Edmonton is No Good VI: Chia•den•freu•de

[schteve_d]

This is not good. We need to get Hitch out of there now before he goes, spouting the truth, and starts fixing things!

[ColoradoFlamesFan]

Ok, admittedly my Chia-de-Freu-de is triggering
But I was thinking about the Oilers summer advertising Campaign to keep season ticket holders.
Some guy comes up with the idea that 97 days before the season opens the start an ad campaign “97 reasons why this time is different “
Each day they give a new reason
Like day 1
Our new GM is “Gretzky” (Keith)
Day 27 “we know a thing or two about winning “
Day 37, Lucic has found another gear over the summer
Add your own, please

[browna]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

If you really want to stir things up, the target for a grassroots campaign is Katz.

Encourage fans to demand that Katz sell the team.

To who? No one else wanted them. Recall that they had 30 or so minority owners before Katz.

Oilers fans are idiots will get thier wish as Lowe will come across as the pied piper returning to fire Chia. But he is the whole reason for Chia having struggled, by having his hands tied with a toxic organization that no free agents wanted to come to, long before Chia got there, and were a cap team already with marginal talent, and the talent they did have had zero confidence. And after a bad season last year, Katz has started to listen to Lowe again, so Chia has been undemined by a Lowe vowing to get back into the spotlight after his demotion from President of Hockey ops that Chia was given.

Bottom line, replace Chia, nothing changes. He's not the best GM by far but he's taking the fall, as Mcllelan did before him, by an organization that has an egotistical idiot who thinks he knows more than anyone. He destroyed the Oilers reputations before, it's never recovered, and now that's he's basically back in charge, the trend will continue.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by schteve_d

This is not good. We need to get Hitch out of there now before he goes, spouting the truth, and starts fixing things!

It’s not fixable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by browna

To who? No one else wanted them. Recall that they had 30 or so minority owners before Katz.

Oilers fans are idiots will get thier wish as Lowe will come across as the pied piper returning to fire Chia. But he is the whole reason for Chia having struggled, by having his hands tied with a toxic organization that no free agents wanted to come to, long before Chia got there, and were a cap team already with marginal talent, and the talent they did have had zero confidence. And after a bad season last year, Katz has started to listen to Lowe again, so Chia has been undemined by a Lowe vowing to get back into the spotlight after his demotion from President of Hockey ops that Chia was given.

Bottom line, replace Chia, nothing changes. He's not the best GM by far but he's taking the fall, as Mcllelan did before him, by an organization that has an egotistical idiot who thinks he knows more than anyone. He destroyed the Oilers reputations before, it's never recovered, and now that's he's basically back in charge, the trend will continue.

30 owners in a non-capped world with an old rink. The new rink, having been replaced by the city, is virtually guaranteed to sell out most nights.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

I think Hitchcock was an excellent hire - whether intended or not.

Here is why. Hitch:

A) isn't a member of the old boys club
B) is a hall of fame coach (or has that resume)
C) has nothing to prove
D) (perhaps most importantly) is going to give his opinion on the situation
E) knows how important the Oilers are to the fan base and knows the fan base deserves better than they have been getting.


If Lowe, Mactavish, Gretzky etc really are pulling the strings and dabbling in hockey operations (because the organization is about "Loyalty" ) then Hitch is the guy to call this out publicly, which he has started on twice.

This will boil over and Hitch won't go down quietly.

Make no mistake, Hitch got his marching orders about playing McDavid the max minutes to ensure the scoring title. When you do the math McDavid plays the equivalent of 7-8 games more than Kucherov and about 6 more than Gaudreau.

In the past Hitchcock has publicly stated he didn't like to wear down his top players but changed his tune now because supposedly " McDavid has a special ability to recover faster than anyone else"

Since the team sucks I guess the old boys figure the only way to keep the building full is a scoring title

[crapshoot]

Just like every other year, their fans are angry that they are losing games to bottom feeders like Coyotes. How can they never understamd that they are no better themselves? It's ridiculous how Oilers fans believe that their team is a level above the worst team. Arizona outplayed them and beat them yesterday. Arizona is about to overtake them in the standings. How is it that they are any better and in a position where they should win games like that?

[browna]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

30 owners in a non-capped world with an old rink which. The new rink, having been replaced by the city, is virtually guaranteed to sell out most nights.

So you think there are local owners out there able to pony up the hundreds of million of dollars for the franchise when there were none a decade or so ago? And then tack on another couple hundred of million for the arena and ice district development, unless you plan on seperating the organization from the arena.

[drewtastic]

Oiler parent: “Well kids, it’s too expensive to take you to games, but we’re going to the ‘skills’ ‘competition’ today, and you’ll get to see ALL your favourite players, and maybe get autographs from McDavid!”

Oilers: https://twitter.com/rob_tychkowski/s...664053249?s=21

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

I think Hitchcock was an excellent hire - whether intended or not.

Here is why. Hitch:

A) isn't a member of the old boys club
B) is a hall of fame coach (or has that resume)
C) has nothing to prove
D) (perhaps most importantly) is going to give his opinion on the situation
E) knows how important the Oilers are to the fan base and knows the fan base deserves better than they have been getting.


