nexttothemoon
and again...
We had a league leading amount of injuries to key players last year. Even if we were just at league average, that's a massive improvement.
I agree that Chia must make major moves to address holes in the roster.
The injury argument goes around in circles...
Yes they would very likely have been better without the large amount of games missed due to injuries... BUT part of the problem is because this team doesn't have decent depth to deal with injuries AND the team isn't constructed well enough (especially defensively) to absorb even one key player being out.
You can say... yes they would have been better if they were healthy and not missing key players... but when does that actually happen on the Oilers? Not often at all... and even when relatively healthy they still do play crappy and lose often.
Chalk it up to rust and players getting back and used to the systems after coming back from injuries I suppose... but I think we are somewhat hoping for something that will never happen if we want to see this team with a full and healthy roster for a full season.
I'm not saying everyone does this... but when they lose often people point to... "ya but they were without Klefbom" or "but they were without RNH"... with them it would have been different.
I can pretty much guarantee if those 2 were back... some other key player would be slumping/injured and the excuses would come out for why the team still underperformed.
I fully expect key players to always be out... and management/coaching has to find ways to deal with that.. because that's part of being a good club... sure maybe you won't be a top team with lots of injuries... but does this team really have to default to 30th as soon as the going gets tough.
Right now it definitely does because of the lack of decent depth in key areas and the lack of balance in the lineup that still exists.
It all comes down to accountability... you can't continue saying... the Oilers woulda/coulda/shoulda been better if only xxxx and xxx would have happened or xxxx wouldn't have been injured etc.
Management and coaching has to find ways to elevate above 30th because **** happens and this team will very likely have to deal with injuries/bad reffing/slumps etc again next year as well.
There can't always be a continual excuse machine in place that lets management/coaching/players off the hook for 30th (or very close) finishes every season.