Don't worry, all it will take is them having a lead on HNIC for MacLean and Co to be on their knees for the Oilers again.

[getbak]

Speaking of the Oilers woes, I was checking Brossoit and Horak's stats since the trade...

Brossoit has played in 7 games with OKC. He has a 2-4 record with a 3.53 GAA and a 0.885 SV%. Roy actually had better stats with the Barons this season, a 3.29 GAA and a 0.897 SV% with a 2-2 record in 4 games played.

Horak has been doing well, posting slightly better stats than he had with the Heat. He has 5G and 5A in 16 games with OKC so far. Unfortunately, for him, he's in a similar situation in Edmonton that he was in Calgary, buried on the depth chart. No room in the top six, and he isn't built to play in the bottom six.

[Street Pharmacist]

It's blasphemy to say it, but it's still early for the oilers. If they can bring in some good character and decent d, they could learn to turn it around. The big 4 are pretty young, and have a few years before ufa

They aren't showing anything to suggest that is going to happen, mind you.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

It's blasphemy to say it, but it's still early for the oilers. If they can bring in some good character and decent d, they could learn to turn it around. The big 4 are pretty young, and have a few years before ufa

They aren't showing anything to suggest that is going to happen, mind you.

I don't know how you think they will do that. To me, that's the most puzzling thing, and should be the most frustrating and depressing thing to Oilers fans.

They are a cap team and require two top 6 centres, 2 physical top six wingers, 2 top pairing defenders and 1 top 4 defender. They could also use more toughness in their bottom 6.

Any team with The Nuge™ and Gagner as the top 2 centres is going nowhere. I'd rather have Monahan and Stajan than those two going forward, and Monahan/Stajan is a blueprint for a bottom 5 finish.

Bad core group is bad and needs to be replaced by good core group.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

It's blasphemy to say it, but it's still early for the oilers. If they can bring in some good character and decent d, they could learn to turn it around. The big 4 are pretty young, and have a few years before ufa

They aren't showing anything to suggest that is going to happen, mind you.

That's the thinking that's gotten the Oilers into trouble. That they have the right blueprint it just needs tweeking.

And teams covet decent defensemen, to get them you're going to have to overpay especially for a top three defensemen.

The big 4 play a pretty selfish type of game and that's a problem as well. They play a third of the ice.

On top of that it seems to be easy to say lets bring in leadership but tough to do. Ocktober was supposed to be that guy, but he's way past his best before label and he's made little to no difference because he can't lead on the ice, or worse yet nobody is listening to him.

If you break it down. Their center depth is terrible, their bottom 6 is mismatched junk. They don't have a top pairing defensemen, not a good option for second pairing. Petry who is their best option is looking bottom pairing.

Bryz is not a long term goalie solution, he's playing for new contract elsewhere, they don't have goaltending depth.

Outside of Nurse and Klefbom and maybe Roy their prospect pool looks pretty poor due to bad drafting past the first round.

They hired a coach that got overrated due to his work with a veteran laden AHL team, who seems to be completely lost in terms of line matching, and on ice symptoms.

for the most part the Oilers are losing because of a lack of willingness on the ice.

The turn around isn't simple anymore, my gut tells me that they're going to have to pull the whole rotten thing up by the roots and plant new seeds.

With Lowe there with his love for youtube sensation players that's not going to happen, because you know that Mac-T is a big time Keven Lowe guy.

[AltaGuy]

With Lowe around, the Oilers are not going to get better. They do have the chips to make some risky trades to get better, but they will have to sell low. Lowe's 'half the teams in the league' comment is the pride that will prevent them from making the trades that would need to happen to get better.

Boggles my mind that that team still has Hemsky, for instance. If they can't even trade him, how are they ever going to make the really tough trades of Eberle, Yakupov, etc?

To get better, they would have to eat it on some major trades, but Lowe still thinks that the value of a guy like Eberle is akin to, say, Seguin. Most Oiler fans do too.

[CaptainCrunch]

Nurse working hard to be ready for the Oilers style of play next year and playing in Rexall

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/201...ault-st-marie/

There’s no word on exactly why fans are booing Nurse, but having seen this kind of scenaro play out in Edmonton, it’s almost always a run of defensive mistakes coupled with a perceived lack of effort that bring out the boo birds.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

That's the thinking that's gotten the Oilers into trouble. That they have the right blueprint it just needs tweeking.

And teams covet decent defensemen, to get them you're going to have to overpay especially for a top three defensemen.

The big 4 play a pretty selfish type of game and that's a problem as well. They play a third of the ice.

On top of that it seems to be easy to say lets bring in leadership but tough to do. Ocktober was supposed to be that guy, but he's way past his best before label and he's made little to no difference because he can't lead on the ice, or worse yet nobody is listening to him.

If you break it down. Their center depth is terrible, their bottom 6 is mismatched junk. They don't have a top pairing defensemen, not a good option for second pairing. Petry who is their best option is looking bottom pairing.

Bryz is not a long term goalie solution, he's playing for new contract elsewhere, they don't have goaltending depth.

Outside of Nurse and Klefbom and maybe Roy their prospect pool looks pretty poor due to bad drafting past the first round.

They hired a coach that got overrated due to his work with a veteran laden AHL team, who seems to be completely lost in terms of line matching, and on ice symptoms.

for the most part the Oilers are losing because of a lack of willingness on the ice.

The turn around isn't simple anymore, my gut tells me that they're going to have to pull the whole rotten thing up by the roots and plant new seeds.

With Lowe there with his love for youtube sensation players that's not going to happen, because you know that Mac-T is a big time Keven Lowe guy.

I don't think they need a tweak at all, unless a heart transplant is a tweak. I'm just saying the rebuild is not all lost for the big 4 as they're still young, and Edmonton would have to hit a few homeruns with trades/signings