News Article: Friedman: Everybody is feeling the heat of Oilers’ start

[Duder54]

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Edmonton Oilers, the literal laughing stock of the NHL since... far too damn long.

 

[Summary]

Did someone else buy the team?

As far as I know Katz is still the owner so the only "heat" anyone in the front office is feeling is from the seat warmers in the comfy, soft office chairs that they bought with all the season-ticket renewals.

 

[Stoneman89]

For the guy labeled as no nonsense dude who will Come in and clean house and end patronizing hires, he has been a complete failure. Hell I could have done as much as him... pathetic figurehead who is someone’s buddy from the OBC.

And yet when Chia was hired, there was much merriment in large portions of Oilerland. He was about as far away from an OBC as you could get, and he had won a cup. I can honestly say I was not as excited about it, as his recent moves with the Bruins brought them to their knees and made them a laughing stock as he exited. There were still good players there, but most of them were ones he inherited. The fact that Boston has moved on to again become a contender speaks volumes against Chia and confirms that the Bruins org made the right call, despite being laughed at, at the time. TM had no OBC connections either, and I think most were on board given his year to year success with the Sharks, despite their playoff issues.

My point is that the org did change direction from what they had before, and the results are arguably unbelievably worse than before, despite having the most fortunate lottery draw in the history of the game. So, it seems they just keep on hiring the wrong people every few years. It's a cycle of failure that continues no matter who runs the ship, OBC, or not. And now, we appear to have a team that is a wrong mix, with little depth, some horrible contracts, and is up against the cap. This will take some serious fixing and it won't happen overnight even if they get it right the next time.

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

The problem with the organization is trying to build off the success of past cup champions instead of projecting how the game changes and trying to be a trend setting cup winner, as all cup winners are. Teams that win the cup don't go out of their way to build a certain type of team. The draft hands them very specific types of players, and they role with a style that matches it.

Edmonton needs a system that will unleash McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Klef, Nurse and Bouchard. There is more than enough skill on this team to build a great team around, but we need an innovative coach and GM to make it happen.

Could you imagine what a coach like Gallant could do with this team? I still think moving on from Todd Nelson was a huge mistake. I said it at the time and still feel that way now.

 

[McFlash97]

The problem with the organization is trying to build off the success of past cup champions instead of projecting how the game changes and trying to be a trend setting cup winner, as all cup winners are. Teams that win the cup don't go out of their way to build a certain type of team. The draft hands them very specific types of players, and they role with a style that matches it.

Edmonton needs a system that will unleash McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Klef, Nurse and Bouchard. There is more than enough skill on this team to build a great team around, but we need an innovative coach and GM to make it happen.

Could you imagine what a coach like Gallant could do with this team? I still think moving on from Todd Nelson was a huge mistake. I said it at the time and still feel that way now.

Please dont include Klefbom when you mention will be unleashed lol .... he just doesnt belong in that sentence. Other then that your 100 percent correct

 

[Burnoutboi]

Friedman was on during the intermission of one of the post-Oil games this afternoon. He basically rehashed his article, but added ‘I think’ before every sentence.

I’m not 100% sure, but my internal bullshit detector went off a few times.

 

[RegDunlop]

And yet when Chia was hired, there was much merriment in large portions of Oilerland. He was about as far away from an OBC as you could get, and he had won a cup. I can honestly say I was not as excited about it, as his recent moves with the Bruins brought them to their knees and made them a laughing stock as he exited. There were still good players there, but most of them were ones he inherited. The fact that Boston has moved on to again become a contender speaks volumes against Chia and confirms that the Bruins org made the right call, despite being laughed at, at the time. TM had no OBC connections either, and I think most were on board given his year to year success with the Sharks, despite their playoff issues.

My point is that the org did change direction from what they had before, and the results are arguably unbelievably worse than before, despite having the most fortunate lottery draw in the history of the game. So, it seems they just keep on hiring the wrong people every few years. It's a cycle of failure that continues no matter who runs the ship, OBC, or not. And now, we appear to have a team that is a wrong mix, with little depth, some horrible contracts, and is up against the cap. This will take some serious fixing and it won't happen overnight even if they get it right the next time.

Hmm
Not a bad take.

