Off The Post

A Franchise of Futility?

Feeling pretty bummed about this season so far, as most Oilers fans. The silver lining? Perhaps the “dive for five”, the “fall for hall”, ect. Yeah, yeah sure. I’m in agreement that it’s time once and for all for a true rebuild. But we’ve got the rest of the season to dwell on that. For now, I wanted to point some statistics I’ve been digging up about our Oilers and how bad it’s been for way to long now.

5th longest current playoff drought in the NHL: Only the Panthers (8), Kings (6), Coyotes (6), and Leafs (4) have longer streaks that the Oilers (3). And after this season, there is a good chance the Yotes and Kings will end their streaks, maybe even the Panthers. The Oilers have not played a playoff game since the Ryan Smyth trade. Missing the playoffs in the 09/10 season would also tie the franchise record (1993,1994,1995,1996) of 4 straight season missing the playoffs.

21 seasons since we last won our division: We can take some comfort in the fact that we have won 2 Stanley cups (1988, 1990) since our last division win (1986-87) and made it to the finals (2006) once more. However the Oilers have never won their division without Wayne Gretzky. Since the Oilers last won their division the Canucks have won it 5 times, the Flames 6 times, the Avalanche 8 (since 1995-1996), and even the Wild have won it once (since 2000-2001).

9 post season since the last cup: Since their last cup in 1989-1990 (18 seasons) the Oilers have made the post season only  9 times. During the same span the Canucks have made the post season 12 times, the Avalanche 11 times (since 1995-1996), and the Flames also only 9 times.

9 playoff series wins since last cup: A stat that isn’t all that bad in comparison to the rest of the division but still pretty grim. Over the past 18 seasons the Oilers have won a total of 9 playoff rounds. The Canucks have also won 9, while the Avalanche have 17 (since 1995-1996). Looking at the Flames lack of Playoff success does make me smile, they have only won 3 rounds, all in the same year.

Well, now that I feel like death, maybe we can start looking towards the future. What to do with the rest of the season, the trading deadline, the draft, ect. Lots to ponder, and another long summer to look forward to. Go Hawks!

Last In The West

I’ve been pretty quiet about the state of this team this year, however it’s obvious that this team is not where we all want it to be. Normally at this point in the season we are not last in the conference, mind you the records of all Western Conference teams is above the norm at this point in the season.

Also, not only have we dealt with an absurd amount of injuries and sickness (as many other teams do as well) we have lost our #1 offensive player for the season, our #1 goalie indefinitely, arguably our best defensive forward (Pisani) indefinitely, and our best defenseman missed a number of games. I’m not trying to make excuses for them, but due to all these significant injuries it’s no wonder that we have had to borrow players from the minor league teams, and it’s no wonder they have also suffered as a result. We are an AHL team competing in the NHL, how are we supposed to compete?

Not to say these are our only problems. Lack luster efforts on many nights, lazy defensive play, honestly this list could go on and on. What I see is a frustrated team that can’t seem to catch a series of breaks. They have the coaching staff they need now, but now they don’t have a full roster of NHL players. Some of the call ups have shown a lot of promise, and the potential to be true NHL players, but this team needs its proper roster back to be competitive.

Even with all the players healthy and motivated I still don’t think we have the next Stanley Cup winners or anything like that, but I do think we are a playoff team. This team has shown us glimpses this season of what they are capable of. I am pretty bummed about this year so far, but unlike the last few seasons I do think we are on to something in the way of progressing.

Perhaps a lottery pick this season wouldn’t be the worst thing for this team when it’s all said and done.

The First 11

It’s been pretty crazy busy for me the last few weeks, and I’ve been neglecting my blog. However, never fear I’m back and ready to get talking and writing Oil for what is already shaping up to be a pretty exciting season.

So, back to business… So far this season we’ve seen a lot of positives from this team. Myself, as many Oilers fans, was not sure what to expect from this season after big changes were promised following last season and few were made. I like the physical play we’ve been showing. It seems as though the compete level has been there pretty much every game. I felt we were robbed in the first 2 games vs the Flames, while I felt perhaps we’ve got away with wins in a couple games that we were outplayed. Ultimately it balances out over the season.

Over the weekend we’ve experienced our first 2 game losing steak of the season. The Flames were without a doubt in better shape than we were with half our team either injured or ill with the flu. None the less I liked our compete and felt as though we were the more skilled team, just not able to bury our chances. Special teams have also been inconsistent. Tonight vs the Canucks, in what was our first shut out loss of the year, I saw a tired, run down Oilers squad get beat by a less skilled Canucks team. I saw nothing from Calgary or Vancouver that suggests that they are a better team than Edmonton, yet we lost to both of them in as many days.

The Oilers are still missing a few pieces from what I can see. Faceoffs for one are still a problem. Special teams need work. Of course getting Souray back will help the PP, but it just feels as though they are not playing with the same confidence once the special teams are on the ice.

