The 8 Year-drought and counting...which season has been the worst? (and rank them)

[CantHaveTkachev]

For me it's pretty easy...this year

Massive expectations and the team was basically out of it by Halloween...it was a combination of:
-horrible goaltending by Dubby and Labarbara
-arrogant coaching by Eakins (swarm defense?)
-not enough commitment to the all-around game
-team checked out early mentally and physically
-fans becoming irate to the point of jerseys thrown on ice

Rankings:
1. 2013-14 Massive expectations, major failure...season over by Halloween
2. 2009-10: Pat Quinn disaster...fall for Hall
3. 2006-07: Smyth trade...losing 18 of 19 games afterwards
4. 2010-11: Last place again...getting RNH
5. 2011-12: Fail for Nail...Cam Barker era
6. 2012-13: Shortened season...Wreck-It Ralph era...choked down the stretch
7. 2008-09: Almost a playoff team...blew it with 10 games remaining...POS era with MacT era coming to an end
8. 2007-08: Huge March push with Gagner, Cogs and Nilsson as stars...shootout kings, 2 point out of a playoff spot

Click to read more...

 

[dem]

If we werent already numb to it all... This season was the worst.

We were done before we got started. We played the entire season without any hope.


Dubnyk is still failing hard.. in the AHL. This guy straight up imploded. Almost single handedly took the Oilers out of the race.

 

[Blue And Orange]

This season was by far the worst.

I would rank the 2006-07 season higher than 2009-10, just soley because Smyth got traded.

I find it mind boggling that Lowe still has a job. Hopefully, he saves his dignity and do the right thing! RESIGN!

 

[Beerfish]

This like choosing to be tarred and feathered, disemboweled or drawn an quartered. I have a tough time choosing.

 

[Kayen]

I'd rank this season. Entire season was meaningless early on.

 

[Up the Irons]

For me it's pretty easy...this year

Massive expectations and the team was basically out of it by Halloween...it was a combination of:
-horrible goaltending by Dubby and Labarbara
-arrogant coaching by Eakins (swarm defense?)
-not enough commitment to the all-around game
-team checked out early mentally and physically
-fans becoming irate to the point of jerseys thrown on ice

Rankings:
1. 2013-14 Massive expectations, major failure...season over by Halloween
2. 2009-10: Pat Quinn disaster...fall for Hall
3. 2006-07: Smyth trade...losing 18 of 19 games afterwards
4. 2010-11: Last place again...getting RNH
5. 2011-12: Fail for Nail...Cam Barker era
6. 2012-13: Shortened season...Wreck-It Ralph era...choked down the stretch
7. 2008-09: Almost a playoff team...blew it with 10 games remaining...POS era with MacT era coming to an end
8. 2007-08: Huge March push with Gagner, Cogs and Nilsson as stars...shootout kings, 2 point out of a playoff spot

I like your rankings. I'll go with this. other years were bad, but this year was the first time i almost gave up on being a hockey fan. I actually tried to do other things on Saturday nights; chose UFC over HNIC most times. I am not looking forward to the playoffs; I pretty much couldn't care less. I'm not sure if I will ever recover from this season. I am definitely permanently damaged and will most likely never have the passion for the Oilers and NHL hockey that I had before this year. Even if they end up being good, I'm not sure I will recover completely. I know that if Kevin Lowe is still part of this organization if and when they are good, it will taint it for me. I will never respect this organization as long as he is part of it.

they would have to win at least 2 cups to make up for it, maybe even 3. One cup would nice, but won't make up for 9 or 10 years out of the playoffs, this horribly executed rebuild and absolutely pathetic management.

the only good thing is I descovered lacrosse and the Edmonton Rush. Got into March Madness more than ever before, as well. Give me anything to latch on to and care about other than the Oilers and NHL. If I could replace the NHL with a new passion, I would in a heartbeat, but its easier said than done.

I was a die-hard fan... that died hard. just a casual, tier 4 fan, now, that enjoys these board.

 

[IV XIV XCI]

I want to see what a full season will look like with Srivens and Fasth - presumably with roughly an 50/30 split of workload

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Honestly, the first season was the worst, because it was such a toxic mess that it was so hopeless. This season sucked, but there's hope there, and other seasons were tough to suffer through, but watching POS and others just suck out and quit was just awful.

 

[I am the Liquor]

Next year and the year after that will be the two worst.

Followed by the five after that.

The last eight years will come after those seven years.

 

[Oilmageddon]

Easily this year. As an Oiler's fan living in Calgary, I am tired of saying next year the Oilers will do something.

 

[McDNicks17]

1. 2013-14
2. 2006-07
3. 2011-12
4. 2012-13
5. 2010-11
6. 2009-10
7. 2008-09
8. 2007-08

 

[Oiltankjob Fail]

Easily this year. As an Oiler's fan living in Calgary, I am tired of saying next year the Oilers will do something.