Except that many were sure skeptical about the changes. I was. Admittedly I was also excited for the change but I remember thinking that there sure is a lot of 'second guessing' for this type of big name hiring(s).

 

[Messier11]

There’s so much work to do on this roster, it’s disheartening to think about it. Last year McLellan, during a stretch when the team was playing decent, said he felt they were starting to ‘inch up the mountain’. It infuriated me that here in the real world, most of the fans could see that the mountain was still off in the distance and the dizzying height of self satisfaction he was feeling was really just the team cresting a pile of camel scat on the trail toward the mountain.

Anyway who chooses to inch up the mountain when you have McDavid fall onto your roster? Its an idiotic plan. As much as I dislike the Leafs I gotta respect them for saying ‘cap concerns can wait till they arise, we are going to go for it while we can’. And the Leafs players among themselves probably believe they can take a run at SC by just out scoring everybody. That remains to be seen, but I bet nobody in the Oilers room ever seriously entertains that thought. If you can’t honestly see yourself competing for the prize, it’s the definition of organizational - top to bottom - failing.

It’s sad to see, but I hope Friedman etc keep highlighting the issue. It’s one of many benefits to having McDavid. Best player in the world means you can’t hide your incompetence anymore. Can’t just field softball questions from local stooges (Stauffer) like the Oilers have been able to get away with in the past.

Really good summary. Watching Toronto is hard, but they have done a lot of good things. I think that they have their own personal cap hell coming their way this summary, but at least that cap hell is because they have a larger number of quality players. Our cap hell is because of a moronic GM. Can you imagine what it is like to be a Leaf fan now? Oh yeah, we knew that in the first season at Rogers Place.

I hope they lose and the heads roll.

I used to be out of patience before we drafted McDavid, and I'm out of patience now too.

Chia had four years. We still suck. Let's go do a real interview process, get the best candidate and start making winning choices for ****s sake. Stop the damn bleeding we gave mcdavid for christ's sakes.

This stood out for me. How did Chiapet, when he was looking for a coach, not even consider interviewing Babcock? Water under the bridge for sure, but the scale of his idiocy astounds me.

Coach firing relieves tension for around 2 weeks if its unsuccessful. But I look at the lineup and wonder how well this dog can hunt. Trouble is a coach firing isn't going to happen till November, I doubt it would, and by then we will likely be buried, again. Even a good coach and record after that probably won't be enough to earn a playoff spot.

Funny, I read this quote as I was watching the Carolina Hurricanes v. Jets game tonite. Carolina absolutely skating their brains out and EXECUTING on each and every shift. Outshooting the Jets and beating them in most battles. And they are a very young team. More on this at the end.

These observations are all well and good but until the head coach is told to take a hike (which brings a whole host of other issues like implementing a different system mid-stream) and the GM likewise is told to eff off, which will of course entail mass chaos ensuing for a while -- what the hell is going to change? They should get rid of Nicholson too, he's as useless as they come.

This should have all occurred during the off-season, when they could have sorted ALL of this BS out and made sincere efforts to put their house in order. Instead, we are now subject to the same lousy efforts, poor systems, and general clueless hangdog expressions ranging from players, through coaching staff, right on down to the poor equipment guys while chief minister of disinformation 'Baghdad' Bob Stauffer flails on-air trying to obfuscate and explain away the issues. In spite of all of Katz's billions, this organization remains a bush league laughing stock -- how it's run, its on-ice 'product', upper management bungling, infuriatingly stupid coaching, and completely uninspired play by million dollar athletes who, even at the lowest rung on the ladder, earn orders of magnitude more than medical professionals saving lives, teachers guiding and mentoring students, etc. (I know, I know... separate issue about societal values for another day). Just so fed up with this garbage, and no... it is not too early to rant at this point, because as last season proved, complacency even at the earliest stages of a season results in the hot garbage we all bore witness to last season. This bloody team, really...

