Edmonton Oilers

[rataylor22]

This is always fun to go back and watch every once in a while. Good speak Kevin.

Good thing Oilers fans have all of Lowe's cups to celebrate haha.

[rataylor22]

Up until last season, the Isles and the Oil were pretty comparable on a lot of fronts.
One off-season and 5 fresh bodies changed everything on the Island.
They still have the same clueless coach and same clueless GM and same absent, cheap owner, BUT

Halak, Boychuk, Leddy, Grabovski and Kulemin have allowed the PLAYERS to change their course.

Edmonton just needs better players.

*Still boggles my mind how cheaply the NYI acquired Leddy and Boychuk at the end of training camp.
A LOT of other teams are kicking themselves right now, guaranteed.

It seems like the two bolded statements don't mesh. Like at all.

[27Blue]

Even a broken clock is right sometimes - or something like that. Snow is still an idiot.

[rataylor22]

Even a broken clock is right sometimes - or something like that. Snow is still an idiot.

Cizikas, Lee, Hamonic, Bailey, de Haan, Nelson, Okposo, Reinhart, Strome, Tavares. All players Snow has drafted.

Grabovski, Kulemin, Johnson. All good players snow signed.

Boychuk, Grabner, Halak, Hickey, Leddy, Visnovsky. All good players snow has traded for/claimed.

Sure the Clutterbuck-Neiderreiter trade was bad, and the whole Vanek situation was a fiasco, but 90% of this current Islanders team was assembled by Snow. And a lot of the team is under great contracts (Tavares, Hamonic especially). I think at this point it's pretty hard to argue Snow is a bad GM. Made some questionable moves? Yea. And obviously Tavares was a no brainer. But he's made too many good moves and built too much of what is now a very good Islanders team to say he is a bad GM. Arguments can be made to distinguish between Average or Above Average, but definitely not bad.

Sorry for derailing the Oilers thread.

[27Blue]

Then you haven't followed the Islanders. Snow supporters haven't. Period.

Listing a bunch of lotto picks and saying wow - great job is like saying the Oil management has done a good job becasue look - Hall, Eberle, RNH, Yakupov. Having lotto picks every year means you should have high end prospects.

I don't mind derailing Oilers threads, but I just don't feel like it today.

[doulos]

The Islanders were (almost) as much of a laughing stock as the Oilers as recently as last season. Winning has a funny way of making people forget the bad day. I can take solace in that.

[rataylor22]

Then you haven't followed the Islanders. Snow supporters haven't. Period.

Listing a bunch of lotto picks and saying wow - great job is like saying the Oil management has done a good job becasue look - Hall, Eberle, RNH, Yakupov. Having lotto picks every year means you should have high end prospects.

I don't mind derailing Oilers threads, but I just don't feel like it today.

3 of 19 players I named were picked in the top 5. I listed as many "lottery picks" (Tavares, Reinhart, Strome) as I did players picked outside the first round (Lee, Cizikas, Hamonic). That means 13 of the 19 players I listed had nothing to do with "lottery picks". But sure, I'm the one that's not paying attention lol.

This Oilers team would be a hell of a lot better if they had added Boychuk, Leddy, Visnovsky, Halak, Kulemin, Grabovski. Playoff team? Probably not, but who knows. They'd at least be able to put a competitive team on the ice. Those 6 players alone were all acquired by Snow. Shit, put Ference, Nikitin, Fayne, Scrivens, Purcell, and Gordon on the Islanders and those 6 Islanders on the Oilers and you've probably got an Islanders team near the bottom of the Eastern conference. Seem like that's at least competent management.

[27Blue]

Snow had a good off-season - I've already acknowledged that. Even though his siginings came after Vanek turned down a 56mill contract from Snow and Iginla turned down four years... It could have been a very different off-season if he had got his first wishes...The rest of his time has been terrible. I'm to busy to get into it now, but if you take this off-season out of it, Snow has been awful.

[marshal]

spoken like a true homer..

You know it's a disaster when even the fans are going crazy!

Your "moves" are all fine, but the majority of oiler fans have been spoiled in the 80's and that's why they're delusional about the team.

It's a fact.

The fans not showing up doesn't do much, as the majority of seats are owned by corporations who give out tickets to clients etc. Not sure about other teams, but I know for Oilers and Flames tickets its SUPER easy to get free tickets just because oil companies own half the seats. So not sure if "fans" not coming to the game will have any impact at all really.


and I guess I should clarify you are less delusional than most.

There's a significant portion of the Oilers' fan base which doesn't even REMEMBER the glory days of the 1980s, so making generalizations based on assuming that the majority of the fan base continues to bask in the dynasty years of the 80s isn't really valid. With the "older" generation, you'll see lots of Gretzky/Messier/Kurri/Coffey/Fuhr jerseys, but the newer generation sport names like Hall/Eberle/RNH/Schultz/Yakupov. Ryan Smyth jerseys are prominent between every generation for the most part.