What happened to that big ear avatar you used to use? You should bring it back it was funny.

 

[The Joker*]

I want to see what a full season will look like with Srivens and Fasth - presumably with roughly an 50/30 split of workload

No goalie the other 20% of the games or what?

 

[McDNicks17]

No goalie the other 20% of the games or what?

I think he was talking games, not percentage.

 

[Blue And Orange]

Next year and the year after that will be the two worst.

Followed by the five after that.

The last eight years will come after those seven years.

So by your calculation: 8+2+5, you are suggest a 15 year playoff drought?

HAHA, I don't even know whether to cry or laugh.

Looks like we won't make the playoffs until 2021!

 

[nexttothemoon]

Oilers team stats for the last 16 years... for further perspective:

Categories are the ranks for the Oilers in 8 categories for each of the past 16 seasons.

Points
Goals for
Goals against
Shots for
Shots against
5on5 goals/for against ratio
PP%
PK%
Average (This last column adds up all the previous 8 ranks and divides by 8 to show how well the team did overall... a fairly objective comparison of how the team did each year imo.)


Years-Pt-GF-GA-SF-SA-55-PP-PK-Ave
13/14-28-25-30-26-26-29-21-15-25.0
12/13-24-18-19-26-29-23-08-09-19.5
11/12-29-20-23-29-19-22-03-14-19.9
10/11-30-28-28-29-21-29-27-29-27.6
09/10-30-27-30-28-28-30-18-26-27.1
08/09-21-18-22-27-26-14-22-27-22.1
07/08-19-18-26-28-25-27-21-05-21.1
06/07-25-30-17-30-17-26-27-08-22.5
05/06-14-15-12-18-01-23-14-08-13.1
03/04-17-09-16-15-11-09-29-27-16.6
02/03-14-09-20-19-09-12-19-18-15.0
01/02-15-21-02-16-08-09-16-12-12.4
00/01-12-09-15-24-06-09-21-16-14.0
99/00-14-15-12-11-16-05-18-11-12.8
98/99-16-10-18-07-11-12-18-21-14.1
97/98-15-15-16-05-17-12-12-22-14.3


A few notes...

Obviously 05/06 was the last competitive season. The Oilers were consistently a team that was either a playoff team or close to it in those first 8 years culminating in the SC final appearance in 05/06.

It's interesting that in the year the Oilers went to the Cup final... they were #1 in the NHL that season in shots against. Defense wins basically.

From 06/07 onwards it's obviously a much different story... basically across the board mediocrity.

In fact there's some AMAZING consistency there... for 8 straight years the Oilers have been bottom 5 in the NHL in shots for. That's pretty remarkable when you think about it. 26th-30th every single year for 8 years in a row.

Interesting that in the 2 previous years of 11/12 and 12/13 the Oilers had their best PP in the last 16 years before that came back to Earth this season. At least the PK is still average (although also down from last year).

Oilers are once again worst in the NHL in goals against... back to the same rank they were at in 09/10.

Goals for rank has also declined from the past 2 seasons.

5 on 5 rank has also taken a dip from the past 2 years and is back to the rank of 10/11...2nd worst in the NHL.

Overall this season was statistically the 3rd worst Oilers season in the past 16 years... only the two 30th place finishes in 09/10 and 10/11 top it.


Just from looking at the past 8 years it would be hard to have a lot of optimism going forward as the trend of slight upwards progression has stalled.

It remains to be seen if management can help get them back on track with some useful summer acquisitions... if not... a 9th year of mediocrity is essentially assured.


Looking again at those first 8 years from 97/98 to 05/06... we all thought that was a tough stretch to go through with the Oilers being more or less a borderline playoff team without much hope of advancing each season when they did squeak in. Now though, I'm sure more than a few wouldn't mind the Oilers at least being a team like that in the fight each season instead of going basically a decade with no chance at all.

 

[dustrock]

For me it's pretty easy...this year

Rankings:
1. 2013-14 Massive expectations, major failure...season over by Halloween
2. 2009-10: Pat Quinn disaster...fall for Hall
3. 2006-07: Smyth trade...losing 18 of 19 games afterwards
4. 2010-11: Last place again...getting RNH
5. 2011-12: Fail for Nail...Cam Barker era
6. 2012-13: Shortened season...Wreck-It Ralph era...choked down the stretch
7. 2008-09: Almost a playoff team...blew it with 10 games remaining...POS era with MacT era coming to an end
8. 2007-08: Huge March push with Gagner, Cogs and Nilsson as stars...shootout kings, 2 point out of a playoff spot

Yeah, can't really argue with these rankings. I might put the Fail for Nail season higher than the 2010-11 RNH season, just because I had hoped we'd be farther along.

