Oilers lose 5-2. That's 10 in a row.

[missinthejets]

What I mean is that changing coaches will not solve the issue in isolation. Eakins has not impressed, but under different circumstances he may have done better.

but this completely ignores the progress that had been made with the previous two coaches. It's not about thinking a new coach would make the team a top teir team and it never has been, it's about seeing Eakins come in and make players worse than they were and lose more games in uglier fashion than they had been losing with the previous coaches. The roster isn't perfect and no one is pretending it is, but the coach is not getting nearly as much out of them as he should be able to so why in gods name should the guy not be the first one out of town? The only way he's not the first one to go is if you decide that you want to turf the GM who bungled the coaching position so spectacularly first. Eakins has to go though, he is a terrible coach. He might have had more success if he walked into a turn key operation with a really good solid veteran roster but that was never going to be the situation in Edmonton.

 

[tempest2i]

We don't have McJesus and the odds are against us. And how is CBJ doing post trade. Any trade where you trade the best player is usually not a good thing.

Riddled with injuries.

Their team is significantly better post trade. Regardless of where they currently are in the standings.

 

[McPuritania]

Fire Lowe. Fire MacTavish and Howson. Fire Eakins and Acton. Purge the scouting staff. Trade Eberle, Schultz, and Hall if he is in fact one of the problems in the dressing room. Get that #1 dman. Then maybe, MAYBE, we can be a competitive team again.

 

[BarDownBobo]

We don't have McJesus and the odds are against us. And how is CBJ doing post trade. Any trade where you trade the best player is usually not a good thing.

They made the playoffs the next year(something Nash lead them to once, where they got swept), and have been absolutely decimated by injuries this year. Something like 150 man games lost in 23 games.

 

[McDrailers]

Can anyone link me Ference's comments. The brown bottle was calling last night so I didn't watch the game. Poor me right?

 

[2 Minute Minor]

but this completely ignores the progress that had been made with the previous two coaches. It's not about thinking a new coach would make the team a top teir team and it never has been, it's about seeing Eakins come in and make players worse than they were and lose more games in uglier fashion than they had been losing with the previous coaches. The roster isn't perfect and no one is pretending it is, but the coach is not getting nearly as much out of them as he should be able to so why in gods name should the guy not be the first one out of town? The only way he's not the first one to go is if you decide that you want to turf the GM who bungled the coaching position so spectacularly first. Eakins has to go though, he is a terrible coach. He might have had more success if he walked into a turn key operation with a really good solid veteran roster but that was never going to be the situation in Edmonton.

Yes, this. Why are you going to trust the same guy to hire a new coach? When you look at how poorly built the team is in terms of role players, this is the first change that needs to occur. THEN you hire a new coach who matches a style of play philosophy that the team is further built around. This would include shipping off a couple talented wingers to return less flashy pieces that can play cohesively. Look at Calgary for an example of a team without much flash who can earn points in the NHL right now based on team philosophy and good coaching.

 

[missinthejets]

Yes, this. Why are you going to trust the same guy to hire a new coach? When you look at how poorly built the team is in terms of role players, this is the first change that needs to occur. THEN you hire a new coach who matches a style of play philosophy that the team is further built around. This would include shipping off a couple talented wingers to return less flashy pieces that can play cohesively. Look at Calgary for an example of a team without much flash who can earn points in the NHL right now based on team philosophy and good coaching.

See here is the problem, I don't mind what Mctavish has done with the roster, but what he's doing with the roster and what the coach wants out of a roster are at odds, now I'd be willing to give Mctavish the benefit of the doubt and think he learned his lesson about making sure the coach is on the same page with your roster moves but I'd also be totally fine canning him too because there is obviously a disconnect somewhere between what kinds of players they're getting and what kind of coaching they seem to want.

Still though, unless they are suddenly going to turn their backs on the young players who they have shown they are 100% committed to Eakins needs to be gone before the season even started since he obviously doesn't have any idea how to work with them. It is his job to make sure they are not making the mistakes they are making but if he can't do that after this many games he never will be able to.

 

[Replacement*]

The core players are like the kids in grade school who were decent kids if they sat on opposite sides of the classroom, but if they sat next to each other they turned into troublemakers.

It has been obvious for years that they need to break up this core in the worst way, but now they've destroyed their trade value so much that they won't get much in return. Still, you've gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Start with Shultz, I don't even give a crap what they get in return as long as he is gone.

This in a nutshell. We turned players like Hall, Eberle, Schultz into indifferent players focused only on scoring and padding stats. Because its all that we required of them.

All round play, NZ play? Whats that?

I called this out in lockout year when I thought these players played indifferently and were a distraction even on an AHL squad that were a better team without them.

Trouble is when your go to players have developed this many bad habits it undermines the faith, confidence, and determination of the whole hockey team.

 

[Glide]

Left the game before the 3rd started. Super annoying Coyotes bandwagonfan/troll behind us + score/effort made it the worst game I've ever attended.

 

[Bankerguy]

How are the Canucks and Calgary doing so well Edmonton's roster of young stars still struggle???

I'll tell you why... coaching... this game was a good example of that

 

[Raab]

How are the Canucks and Calgary doing so well Edmonton's roster of young stars still struggle???

I'll tell you why... coaching... this game was a good example of that

Hard to coach players that don't listen. Trade everyone of the bums.

 

[Replacement*]

It's upstairs.


It's the complete absence of a meritocracy from tip to tails.

It's a culture of entitlement, and it starts at the very top.

No ragging on the players, though some certainly deserve it. No spurious conclusions drawn from body language or Oil City Roadhouse rumors. Not even ragging on the coaches, despite inexperience, questionable decisions and absurd systems instilled from the get-go. We've done this for years, and it doesn't matter.