Penner has been a force. We are finally seeing the potential of this giant amongst men. I would still like to see him play a bit meaner, but at the same time if he can continue to put points up I’ll be happy. Hemsky has quietly been putting up points as well, it’s obvious to me that something is right with him. He doesn’t have the dominating presence that he has shown glimpses of over the years. This is the year for him to take hold of this team and call it his own, otherwise I fear that he will be on the way out. I just hope whatever the problem is, it’s something that can be worked out and not something off ice like problems with teammates, or issues with being payed significantly less than several others on the team.

Which brings me to one Shawn Horcoff. What is up with this guy? He looks worse than last year by far. I have never seen him so fragile on the ice. He looks afraid to touch the puck let alone shoot or pass it. Remember 2 seasons ago before his injury when he tore it up for the fist half of the season? Wasn’t the story that in the off season he went down to Mexico to the factory where his sticks were made and got them made differently or something? Maybe it’s time to take a quick trip down south and have those sticks fixed up again! Come on man! I’ve been a Horcoff fan for years, and I’m not one to bring up the contract and all that, but for the love of all things Oil, just get out there and get it done. You don’t need to lead the team in scoring, just contribute and give us something!

I’ve liked Visnovsky a lot so far. He looks confident and so smooth with the puck. I hope some of that rubs off on Grebeshkov and Gilbert. What gives me hope with those 2 is that they are still getting better. I like what Grebs brings offensively but he is a bit scary in his own end and when holding the point on the power play. Same with Gilbert. Smid is really rounding into form and looking like the shut down guy we need. He is young, tough, mobile, and smart. As for the callups Chorney and Peckham, I haven’t noticed Chorney much, which is a good sign while Peckham made a few bad plays in the game vs Vancouver tonight. Ultimately the D core is looking pretty solid with lots of depth. This certainly opens up options for trades to get some more help up front if needed down the stretch.

I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Brule before he got hurt. He brings something this team needs, sandpaper. Same goes with Ryan Stone, though I haven’t been impressed much with his play with the puck. Stortini has been doing what he needs to do, though I’ve been perplexed a but with the amount of powerplay he’s getting. I suppose he’s a big body to park in front of the net.

Lots of positives, yet still plenty of concerns about this team. 11 games in and they look like a bottom half playoff team to me but will they maintain, get better or tail off? I think we’ll have a better idea of what we have after 20-25 games, and a couple decent size road trips. We head out East next week for the 1st time. It will also be nice once this flu vacates the team and some of the injured players can get back into the lineup, especially Sheldon Souray. This team is 20% better with Souray playing. He is a leader and brings stability, size, and toughness in their own zone.

Next up the Avalanche, who haven’t looked like the team most have predicted to finish in the bottom of the NHL. Can we bring them back down to earth in our 3rd straight divisional game? I think so.

What do you think? Leave me your comments!

History of an Oilers Fan – Part 5

As the 2009/2010 season has already begun, I wrap up my History of an Oilers fan series. I am looking forward to the season and can’t wait to get back into my regular routine here on Off the Post. Thanks for reading!

Many faces still remain from the ‘06 cup run including current captain Ethan Moreau, Shawn Horcoff, Ales Hemsky, Steve Staios, and Fernando Pisani. Joined by many new acquisitions like Sheldon Souray, Patrick O’Sulivan, and youngsters like Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano and Robert Nilsson this team certainly has a different look, but has some nice looking elements to it. Good, or bad remains to be seen.

The summer of 2009 won’t go down in history as the most exciting for the Oilers. The Danny Heatley saga filled the news for the most part, while the signing of veteran goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was met with mixed views, and the return of Mike Comrie raising eyebrows all around the league. Not the changes most of us Oilers fans expected, but none the less we enter a new season filled with hope.

What does it mean to be an Oilers fan? Is it all about the glory years and the past championships? Is it about the gloomy years of the 90’s or is it about the 2006 run and what could have been? I think being a fan, a true fan of any sports team comes with highs and lows. You need to feel the lows in order to be able to fully enjoy and appreciate the highs. As modern day Oilers fans we have definitely shared in many low points over the last 15 years. We’ve had glimpses of what could be only to be followed up by major let downs. This teams biggest flaw ever since the mid 90’s has been inconsistency. Inconsistency with the players, the coaches, the management and even ownership. With a new owner now, and a secure place in Edmonton is this team ready to turn the corner and become playoff contenders every year? Will this team be fighting for the division title once again on a yearly basis rather than fighting for 7th or 8th spot year after year? I don’t know. I hope so.

I read forums, blogs, and news about the Oilers on a near daily basis. I will tune into Ched online to hear the post game sometimes, and often watch Sportsnet West, as apposed to Pacific for my highlights. After spending the better part of 2 years outside of Canada, and now back in a rival city, (Vancouver) I find that I get a less saturated view of the Oilers. I have to work a little harder to get information, and sometimes even just to see games. I think I have a unique view of this team, being born in Edmonton, yet living elsewhere for the majority of my life.

