Speculation: Are we too hard on our Oilers?

[dustrock]

Fans aren't being harsh at all. This team is the confirmation that a large # of hockey players do it because it's a job and they get paid well.

Oilers fans have always appreciated and rewarded effort and compete level. The team gets booed when the effort isn't there.

The fact that these players have played thousands of hours of hockey in their lives and yet can't be arsed to backcheck properly is icing on the cake.

The fans of this team haven't been hard enough on the organization and theyve gotten a free pass to send a once valuable franchise into the gutter.

 

[DarthP0ker]

Walkin around the office, hearin' folks laughing and mocking the edmonton oilers. Talking about terrible this team is, and these are the same goofs that will be high-fivin' each other, wearing apparel, and strutin' down cubical lane when the oilers become top tier. So easily swayed
When the top 3-5 dogs contracts are over in 6-7 yrs, and they all leave b/c they can't stand the fans, back to square one

 

[sepHF]

Walkin around the office, hearin' folks laughing and mocking the edmonton oilers. Talking about terrible this team is, and these are the same goofs that will be high-fivin' each other, wearing apparel, and strutin' down cubical lane when the oilers become top tier. So easily swayed
When the top 3-5 dogs contracts are over in 6-7 yrs, and they all leave b/c they can't stand the fans, back to square one

Well they aren't wrong

 

[Jamin]

This makes a lot of sense.

But frankly, I think that if they'd hired a competent GM and then coach, they would have never needed a full rebuild and would've retooled nicely with one or two top-10 picks.

The amount of talent they had between '08 and '10 is astounding...

Skill D: Pitkanen, Souray, Visnovsky, Gilbert

Skill forwards: Hemsky, Gagner, Penner, Cole, Horc

Tough 2-way players: Stoll, Reasoner, Pisani, Brodziak, Cogliano

Useful toughness: Torres, Moreau, Greene, Glencross, Stortini, Brule

The problem is that our management kept downgrading these players til nothing was left (what do we have remaining from Pitkanen? Nothing. Souray? Nothing. Vis? Nothing. Gilbert? Nick Schultz. In fact, if you go through all those players, I can't find anything except for Klefbom that is with the team and useful today. Less than 7 years down the line from the very first and less than 4 from the last). Had Katz replaced Lowe one year sooner with a competent guy like Nill or Boterill, I'm quite certain this team would be a very competitive one today.

EIG should've never sold the team.

You are changing history though. You either get rid of Vis on d or get rid of Stoll and Torres

 

[Jamin]

Walkin around the office, hearin' folks laughing and mocking the edmonton oilers. Talking about terrible this team is, and these are the same goofs that will be high-fivin' each other, wearing apparel, and strutin' down cubical lane when the oilers become top tier. So easily swayed
When the top 3-5 dogs contracts are over in 6-7 yrs, and they all leave b/c they can't stand the fans, back to square one

Yea Hall is going to leave because of HF slagging him...not sure if serious

Players will leave because managment cant build a proper team and they see better success elsewhere

 

[Replacement*]

What our small market city needs, is to have no hockey team for a couple years in order to appreciate that we have an NHL hockey team over alot of major desirable cities across the two countries. A city like Salt Lake, Houston, Hamilton, Quebec, these cities would salivate taking a team with 3 very young #1 overall picks, loaded with alot of young developing talent, poised to win chamionships years down the road.
Then after much petition and years of cultivation, we get a hockey team again, but this time, it's a so-so team with older players, that stay consistent at staying just out of the playoffs every year. In the meantime, the old Oilers team has now developed after years of exp. and of course support from their new market, and we see them win a Stanley Cup, maybe 2 or 3.
Then we can look back and say, wow, we had the Boss hockey team, and all we could do was boo them off the ice
True story

You forgot seattle..

 

[nullterm]

Are Islanders/Leafs fans responsible for their teams droughts for years? Not a chance.

Maybe fans get a bit carried away (every fan base has their share) but ultimately the fans just react to how the team plays. And that is on the players and management.

 

[Dorian2]

So my sense thusfar in reading these posts is that some people think we are too hard on the players, and not nearly hard enough on management.

The other side of the coin is that we are not too hard on players...they make big bucks and should expect the ire of the relentlessly pissed off fanbase.

Sound about right? I happen to agree with both sides of this equation. We have to be harder on management as well as players (IF they do not perform to our expectations.)

Regarding MY expectations:

Players like Ebs, Gagner etc who I have really backed in the past have to pick up their defensive zone sockies.

The only #1 pick who plays like a #1 pick, IMO anyways, is Taylor best mode Hall. He never quits and always seems to give a ****.

I agree that Perron and Gordon were very solid pick ups by MacT. Bryz is still a bit of a question maark though. I hope DD is gonzo Alonzo by the trade deadline.

I am now willing to trade some of our younger players for upgrades and updates in certain positions....especially D and Tendin.

I still believe we need to give MacT and Eakins the benefit of the doubt and allow them until at least mid way through next season to make a significant change to this team of losers. We were patient with Tambo....a bit too patient (in my case)...and now that patience that was ballyhooed and sought after for the rebuild has, in my case, absolutely run out.

Hope this isn't too long of a post...it pretty much sums up my thoughts as a poor Oiler fan who has watched the highs from the team's NHL inception with the likes of Messier, Coffey, Gretzky, Lowe etc...to trying to, but not succeeding in viewing this crock of crap that hits the ice like a dead body in the morgue.

 

[jboyce4]

On the lighter side... I found a team yesterday that the Oilers could whoop every day of the week. We were playing at Bill Hunter arena at 1045 and I'd predict that the Oilers could win 9 out of 10 games against our team of students and pudgy old men.
To be fair, they haven't shown much to cheer for but we all know that it won't be too long before they are winning consistently. That's why they keep sucking us back.

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

Walkin around the office, hearin' folks laughing and mocking the edmonton oilers. Talking about terrible this team is, and these are the same goofs that will be high-fivin' each other, wearing apparel, and strutin' down cubical lane when the oilers become top tier. So easily swayed
When the top 3-5 dogs contracts are over in 6-7 yrs, and they all leave b/c they can't stand the fans, back to square one

Nobody on this team has shown they're even capable making the oilers a top team. Even Hall has issues with his game. The oilers are where they are partly because of the play of the "young guns".

 

[jbean]

I think this team needs an old fashioned kick in the ass. No more reassuring the players that this will be a fun atmosphere to play in. I had coaches in bantam or midget that weren't fun to play for but were able to get the most out of us. I want this team to be ashamed after every loss like the other night against Vancouver, not search for the positives after every pathetic performance. Look at Roy in Colorado, he would get some discipline out of this utterly soft and easy to play against bunch.