[News] Oilers fire Chiarelli. Nicholson: "There is something in the water here in Edmonton."

[dolf]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I think that was made abundantly obvious when Bob Nicholson proclaimed that the Oilers would conduct an exhaustive search to find the right candidate who fit the Oilers culture. This announcement does not get nearly enough traction and attention in the sh*t storm of the past few days, but to my thinking was perhaps the most devastatingly obvious indication of what is clearly wrong with the Oilers, and why this will not be fixed with the next General Manager.

I absolutely agree! I was listening to the presser and heard him mention they need to find someone who fits in with their "culture" and my jaw dropped, but then quickly turned into a big grin It sounds like they want to find someone who will drink the kool aid and basically do what they like... which, as the previous poster pointed out, makes me wonder if Chiarelli was actually the sane person in that organization??! One can only hope I guess...

[Flash Walken]

The timing on this is amazing.

A whole week for Edmonton media to #### all over chiarelli.

Gets picked up by the national guys because that's how (sports) media works.

Kevin Lowe must have the same kind of EQ as Ken King. Just amazing political maneuvering on this one.

[Boreal]

Well to be fair... Kevin knows a thing or two about winning... if there is ever a question.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by dolf

I absolutely agree! I was listening to the presser and heard him mention they need to find someone who fits in with their "culture" and my jaw dropped, but then quickly turned into a big grin It sounds like they want to find someone who will drink the kool aid and basically do what they like... which, as the previous poster pointed out, makes me wonder if Chiarelli was actually the sane person in that organization??! One can only hope I guess...

I hope so as well, doubt it, but hope so.

As of now, they have Keith temporarily filling in with the help of upper management. Can't wait to see what trades the OBC makes at the deadline... Probably will be worse than Chia trades.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

The timing on this is amazing.

A whole week for Edmonton media to #### all over chiarelli.

Gets picked up by the national guys because that's how (sports) media works.

Kevin Lowe must have the same kind of EQ as Ken King. Just amazing political maneuvering on this one.

Not to mention, once again, Kevin Lowe is somehow NOT a big part of the conversation of what's wrong in Edmonton.

I mean, it's mind boggling.

He re-joined the club 21 years ago.

Year one he was an asst coach.
The next year he was the head coach.
The next year he was GM.

He has been in upper management or executive ever since and not in peripheral positions.

He is the one constant in a massive group of different people that organization has plowed through in an effort to avoid being considered inept and mediocre. Maybe 5 or 6 of those seasons would qualify?

Again it's something you couldn't make up and be believed, but yet here we are.

[Toonage]

I think Friedman et all are off in suggesting there isn't an old boys club influence and that they somehow aren't involved in the decision making process. But if that is indeed the case, until there is an actual purge of all ex Oiler talent there will always be, at the very least, the stigma that this old boys club exists.

[bob-loblaw]

I'm not sure when the next GM or league meeting are, but they better table something like right effing now to prevent the Oilers (well, any team) from getting a first overall pick within a certain number of years of their most recent one.

You know the Oilers are going to be in the sewer (which appears is where they get their drinking water from) for the rest of the year. There's no way in hell a ####-show organization like them should even have a remote possibility of landing Hughes.

If the NHL wants to risk sending young and marketable talent up north to get ruined then stick to the status quo.

[transplant99]

Robert Tychkowski gets it.

He did a woeful job in his three and a half years at the helm of this sinking ship and for that the Edmonton Oilers, in a move straight out of the KHL, fired him during the second intermission of a 3-2 loss to Detroit.

That’s somewhere in between doing it on Skype and letting him pack for a seven day road trip, flying him from Edmonton to San Jose and gunning him Joe Pesci-style in a hotel room.

Regardless of how or when they did it, firing Chiarelli is justified. He’s made a terrible mess of this. His well-documented mistakes did significant damage to the Oilers moving forward.

But, at what point in the last 12 years were the Oilers ever actually moving forward? Sift through the standings since 2007 and give it some thought: 25th, 19th, 21st, 30th, 30th, 29th, 24th, 28th, 28th, 29th, 8th (what!) and 23rd.
They are 23rd again this morning.

This has been an organizational failure of biblical proportions. The only thing missing is an Uber video. Yet, there they are, many of the same people who designed the original road map for this 13-year desert walk, still part of the Oilers think tank.

Why?

That’s the bigger question here. That’s the fruit that is hidden deep inside of owner Daryl Katz’s tree (or tree fort, as it was once referred).

After eight coaches and four general managers in the last 10 years, it’s obvious to everyone that the problems in this franchise runs much deeper than coach and GM. The rot in this structure is down to the foundation.

https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/h...d-d8c75079a58f

[Racki]

^ and this is why we hate them because despite their decade of incompetence every time they play five games of okay hockey their fans and media can't wait to let the hockey world know that the Oilers have finally arrived.

[shadowlord]

I was listening to the entire Nicholson press conference and caught this gem. I've quoted it from the website:

https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/talk...ce/c-304167538

A: We're doing surveys every day with our season ticket holders. We're getting feedback. Give us an effort. If you give us an effort, give us 100 percent, we can lose 3-2 and that's what we have to do in this city.

So basically even if the fans support the team 100%, they can lose 3-2? I don't get it.

Why would an Oiler fan give 100% to watch the team lose games?

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Ha ha ha Burke on 960 this morning basically shooting down Nicholson saying that Chiarelli was making these moves on his own. While he started with "I don't know what goes on in Edmonton" he said Calgary was the same as any other team he worked for in that the GM consults with everyone in management before making any deals. He said the notion that Chiarelli was doing these moves on his own without input from Nicholson, Gretzky, Lowe, etc is "asinine".