This season was by a large stretch the worst, but got that year of Pat Quinn was so, so bad.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

2008 because it gave us false hope and calgary eliminated us. The other years are forgotten already.

 

[redgrant]

If we werent already numb to it all... This season was the worst.

We were done before we got started. We played the entire season without any hope.


Dubnyk is still failing hard.. in the AHL. This guy straight up imploded. Almost single handedly took the Oilers out of the race.

10 years wasted on this steaming hot pile of crap.

 

[flashy]

I'll try to take an objective take on this. I'm gauging the greatest distance for expectations and results or in other words the high from the low.

2006-2007 Season:

I remember us being still having the high of making the final, there was disappointment, sure, but there was also hope, even after the pronger trade, that we would be a competitive team. This was feeling enforced by us leading the northwest division into November.

After that, things started to pile up. Eventually, culminating the Smyth trade. After that the team looked like it had, i don't know how to put it: died? lost its will? its heart?

The losing of those 18 games was something special. We as fans had a hope of returning the playoffs. We had just had our hearts broken, and it originally looked like this team had turned the corner from a play-off fringe team to playoff competitor.

We would finished 24th overall, after making the final the prior year.
-We lost Pronger
-Lost the Stanley Cup
-Lost Smyth
-Lossed our sense of hope of the team being able to compete for the cup.

As for the other seasons, its not as bad when you know you're going to suck but hope you can do better, the distance between those two isn't that great. Even including this season: The expectation was to move from 24th to a playoff fringe team but they regressed.

Anyways those are my thoughts, back to finals.

 

[Del Preston]

I said this season. 2006-07 was pretty ****ing bad for the same reasons flashy mentioned.

2007-08 was the best, even though the first half was hard to watch. The run at the end of the season was exciting to watch and they were in the playoff race until Game 81. They ended the season by knocking Vancouver out of the race too.

1. 2013-14
2. 2006-07
3. 2009-10
4. 2010-11
5. 2011-12
6. 2008-09
7. 2012-13
8. 2007-08

 

[Tarus]

Worst

- 1. 2013-14 - This was supposed to be the season marking the end of the rebuild, instead it regressed to levels comparable to the beginning. Terrible effort by the new crony GM in the offseason, terrible new coach, and the worst start in franchise history. Literally everything positive about the team was wiped clean from the previous year, along with the introduction of the least entertaining hockey in franchise history.
- 2. 2009-10 - Started off with Tambo's first full offseason, and what a disaster it was. Heatley saga, Quinn hiring, Khabibulin contract, followed by a quick crash and burn and the new rebuild focus.
- 3. 2006-07 - Aftermath of the Stanley cup, pronger trade, Mactavish extension all led to what was supposed to be the "300 goal season" and 3 scoring lines team. Team treaded water instead, players were exposed by the lack of a stud on D, Smyth was traded, and the team quit on mactavish and the team after the trade deadline. It was so bad, that it ended up tainting that core group, forcing all those players to be shuffled out over the next few years.
- 4. 2010 - 11 - Hall/Eberle's rookie seasons, there was hope, but mostly it was a lot of difficult to watch hockey
- 5. 2011 - 12 - Smyth's return, strong start, RNH looking like a star for the first two months. It eventually fell apart, but there was distinct progress.
- 6 . 2007-08 -Smack dab in the "spinning the wheels" phase of the uber dull Mactavish years. Started out exceptionally poorly, but went on a misleading run late in the season that had everyone unjustifiably excited.
- 7. 2008-09 - One of the bigger train wreak seasons with rumors all year of lockerroom splits and infighting. Most notably it was Lowe's worst offseason as GM(cole trade, Hossa, Glencross, Horcoff contract etc), and he was bumped up and out of the GM position late into July in favor of Tambo after Winter told Katz the NHLPA and it's members couldn't stand Lowe during the Hossa soap opera. It was at least entertaining though, as team was sort of competitive, and Mact lost his composure and eventually his job.
- 8. 2012-13 - Short, intense year, along with the most progress out of all the rebuild years. Hall arrived as an elite offensive player, the team pushed it's way into playoff contention for a short stretch before wilting under the pressure. Hope for the future was at it's highest as Tambo looked on his way out, team was improving, young players looked like they were starting to develop etc.

Best

 

[bleed_oil]

This season was the worst. There were such high expectations. Last year was actually a really promising season. There was one point when I really though this team was making the playoffs. The rest of the seasons all blend together.

 

[Oilmageddon]

What happened to that big ear avatar you used to use? You should bring it back it was funny.

This one?

 

[Oiltankjob Fail]

This one?

Picture not showing up wa that guy with big ears , I remember your user name from when I lurked have not seen you post in a long time. I always laughed at that one of the best avatars ever imo.