If Lowe, Mactavish, Gretzky etc really are pulling the strings and dabbling in hockey operations (because the organization is about "Loyalty" ) then Hitch is the guy to call this out publicly, which he has started on twice.

This will boil over and Hitch won't go down quietly.

Ok, here's the deal, I watch way more Oiler games then I should, mostly because they're hilarious.


Is Hitch a good hire? Or is he a wasted hire?


I get that he doesn't have a lot to work with. But as a coach, when you have a team to work with that's not talented, you either become a team that executes systems flawlessly, or a team with a high level of work ethic and pride.


When Hitch came in, they pretty much got stellar goaltending to lead them to wins and a neutral zone trap system where they plugged up the ice and didn't score a lot.


Two things happened that have exposed Hitch.


Teams are smart, they watch film and they figured out his system and started exploiting it. The goaltending couldn't hold.


Frankly Hitch hasn't bought anything more to this team then T-Mac.


T-Mac complained about lack of effort on a nightly basis, now Hitch has been on this train and hasn't gotten a better display of effort.


T-Mac ran the line blender to get more scoring to little effect, Hitch is in the same boat.


T-Mac over played and over clocked McDavid, he couldn't get Draisaitl going on his own line.


Hitch is doing the same thing.


I want to modify a quote from Animal Farm but change it to reflect the Oilers


“The Oiler fans in the stands looked from T-Mac to Hitch, and from Hitch to T-Mac, and from T-Mac to Hitch again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”


Look, Hitch can whine and complain about the lack of talent, but he knew what he was getting into when he signed with that team unless he's a poor judge of talent and character.


He hasn't gotten a better work ethic out of this group, he hasn't gotten better execution out of this group, and as a coach stepping into that situation that's on him.


Yes Chia has made that team a untalented group of players. But Hitch hasn't significantly changed anything, hasn't installed a new culture, and night after night sat on the bench and watched his team get kicked in the face.


The hiring of Hitch was short sighted and another panic move by a team that's addicted to them. The players know he's not coming back, so his efforts to install pride and a culture is going nowhere.


At the same time, this is on the leadership on that team, on the McDavids, and Larssons and Draisaitl's and whoever is supposed to stand up in the dressing room. This team has come out flat in key games and had their teeth kicked in and there's no push back.



I mean its great that McDavid racks up points, it seems to be his reason to live. But he has to be accountable for the failures of effort and pride. That's on him period end of story.


There's no difference between the results of Hitch and T-Mac. Frankly this feels like more of a public relations step them pushing the team in a new direction.


What's Hitch going to do when the Oilers slide fully out of it, sit there and cry about a team talent level that he said at the start he would teach to win? His ego got the best of him.



Chia isn't the only failure this year. That whole organization seems to be defined by its failures.

[CaptainCrunch]

Kind of funny that McDavid has the flu on the night after his birthday.


This is also the one night of the year that its relatively cheap for kids to go and watch their hockey hero's for cheap, and its a non contact skating competition.


Rub some freaking dirt in it and go on. And please don't tell me that they're worried about him infecting his team mates. Last year he played with every communicable disease known to man and didn't care about infecting the locker room


Way to go hero.

[CaptainCrunch]

Says a lot to me, when the whole team is struggling and has bad habits and work ethic and you see this at an optional practice

https://twitter.com/user/status/1083816895206154240

[Julio]

Oilers skills competition is on Youtube Live right now...comments are almost as funny as the skills on display.

[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by browna

So you think there are local owners out there able to pony up the hundreds of million of dollars for the franchise when there were none a decade or so ago? And then tack on another couple hundred of million for the arena and ice district development, unless you plan on seperating the organization from the arena.

yes

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Julio

Oilers skills competition is on Youtube Live right now...comments are almost as funny as the skills on display.

Minor hockey kid beat Manning and Jones in the accuracy contest.

EDIT: Add Nurse to that list.

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by Julio

Oilers skills competition is on Youtube Live right now...comments are almost as funny as the skills on display.

Thank you for this link. Currently watching an Oiler Spelling Bee.

It's gorgeously cringeworthy.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Shazam

This is a terrible idea, and should never be spoken of again.

How about a Katz - Melnyk swap?

[drewtastic]

Shooter-Tutor just destroyed Jones and Gravel.

[LWcrowfoot]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

If you really want to stir things up, the target for a grassroots campaign is Katz.

Encourage fans to demand that Katz sell the team.

Are you some sort of sleeper agent?

[killer_carlson]

LOL, no sleeper agent but I do live in Edmonton.

Most fans i'd describe as "passionate" are unplugged from the team and roll their eyes at the words Kevin Lowe or Oilers.

The Spectors, Jones, Stauffers, etc depend upon the Oilers for their living so they play their part. Changing GMs or coaches is not going to do much for this franchise as long as the Old Boys club is there.

But if you really want to stir up a hurricane, you'd focus on Katz. And if they are silly enough to raise ticket prices again after this season, you'd get a fair bit of momentum