This is the best part of the organization - the culture is rotten from the top down. Nicholson, Lowe and Gretzky are happy to throw Chia under the bus and say "he had full autonomy" and then expect they can demand accountability from their scouts and players.

The problem in the organization is that no one respects the leadership because they are corrupt and incompetent. And you can't lead when no one believes in you. So instead the players tune out the coach and the management.

Because whats the downside? If you work hard, you're missing the playoffs. If you don't work hard, you're missing the playoffs. And - as Hall, Eberle and Shultz have illustrated - your career takes a huge step forward when the oilers trade you. So really, the best strategy is to show enough talent that other teams want you, but be frustrating enough that the oilers want to trade you

[sekimet]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

I was listening to the entire Nicholson press conference and caught this gem. I've quoted it from the website:

https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/talk...ce/c-304167538



So basically even if the fans support the team 100%, they can lose 3-2? I don't get it.

Why would an Oiler fan give 100% to watch the team lose games?

I believe he means that the fan base they are surveying is saying something along the lines of "give us 100%, give us effort and we will be happy and buy tickets blah blah blah". (My take could be way off)

Which is funny because I don't doubt a lot of those players are playing as hard as they can, they are simply not good.

[browna]

McLellan and Chia failed but they were set up for failure.

Now Chia didn’t help himself, but things like the Hall trade were made because the losing was a culture. And because of the knowledge of that culture, no players with a nmc since Chris Pronger, would waive to go there thank to Lowe and his ego and arrogance about how a hockey team should function. So Larson was one of the few options. Other guys couldn’t get dealt as McLellan wanted because the players looked to be traded for, had nmc.

So Lowe back when, and thst continued with Chia(even with McD) would have to pay a steep premium with years or dollars for players who got sold on the fact that it was going to turn around. Many of those players left after a year under Lowe, like Perron.

Lowe has made that organization toxic to potential players and agent now for well over a decade with his antics, his straight faced lying and pretending it’s 1982 again and players should play through injuries and have talent take precedence over team structure and strategy. His coaches and GM were hand picked so that he could control them.

All the problems that the organization has with talent,talent development,salary cap, can directly be traced back to Lowe. He was pushed to the shadows when Katz let him back in to his circle, but Lowe orchestrated the removal of Chia and will resume tanking that franchise into oblivion.

[shadowlord]

Originally Posted by sekimet

I believe he means that the fan base they are surveying is saying something along the lines of "give us 100%, give us effort and we will be happy and buy tickets blah blah blah". (My take could be way off)

Which is funny because I don't doubt a lot of those players are playing as hard as they can, they are simply not good.

Thanks, now I understand what Nicholson was trying to say.

But it still seems like the Oilers organization is taking their fans for granted. That fans will happy pay for a team that loses games as long as the players are giving 100%.

Talk about an organizational culture of losing. When will they stand up and say: "Losing is not acceptable. "... instead of losing is payback for all our successes in the 80s.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by sekimet

I believe he means that the fan base they are surveying is saying something along the lines of "give us 100%, give us effort and we will be happy and buy tickets blah blah blah". (My take could be way off)

Which is funny because I don't doubt a lot of those players are playing as hard as they can, they are simply not good.

Agreed. I don't see effort as their problem either. You can't get blood from a stone.

I thought they played their little hearts out against us when we beat them 5-2, maybe with the exception of McDavid who withered once the game got a little physical.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Not to mention, once again, Kevin Lowe is somehow NOT a big part of the conversation of what's wrong in Edmonton.

I mean, it's mind boggling.

He re-joined the club 21 years ago.

Year one he was an asst coach.
The next year he was the head coach.
The next year he was GM.

He has been in upper management or executive ever since and not in peripheral positions.

He is the one constant in a massive group of different people that organization has plowed through in an effort to avoid being considered inept and mediocre. Maybe 5 or 6 of those seasons would qualify?

Again it's something you couldn't make up and be believed, but yet here we are.

They really aren't understanding that there is a common denominator here.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

I was listening to the entire Nicholson press conference and caught this gem. I've quoted it from the website:

https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/talk...ce/c-304167538



So basically even if the fans support the team 100%, they can lose 3-2? I don't get it.

Why would an Oiler fan give 100% to watch the team lose games?

Because they can go to work the next day and tell their coworkers they saw the crossovers and McPoints live.

[Flamescuprun2018]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

The only thing that concerns me a little is that this seems to have (finally) woken up the Oilers fan base. The trifecta of the delusional organization, media, and fans seems to have been broken a little bit here, and I fear that with the fans starting to ask questions, the media might be next, and then eventually there will be enough pressure to enact real change at that organization.

Hopefully not for a little while yet though. There is so much potential here to further diminish the returns of all of those draft picks, I hope that any real change happens over the ashes of the dumpster fire, not soon while it is blazing bright.

I share your concern. It feels like such a rock bottom moment that it just might be rock bottom.

Katz is going to get a constant earful now from fans and media until he cannot take it anymore and goes full purge. If it does not happen in offseason it will certainly happen when he sees all the empty seats and boxes next season.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

I was listening to the entire Nicholson press conference and caught this gem. I've quoted it from the website:

https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/talk...ce/c-304167538



So basically even if the fans support the team 100%, they can lose 3-2? I don't get it.

Why would an Oiler fan give 100% to watch the team lose games?

So basically this is the same Kool-Aid they've been offering year after year. It is their way of saying, "we need to keep losing some more for another pick". I still think they are in tank mode, I say it every year and still nothing changes. Only difference now is they are really that bad.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by DazzlinDino

So basically this is the same Kool-Aid they've been offering year after year. It is their way of saying, "we need to keep losing some more for another pick". I still think they are in tank mode, I say it every year and still nothing changes. Only difference now is they are really that bad.