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

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It's already happening, though in a far more subdued fashion. The Hockey News has simply, and quietly, stopped covering the Oilers entirely. There used to be about three cover stories and two "have patience Oilers fans" stories a year. However, since their silly "the AHL might as well just cancel the season and hand Oklahoma City the title" cover/lead story at the outset of the lockout, nothing but flies.

Sportsnet is going to ride that pony forever, especially since they own the rights to Oilers games. TSN doesn't acknowledge mistakes, so I'm betting their response will mostly be to say nothing about it.

Yeah I guess. This draft should be interesting to see how they speak to their rebuild as a whole. I think the "they are building something special up there"
moment has passed. I would be shocked if at the draft they get the same sort of fanfare from the media.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I don't think the Oilers rebuild is working in the way they would like at all, and maybe its because of the shortened season, but it does feel to me like they did take a small step forward this year.

The Flames may very well finish above the Oil this year in the standings, but that doesn't really matter IMO. What matters is how deep into the season were you playing meaningful games for, and the botto line is the Oilers were playing them longer than we were, and probably longer than they have in the past. Nice that we've gone on a run when the games don't matter, but I remember a young Oilers squad that did that a few years back as well, and I didn't think that amounted to much.

Oilers have a long way to go, and need to start making some smarter moves, but it did seem like they took a small step forward this year IMO. Heck, we even split the series with them versus owning them.

I think one of the biggest differences is that the youth that the Flames have brought in are more NHL ready (outside the first overalls the Oilers have). That has been the biggest problem with the Oilers is they have failed to collect the players to round out their NHL roster to support their top end guys, which goes to show how poorly they have draft outside the first round (IMO shows how poor their management really is).

[CsInMyBlood]

I honestly cannot believe as of today (4/22/13) we are one point up on the Oilers. Like really? How the hell is that even possible?

Seriously, pathetic and it certainly is something special for them to continue to be this bad.

Looking forward to another off season of Oilers fans telling us this is their year, till the season is underway and they all crawl back under the rock they came out from.

[Street Pharmacist]

How bad are the Oilers if this is an 82 game season? They are in the same place as last year at this point I would guess. You will hear about the Oilers improvements and not being bottom 2 and all, but I can't see the difference other than a shorter season

[Fire]

The Flames are already ahead of the Oilers in the rebuilding process. Ha Ha!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I don't think the Oilers rebuild is working in the way they would like at all, and maybe its because of the shortened season, but it does feel to me like they did take a small step forward this year.

The Flames may very well finish above the Oil this year in the standings, but that doesn't really matter IMO. What matters is how deep into the season were you playing meaningful games for, and the botto line is the Oilers were playing them longer than we were, and probably longer than they have in the past. Nice that we've gone on a run when the games don't matter, but I remember a young Oilers squad that did that a few years back as well, and I didn't think that amounted to much.

Oilers have a long way to go, and need to start making some smarter moves, but it did seem like they took a small step forward this year IMO. Heck, we even split the series with them versus owning them.

I don't but that the Oilers took a step forward in any real area but goaltending, they are still one of the worst scoring teams in the NHL, they played meaningful games into April because the season was incredibly short not because they were anymore competitive. Their blueline play is crazy bad, their 5x5 play is probably close to the worst in the NHL.

The embarrassing thing for the Oilers is that Calgary was even close to them in terms of the season series and in terms of the standings..

Structurally and philosophy wise that team is a mess, and firing the theoretical bird in the mind shaft isn't going to change that.

Bringing on Mac-T and bringing Howson back isn't going to change that.

I wouldn't be surprised if like Spinal Tap the Oilers don't make the playoffs next year and decide to blow things up once again

The failure this year of the Oilers is about more then a few player slumps. The team was badly exposed as being far behind where they should be and unable to compete in the NHL consistently.

I don't think the question should be, when will the Oilers be good? I think the question needs to be, when will they not be purtird? And smell of death?

[Ruttiger]

I've been inspired to change my signature. Uggh.......

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by Robbob

I think one of the biggest differences is that the youth that the Flames have brought in are more NHL ready (outside the first overalls the Oilers have). That has been the biggest problem with the Oilers is they have failed to collect the players to round out their NHL roster to support their top end guys, which goes to show how poorly they have draft outside the first round (IMO shows how poor their management really is).

The reason the Flames are winning is because everything is breaking their way at the moment.

Joey MacDonald has a .944% save percentage in the last 5 games and Kipper has a .930% in his last 3. That would be tied for one and two in the NHL.

Its kind of funny proclaiming all these young Flames have arrived when most of them have fewer then 10 NHL games. That's very HFboards.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

The reason the Flames are winning is because everything is breaking their way at the moment.

Joey MacDonald has a .944% save percentage in the last 5 games and Kipper has a .930% in his last 3. That would be tied for one and two in the NHL.

Its kind of funny proclaiming all these young Flames have arrived when most of them have fewer then 10 NHL games. That's very HFboards.

I don't believe that anyone is really doing that. We are not Oiler fans.

[Rejean31]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Does it really matter? If they continue to suck they will just have a shiny new ELC every season.

To do sweet f--- all with for the next 4 years. Like they have done with all their other shiny new ELC's .

[CsInMyBlood]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

The reason the Flames are winning is because everything is breaking their way at the moment.

Joey MacDonald has a .944% save percentage in the last 5 games and Kipper has a .930% in his last 3. That would be tied for one and two in the NHL.