The comment about the organization is so true. This organization runs on the basis of appealing to a backwater, beer-slugging, hick. Sorry, but true. This organization is incapable of offering a modern and up to date product to it's fanbase. And it isn't hard to do that. Employ a guy to travel with the team and see what other teams are doing when you go on road trips. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the fan experience needs to improve after going to Las Vegas as an example. In the same way, as someone who runs a business, I have to say that I admire the Leafs. They run it like a proper business. Maybe the joint involvement of Rogers and BCE in the Maple Leads organization lends to a corporate ethos and ethic to deliver the goods. The Oilers are complete bush-league and concentrate their efforts more on the stupid parlour tricks to keep Oiler fans in a stupor. "Oh hey, I know what we can do to make the fans love the game even more..let's superimpose beards and goalie masks on people and maybe we mix that with the kissing cam." IDIOTS. Did anyone see Chiarelli go talk to the team before last season's end and say..."you guys may need to think about taking a little less so we can win" (or whatever it is that Shanahan said to the Leafs). It is utterly demoralizing as a fan to see how much for a cluster*ck this team is.

I had $75K a year in season seats but luckily dumped several this year. This team just isn't worth it and, sadly, if McD ever decides to walk, I honestly think they should just fold this sad excuse for a team. I am not sure how many of us have another 10yr rebuild left in us.

Chia is the guy who gutted this team from talent. When the league was moving towards fast and skilled, he went heavy and slow. The craziest part is that we had skill and speed before he got here. Now we are at square 1 again with a superstar but nothing surrounding him. How after 12 years do u not have a top defenseman is beyond me.

This is all so exhausting, makes it tough to even watch hockey let alone the oilers. I don't know what to do anymore as a fan.

What more can you add to this?

Yup
I used to have respect for BN prior to the hiring.
But it was pretty obvious early on that his integrity - if he had any - was bought out.
Remember the audit?!! F ing joke

Sadly, very true. BN is a complete moron for drinking the Chiarelli KoolAid. How Nicholson could conclude that he had seen Chia's plan and that he believed in it. WTF??? Did you guys move the legalization day for weed up a few months? It is like Cheech and Chong are running this clown show. Unfortunately for us, as Oilers fans, BN runs the non-hockey side of things for Katz very well. He isn't going anywhere. And, with this year, BN has zero credibility with the fan base.

So, back to watching the Hurricanes/Jets game. Why are we stuck with players who just cannot play? Why can these guys...Nurse, Benning, Kassian, and so many others not take the initiative to improve themselves in the summer and hit the ground running? Why is McDavid the only one who appears to take things seriously? You see young teams like Carolina and they are skating the crap out of themselves. But the princesses we have just cannot be bother to skate like their lives depended on it. Poor guys, though, they skate for a total of 20min max every other day for a game at best and they just can't do it. Wow, tough life.

And, then, on the other hand, you get players like Dubnyk who spent more time at the Mercedes dealership during his tenure in Edmonton than at the rink working on his game. Look at Brossoit tonite. His game didn't just improve in pre-season with the Jets. He had to have had a come to Jesus moment when he was turfed here. So why the f*ck could he not do that when he was here? This story gets old very fast.

So, sorry for the rant, but it is almost therapeutic to read threads like this one and actually realize that others do feel the same. Because, when I go to Rogers to watch a game, all I see is oblivious people laughing their brains out and seemingly enjoying the manure that serves as support for McDavid night in and night out.

Maybe when this Studio 99 opens this week at the arena we can organize a monthly or weekly support group meeting. Kind of the reverse of AA...because we are definitely going to need some drinks.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

MacT and Lowe are probably in Katz' ear telling him that they weren't the problem and should get another chance in management

 

[oiler4ever]

Unlike Chia, Lowe made some key trades.

 

[Mr Positive]

Next story: Everyone is Feeling Relief of the Oilers' last start

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Unlike Chia, Lowe made some key trades.

That one year he sure did. How about passing on Perry and a 1st for Comrie?

 

[bucktown]

I said it before, and I'll say it again;

The Oilers are blackballed by every other team in the league.

The tank was real, we stockpiled first overall's and high picks for years and the other gm's, as they should have been, were appalled at the behavior.

When we won the Mcdavid lottery, that sealed our fate. I am absolutely convinced that there is a league wide understanding that nobody trades with the Oilers unless it's a clear win for the other team.

It also stands to reason, that is why there is such a long leash for current coaching and management. Ownership and the "audit" were aware of the situation and have alloted more time under the current regime because developing our own draft picks and free agency are literally the only way we are going to acquire players.