We've changed the players. We've changed the coaches. Nothing on the ice has changed. It's time to change the organization.

An organization that gives virtual life-time contracts to mediocre (or worse) assistant coaches/former buddies of the boss, keeping them immortal in the face of revolving door head coaches. When the PR for that gets so unworkable, they get promoted within.

An organization that, instead of really firing a long-term head coach with a track record 99% composed of mediocrity, gives him a short vacation and then moves him back into management at the first opportunity. After he could barely get a coaching job in the minor leagues, bam, he's our new GM.

An organization that didn't have a GM in Kevin Lowe so much as it had a life-time regent, and has done nothing but promote and enable him despite a long history of little more than bad decisions. Actually, not just bad, but strange, petty and amateurish decisions. The Comrie fiasco. The Smyth fiasco. The Pronger fiasco (and the departing Pronger trade). The Nylander fiasco. The Souray fiasco. The Tkachev fiasco. How many fiascos does it take for a GM/President of this organization to face true accountability for his actions? We wait.

An organization that has damningly been criticized constantly and consistently by departing players and coaches that were not brought up in this failed and failing Oilers "culture."


It is long past time that we stop criticizing the players and the coaches. We know now that does nothing and any breath we waste on them draws attention away from the real problem.

Nothing short of an organizational overhaul, starting at the top, is going to fix this team. We know this because we've tried everything else.

Nice start to a post. Never expected to read "meritocracy" on an Oilers board.

That said I agree. The conduct and entitlement of the management group and the cloying preening of enjoying repeated number 1 draft picks and smiling about it means that the org fully embraced losing. How does one sell winning culture and flicking that switch on when the org has been all about losing?

It would be hard to work for this org and not fully realize how much of a clown show it is from top to bottom.

 

[missinthejets]

How are the Canucks and Calgary doing so well Edmonton's roster of young stars still struggle???

I'll tell you why... coaching... this game was a good example of that

Remember how many people were writing the Sedins off after just one year with a coach who had no idea how to get the most out of them? Same deal in Edmonton, bad coaches make players look worse.

Calgary is the other side of the coin, good coaches make average players good and good players great.

 

[McTedi]

Riddled with injuries.

Their team is significantly better post trade. Regardless of where they currently are in the standings.

Their goalie was playing lights out last year.

 

[Replacement*]

Tickets were on resale for this game for 15bucks. How fitting is that?

Lots of them at reduced prices. 250 tickets on sale from one site alone for less than 50bucks.

Fitting as well that most people walked out of the game.

What I'd like to see from the crowd in response to the "make some noise" (annoying audio clip)

shout out in unison; "Fire Macblowe"

 

[McTedi]

Tickets were on resale for this game for 15bucks. How fitting is that?

Lots of them at reduced prices. 250 tickets on sale from one site alone for less than 50bucks.

Fitting as well that most people walked out of the game.

What I'd like to see from the crowd in response to the "make some noise" (annoying audio clip)

shout out in unison; "Fire Macblowe"

Yah I got executive seats for cheap, it still wasn't worth it, left after the 50-50

 

[Replacement*]

Yah I got executive seats for cheap, it still wasn't worth it, left after the 50-50

It seemed somehow cosmically fitting that Tobias Reider scored 2 shorthanded goals on the same PK against us, and at Rexall.

You can't write script like this.

But its perfect in execution.

I would have stood up and applauded.

 

[Da McBomb]

Was wonderful seeing all the empty seats at Rexall last night. Open your eyes Mr Katz.

 

[Phenomenon13]

If the Oilers don't beat the Jets next game.

It's going to be really tough to get the first win in the west when they play the california teams for the next while.

 

[CornKicker]

i wish kevin lowe (who knows a thing or 2 about winning if there was any concern) would pick up the phone and ask the real engineer of those teams glen sather what he would do.

"well Kevin, I would fire you and craig...if we are being honest here"

 

[McTedi]

It seemed somehow cosmically fitting that Tobias Reider scored 2 shorthanded goals on the same PK against us, and at Rexall.

You can't write script like this.

But its perfect in execution.

I would have stood up and applauded.

The reaction in the building was dead silence. The booing came later in the 2nd. I was surprised that the building was as full as it was considering the availability of tickets and price. Took my youngest son, still had fun. He told me going to the parking lot that the Oilers suck. That pretty much summed it up, and I took a hit to my Oiler pride.

 

[Phenomenon13]

i wish kevin lowe (who knows a thing or 2 about winning if there was any concern) would pick up the phone and ask the real engineer of those teams glen sather what he would do.

"well Kevin, I would fire you and craig...if we are being honest here"

Nah, he'd fool Lowe into giving the Rangers Hall and RNH for Tanner Glass + Cap Dump and a 7th.

 

[Slicknitty]

It seemed somehow cosmically fitting that Tobias Reider scored 2 shorthanded goals on the same PK against us, and at Rexall.

You can't write script like this.

But its perfect in execution.

I would have stood up and applauded.

Hell yeah, this losing streak is the best thing to happen to them in forever. I always thought the Reider trade was stupid...but this was on a different level stupid. Very fitting like you said. Change is not imminent though. The attention on the club must be so debilitating for the brain(less) trust.

 

[bigplay41*]

Good to have the Oil in the Peg looking forward to it tomorrow

 

[s7ark]

Hard to coach players that don't listen. Trade everyone of the bums.

Why should they listen to someone that obviously doesn't know what he's doing? Every time they see him send Nikitin out they should tune him out completely.