Its kind of funny proclaiming all these young Flames have arrived when most of them have fewer then 10 NHL games. That's very HFboards.

Are Flames fans really doing this, or is your frustration and pathetic hockey team making you make things up to somehow make you feel better?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Its kind of funny proclaiming all these young Flames have arrived when most of them have fewer then 10 NHL games. That's very HFboards.

I don't think anyone is proclaiming that the young Flames have arrived. We aren't used to this failing to pick first overall business and are finding out that it's not nearly as easy as it looks to attain a top 5 pick let alone first overall and are pretty stunned just how bad you have to be given the Oilers accomplished this feat three years in a row. We are shocked that after this nightmare of a season for Flames fans that our team is still ahead of the Oilers in the standings.

Bottom line is that we aren't as high on our prospects as we are as stunned about how bad the Oilers organzation is and has been. I don't believe I am exaggerating when I say the 2007-present Oilers are the worst run organization in the history of the NHL.

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

The reason the Flames are winning is because everything is breaking their way at the moment.

Joey MacDonald has a .944% save percentage in the last 5 games and Kipper has a .930% in his last 3. That would be tied for one and two in the NHL.

Its kind of funny proclaiming all these young Flames have arrived when most of them have fewer then 10 NHL games. That's very HFboards.

Sample size.

Every team has good stretches and bad stretches during a season, but over the course of the season it all evens out and final standings are pretty indicative of how good/bad a team is.

We've been having good goaltending lately. Earlier in the season, we weren't. It all evens out.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

What's funny is how the short season skews everything. Check out these game-by-game comparisons showing each of the last three seasons:

http://flames.nhl.com/club/teamseasoncomparison.htm

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/teamseasoncomparison.htm

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

The reason the Flames are winning is because everything is breaking their way at the moment.

Yes because losing two top 6 forwards in Glencross and Tanguay is luck breaking our way.

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

Joey MacDonald has a .944% save percentage in the last 5 games and Kipper has a .930% in his last 3. That would be tied for one and two in the NHL.

There were a lot of games where Dubnyk has been ungodly and the only reason why the Oilers have been able to compete, His .921 svpct is way higher then his average. What's your point.

[Stay Golden]

Looks like not the dream season TSN Sportsnet had hoped for this 7 year itch team.
Its not like they didn't have their fair share amounts of PP's this season to help them out either.
Oilers can't play effective 5 on 5 hockey they depend on PP to get them wins. When that fails they once again are dead men skating.

[bubbsy]

i know the hate is on, and we're all enjoying another year of the oilers failing, particularly in a year when the flames are a bottom of the pile team also.

That being said, yes the flames have found ways to win down the stretch, which should NEVER-EVER be looked at as a pattern/precedent that should be used for going into the next season (any post lockout leafs team should teach us as much).

the flames and oilers roster problems are really quite similar:
- too many small skill forwards, and not enough size/grit on their top lines. Oilers skilled forwards >> flames skilled forwards
- Below average Defensive groups.
- inconsistent goaltending: Dubnyk looks like he's maturing into a decent 1a/1b tandem goalie, except that they don't have the counterpart there. Flames have set themselves up with some unknown options, hoping something pans out with at least one of them.

we should really be taking the "living in glass houses" approach here.

[Joborule]

Didn't TSN project Oilers to miss the playoffs as well? In fact, finish one place (14th/13th) above Flames in their season preview show? I don't think TSN was wrong here like some are saying.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

the flames and oilers roster problems are really quite similar:
- too many small skill forwards, and not enough size/grit on their top lines. Oilers skilled forwards >> flames skilled forwards
- Below average Defensive groups.
- inconsistent goaltending: Dubnyk looks like he's maturing into a decent 1a/1b tandem goalie, except that they don't have the counterpart there. Flames have set themselves up with some unknown options, hoping something pans out with at least one of them.

we should really be taking the "living in glass houses" approach here.

What are you talking about? Post-lockout Leafs? Glass houses? Weird input for a thread about the Oilers. And the Flames have too many small guys? Look at the players we have brought up lately, most of the rookie guys are over 6 feet. The only comparison between the teams would be they are both re-building, only the Oilers have been doing it for seven years. Almost time to re-up another season of Oil Change.

Now back on topic, I believe the Oilers will be this bad until they clean house in their front office. So probably a very, very long time.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I don't think the Oilers rebuild is working in the way they would like at all, and maybe its because of the shortened season, but it does feel to me like they did take a small step forward this year.

Certainly they did, and certainly they have to be looking at it that way, but the short season itself lends one to wonder if that was illusionary. Basically, it looks like Calgary and Edmonton are locked into the 12/13 spots in the west. From Edmonton's perspective, that is definitely an improvement on 14th (and about 25/26 overall rather than 29th), but as far a steps forward goes, that's not much.

But the shortened season magnifies little streaks by a significant percentage. Just as some Flames fans deluded themselves into thinking we'd get a top three pick on the basis of that massive road losing streak, the Oilers need to hope that a short winning streak that put them momentarily in 8th was an actual step forward and not an aberration like their start to the 2011-12 season was.

What would certainly concern me from an Oilers perspective is that other than that five game winning streak, there was only two other occasions where Edmonton won more than one consecutive game - and they were both two gamers. From that perspective, they may have actually taken a small step backward compared to last season when they had a six game winning streak, and five 2-3 game streaks over a full season. This team, frankly, still does not know how to win.