The Hall trade is the most obvious thing I've ever seen that supports this theory.

 

[Burnoutboi]

That one year he sure did. How about passing on Perry and a 1st for Comrie?

Sadder thing is, Corey Perry probably wouldn’t have developed into the Corey Perry we know ( and usually hate ) playing here.

Knowing the Oilers, we would have turned him into Brad Isbister.

 

[I am the Liquor]

Unlike Chia, Lowe made some key trades.

Another Lowe user alt reveales itself......

 

[oiler4ever]

That one year he sure did. How about passing on Perry and a 1st for Comrie?

I was not a big fan of a Perry at that time, he reminded me of Steven Rice. Big OHL/AHL scorer who could not skate fast enough for NHL

 

[oiler4ever]

Another Lowe user alt reveales itself......

I am not here to promote Mr. Lowe here, just saying that Lowe did some good moves on his short time here, unlike PC

 

[BlackDogg]

I was just listening on radio and felt like Robert Hayes trying to land an airliner.

 

[I am the Liquor]

I am not here to promote Mr. Lowe here, just saying that Lowe did some good moves on his short time here, unlike PC

Talbot wasn’t a good move?
Maroon?

Lowe was a jackass who got into open feuds with other gm’s, his own players, and sadly, the fans. Let’s not romanticize that ninkompoop.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Unlike Chia, Lowe made some key trades.

like giving away Pronger and Smyth

 

[Ritchie Valens]

I said it before, and I'll say it again;

The Oilers are blackballed by every other team in the league.

The tank was real, we stockpiled first overall's and high picks for years and the other gm's, as they should have been, were appalled at the behavior.

When we won the Mcdavid lottery, that sealed our fate. I am absolutely convinced that there is a league wide understanding that nobody trades with the Oilers unless it's a clear win for the other team.

It also stands to reason, that is why there is such a long leash for current coaching and management. Ownership and the "audit" were aware of the situation and have alloted more time under the current regime because developing our own draft picks and free agency are literally the only way we are going to acquire players.

The Hall trade is the most obvious thing I've ever seen that supports this theory.

I can see where you're coming from with your line of thought as I've had similar thoughts myself, but I don't think there's any GM conspiracy. The reason I say this is it's pretty hard to win trades when your drafting has sucked balls for a decade so you're always dealing from a position of weakness because the vast majority of the players aren't worth much or have too big of a contract to move (Lucic, Russell).

With Hall, I honestly think Chiarelli had tunnel vision and had his sights on Larsson. He probably didn't want to deal him to a team in the West so that eliminated half the league off the top. I recall either Friedman or Mckenzie saying a GM, who wanted to remain anonymous, told whichever one it was he would have beaten the Devils' return by a mile if he had known Hall was available. I'm pretty sure I recall one of them also saying most GMs had no clue or indication Hall was on the market.

This right there shows Chiarelli didn't do his due diligence and even try to get the best offer available for HIS team. Then you look at his M.O. from his Boston days and its easy to connect the dots.

Most GMs know Chiarelli can be taken to the cleaners, they just have to be patient and wait him out. I used to really like Pete, but I've lost all confidence in him.

 

[oiler4ever]

like giving away Pronger and Smyth

at least he acquired Pronger at the first place. Can you name one good move that Chia made so far. There are some above avg acquisitions from Chia, nothing to display as blockbuster victory

 

[MessierII]

at least he acquired Pronger at the first place. Can you name one good move that Chia made so far. There are some above avg acquisitions from Chia, nothing to display as blockbuster victory

2016-17 was the best regular season we’ve had since 1988 and the best playoffs we’ve had since 2006 before that 1992. That was with a lot of his aquisitions playing big roles.

 

[oiler4ever]

That was with a lot of his aquisitions playing big roles.

such as???

 

[Soundwave]

Who cares about which one of Chia or Lowe or Mac T were most incompetent.

It's not a contest because the loser is ultimately us no matter what.

If the next GM is not at minimum competent/decent, it's really all been for nothing.

Everything since game 7 of 2006 ... none of it matters if the next GM cannot give McDavid the team he deserves.