I haven’t been to an Oilers game live, in Edmonton, since the mid 90’s, a home opener vs Detroit in which Jason Arnott was hit with a puck in the face off of a Jiri Slegr arrant point shot. The Oilers lost the game. I have made it a mission in life to see many more Oilers games in Edmonton and other cities. I would love to plan a hockey road trip, following the Oilers around to places like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. That would be the ultimate trip for me. Maybe hit the west coast and follow them through L.A., Anaheim, San Jose and Phoenix. That would be damn cool too!

Whatever the future of this team holds one thing is for certain, I will be an Oilers fan until the day I die and even still I’m pretty sure I’ll be cheering them on in the afterlife. Oilers fans are like none other. We don’t just like our team and enjoy the game, we feel the game, we bleed our team.

History of an Oilers Fan – Part 4

In this edition of my “History of an Oilers Fan” summer series, I focus on the 2006 cup run, to the present. If you need to catch up, check out part 1, part 2, and part 3.

2006 was hands down, the most exciting playoff run of my life! I had a couple of buddies at work who were die hard Oilers fans like me, and we watched most of the games that spring together. It was amazing to have gone so long without any post season success and all of a sudden find your team in the finals for the first time in 16 years! Half my life had gone by since they knocked of the Bruins to win their 5th Stanley Cup. Man, did my wallet and my liver take a shit kicking during those playoff months! Knocking off Detroit in the first round was unreal, yet I don’t think anyone could have predicted how far we would go. Down 2 games to 0 vs San Jose in round 2? No problem. In fact we won the next 4 straight and then the first 3 games vs the Ducks in round 3! 7 straight Playoff wins, unbelievable. Game 1, Stanley Cup Finals. We take the lead, we have everything under control and then…. It all ends. Rollie goes down injured. Conklin comes in to replace him and lays an egg, our forwards loose their confidence. We end up dropping both games in Carolina before grabbing game 3 back in edmonton, only to loose game 4 and be faced with the near impossible task of coming from a 3 games to 1 series deficit. We all know what happened, we clawed and fought our way back to tie the series and force a game 7. My highlight of the entire playoff run? Game 5 vs Carolina, overtime, shorthanded: Pisani strips Sillman of the puck the offensive zone, and wires one top shelf past Cam Ward to win and keep the Oil alive! I jumped about 5 feet in the air, and my buddies claim to this day I left a dent in the floor of the sports bar we were at! I was so jacked up for game 7, I could picture team captain “Gator” Jason Smith hoisting Lord Stanley’s cup. I replayed the thought in my head all day at work. I couldn’t focus, it was like Christmas morning as a little kid, except better. Of course we would go on to loose a heart breaker that evening, perhaps a game that we were never even really in. And of course I along with all Oilers fans were crushed and disappointed. Adding insult to injury was Pronger asking to be traded following an incredible playoff drive that gave Oilers fans hope for the future. Pronger’s inevitable trade would set the team back at least a year or 2 and I don’t they have still fully recovered from that. Ryan Smyth, would be traded the following year at the deadline changing the face of the franchise yet again.

The next 3 seasons following ‘06 were filled with hope, disappointment, frustration, anger and disbelief at how close we came, and how far we had fallen in such a short time. It was like we had gone back to the pre-lockout struggles of not being able to compete with the elite teams but without the excuse of being a small market team. In the summer of 2008 Daryl Katz purchased the Oilers and attempted to make a huge splash by landing a big free agent. They led the Oilers faithful the believe that they were on the cusp of signing Marian Hossa to a huge contract. Of course the unwillingness of free agents to sign in Oil Country has been well documented and is perhaps more a subject for it’s own post here. The Oilers, under the ownership of Daryl Katz, will be more competitive from a dollars and cents standpoint. The EIG era had run it’s course in Edmonton and it was the right time for a change.

The 2008/2009 season was perhaps as frustrating as any I have endured as an Oilers fan. I was living in Mexico for the entire season. Televised games were readily available at many bars around the town I lived, so I had many opportunities to watch my Oilers. One bar owner, from Calgary, would always give me a hard time when I asked him to put on the Edmonton games. Normally I would listen to either the 630 ched radio broadcast or try to get a live video stream online. Regardless of how I did it, I rarely missed a game. When the Oilers fell apart in late March 2009, I didn’t know what to think. We had a playoff spot secured only a couple weeks before, and we let it slip away. It was obvious to me that this team was in disarray.

Following another non playoff season, the third in as many years, MacT took the first bullet. GM Steve Tambellini promised change, and his desire to get bigger and harder to play against. It doesn’t look as though he accomplished his goal this summer, but with Pat Quinn and Tom Renney coming in as Coach and Associate Coach there is room for some optimism. Is it enough to avoid a 4th straight season with no playoffs? I don’t think many Oilers fans would stand for that, mind you I probably said the exact same thing last summer about a 3rd straight season with no playoffs!