The "younger" generation isn't deluding themselves into anything. Taylor Hall is a really good player and has proven to be. Nugent-Hopkins displays flashes of greatness and there's likely a romanticism with Eberle based on his WJHC heroics.

There's definitely an aura of overconfidence regarding the Oilers' rebuild. It's worked for teams like the Pens, Blackhawks and (to a lesser-extend) the Caps and for the two former teams, they've been able to win it all. Personally, I don't believe the statements echoing the belief that the Oilers "rebuilt at the wrong time". They drafted really good players with their lottery picks - would the Red Wings or Bruins or Blackhawks have passed on Hall or RNH if they had the same picks? Likely not. One of the main problems has been acquiring the pieces to support the core.

Fans not coming to games will likely have an impact. Apparently at the last home game, roughly 1/3 of Rexall was empty and the broadcasters commented on this frequently during the game. Katz isn't likely to go bankrupt if fans stop attending, but businessmen really don't like losing money.

[Axeman33]

If the fans seriously want to get ownerships attention, they simply need to stop going to the games. Once ticket sales, beer sales, hot dog sales, jersey sales all start to decline, it will be noticed. Until this really happens, why would Daryl Katz give a rats arse about the Oilers. Sure, he's a fan to some extent, but he's a businessman first.

Hit him where it hurts, in the wallet.

[CascadeFilly]

If the fans seriously want to get ownerships attention, they simply need to stop going to the games. Once ticket sales, beer sales, hot dog sales, jersey sales all start to decline, it will be noticed. Until this really happens, why would Daryl Katz give a rats arse about the Oilers. Sure, he's a fan to some extent, but he's a businessman first.

Hit him where it hurts, in the wallet.

Unfortunately, I don't think this would even do it. All of these guys (Katz and management) think they know what's best. They've got all the answers. I don't see this turning around, really. I see them staying the course, because hello generational talent in next year's draft, and everything will ride on that kid. If he can shoulder a team, great, if not, the past will repeat. If they have any sense at all they'll trade one or two of their young forwards for a defenseman or two at the deadline, find a goalie in the off-season, and start to build a real team around the stud they draft next summer.

I hate that this is true, but because of the talent that's available in next year's draft there's still an out for this gong show. They don't deserve it, but it's there.

[Dutch]

There's a significant portion of the Oilers' fan base which doesn't even REMEMBER the glory days of the 1980s, so making generalizations based on assuming that the majority of the fan base continues to bask in the dynasty years of the 80s isn't really valid. With the "older" generation, you'll see lots of Gretzky/Messier/Kurri/Coffey/Fuhr jerseys, but the newer generation sport names like Hall/Eberle/RNH/Schultz/Yakupov. Ryan Smyth jerseys are prominent between every generation for the most part.

The "younger" generation isn't deluding themselves into anything. Taylor Hall is a really good player and has proven to be. Nugent-Hopkins displays flashes of greatness and there's likely a romanticism with Eberle based on his WJHC heroics.

There's definitely an aura of overconfidence regarding the Oilers' rebuild. It's worked for teams like the Pens, Blackhawks and (to a lesser-extend) the Caps and for the two former teams, they've been able to win it all. Personally, I don't believe the statements echoing the belief that the Oilers "rebuilt at the wrong time". They drafted really good players with their lottery picks - would the Red Wings or Bruins or Blackhawks have passed on Hall or RNH if they had the same picks? Likely not. One of the main problems has been acquiring the pieces to support the core.

Fans not coming to games will likely have an impact. Apparently at the last home game, roughly 1/3 of Rexall was empty and the broadcasters commented on this frequently during the game. Katz isn't likely to go bankrupt if fans stop attending, but businessmen really don't like losing money.

I stopped reading after you mentioned oiler fans buy yakupov jerseys...

Problems are much deeper than I initially thought...

[Axeman33]

Big press conference this morning by MacTavish. This should be a waste of time.

[Dobber]

The fault lies with ownership and management, and of course the players. I'm still not ready to blame Eakins

In the case of draft picks, I think the Oilers made the right picks. Sure, maybe this guy over that guy would have been a slight upgrade, but the difference is really small and not worth dwelling on. No, the big issue here is the GM sitting on his hands. Over the years, there were moves that had to be made and maybe they weren't getting the return they were looking for but that's the business of trading. Bigger trades needed to be done. And still need to be done.

And the players need to embrace Eakins' system. It's like they're mostly doing it...and I don't pretend to know what "it" is...but they're mostly embracing it, but that one second of hesitation or that one little mixup is costing them games. The instinct for a lot of these guys is to create offense, and that's interfering with the embracing of a different coaching system.

[SeaDawg]

Big press conference this morning by MacTavish. This should be a waste of time.

I have a feeling the message will be "we know you are upset, but we need to stay the course and be patient".