You know, when the Oilers made the tough but correct decision to send Draisaitl down to the AHL to polish his craft against men in an environment that wouldn't directly hurt the NHL club, the majority on here were celebrating the move as the Oilers finally doing what they should with a young player, not throwing him into the fire before he was ready despite the temptation to do otherwise. All I heard around here was "Do what Detroit does, overripen! Overripen!" and pats on the back were to be had all around.
Now, after a loss in game one of the season and a bad game by Purcell, fans are now clamoring to bring Draisaitl back? Are we that thin skinned and reactionary that after game 1 of an 82 game season we should ditch what's best for the player long term, just to scratch a momentary itch?
We often criticize the Oilers org, often with justification, for not exhibiting patience and falling to temptation when it came to putting their young stars in the line of fire before they should have been. Perhaps a lot of us should take our own advice, as much as it hurts at the moment.
And this isn't meant to be a defense of Purcell, since he first set foot here he's done nothing but play a very soft game and is Exhibit A of a player that performs just well enough to come up short. The sooner he gets punted from this lineup and replaced with someone who actually wants to risk breaking a sweat, the better.
Shocker: A Biosteel camp cannot create chicken salad out of chicken...leavings.