guymez
The Seldom Seen Kid
- Mar 3, 2004
- 33,514
- 13,410
Good post.
Totally bang on. I was ready to give the Oilers a chance this season with the new additions thinking something might just change but after 4 games it's quite clear your post is spot on.
Thanks JM.
It really struck me when I witnessed players struggling with parts of their game that are usually not an issue. That is almost always about confidence and trying too hard. Players like Fayne doing that after just 4 games is a strong sign that something is very wrong with the culture of this team. Basic glaring mistakes being made time and time again. I have watched Petry since he arrived and that mistake he made on the PK against Arizona was so blatantly obvious that the only way it happens to a veteran NHL player is if he is playing very tight. That lends itself to tunnel vision and restricted processing.
It happens to all of us...we get wound up and make mistakes only to look back and wonder how in the world we could have missed an obvious solution.
This team is so scared to lose and you cant be successful at anything when you approach it like that. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and losing/failure becomes the only option.
I believe I am seeing that in the coach as well. Some perplexing decisions IMO. At least he protected the players after the Coyotes game. Not much of a positive but it was good to see.
This culture is a big potential problem for players like Draisaitl and Nurse.
The real question is...how does this get turned around?
A good start would be for Katz to disappear into his cave and leave the team alone and run it like a business. He is a variable that will undermine any opportunity at success.
There are many players who played here since 2007 that had their game suffer immensely only to recover it again after leaving Edmonton. It looks to me like that isn't a reoccurring coincidence. The organization has become a black hole. Its losing culture has become its identity.
This team is broken and desperately needs some good fortune to grasp a hold of.
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