Last night the 28th place Oilers were humiliated at home by the 29th place Anaheim Ducks. They were embarrassed, shamed and disgraced in front of their paying fans. Other than Taylor Hall and Sam Gagner, the team were just bodies on the ice. The so called leaders of this team are so used to losing that they are fine with getting spanked every night.

Like many true fans, I was resigned to the team losing more than their fair share for 3-4 years while the team built a winning team, but like most, I will not be satisfied with losing the way they did last night. This team showed no heart or desire to win. NO GUTS!! Even after Sam Gagner went toe to toe with Francois Beauchemin, bloodying his face and knuckles in the process, the team didn’t show up to support his effort. Gagner’s fight is one more than Ben Eager has this season. Ben Eager was signed by this team to give the team grit and toughness yet other than taking stupid penalties and scoring the odd goal, he has done nothing to help this team. Like Eager, Darcy Hordichuk was also signed to add the grit and toughness but he too has been a huge failure. When your best player (Taylor Hall) gets run and the only guy who has the balls to stick up for his team mate is Sam Gagner, you know this team doesn’t care.

The problem is they don’t care on more than one level. They don’t seem to care about winning or losing and more importantly they don’t seem to care about each other. When team mates see a player like Hall being lined up for an annihilating hit and Gagner is the only one to defend him, your team doesn’t care. Beauchemin should have been made to pay for his attempt more than once. The whole team should have played harder and hit him harder for the rest of the game. Instead they treated it as if was a tiddlywinks match.

This team needs a quick infusion of heart, desire and caring or they will be finishing 30th for a 3rd straight year. Veterans like Horcoff, Smyth, Hemsky, Sutton and Belanger need to start playing like veterans…like leaders. How are the young players supposed to feel good about themselves or their team when the players they look up to don’t bother to show up?

I am willing to give this team until the end of this year to start showing improvement and start caring for themselves as players and for the team. While I don’t expect them to win more than they lose yet, I will not accept a team who has given up and just shows up. Losing because you aren’t good enough is expected at this point of the rebuild, losing because you don’t try is not. This team better turn it around before the end of the season or heads better roll. The fans will not put up with a team that doesn’t care. And the head rolling had better start at the top with the Lowe, Tambellini and the entire coaching staff replaced by a group who can get this team to care and win.

Tuesday it was the Chicago Blackhawks making a trip to Edmonton. The game started off in typical fashion these days with the Oilers forgetting to show up to start the game and Jeff Deslauriers letting in that easy goal only 44 seconds into the game. It was bad enough the team didn’t show up to start the game but this made it even worse. In fact, by time the team did show up to play it was 4-0 for the Hawks and they were just in cruise control and you could see they had taken their foot off the pedal. It was a game of men (Hawks) vs. boys (Oilers). In watching the first 39 minutes it was hard to realize that both these teams were in the same league.

The Oilers finally got on the board in the last minute of the second with Fernando Pisani finding the net. The Oilers then came out in the third and played a pretty decent period, although I am not sure if it was a case of the Oilers stepping it up a bit or the Hawks laying back. Probably a bit of both. Ryan Potulny closed the gap for the home team at 5:44 of the period but that was as close as it got. Again, weak goaltending and only playing for 21 minutes are not going to win you many games.

Thursday it was the St. Louis Blues at Rexall Place. Things were looking up right? I mean, the Blues are in 19th place in the league and not the same caliber as the Hawks right. And surely the Blues wouldn’t come in and spank the Oilers like they did on December 21st when they whipped the Oilers 7-2. Right? Well this was probably the best game the Oilers have played in the last month. The games was scoreless through to the 7:44 mark of the second period when Dustin Penner put the Oilers in front. So far, so good. Yea right! In typical Oilers fashion they handed the Blues a goal only 17 seconds later to tie the game. Another glaring problem with the Oilers exposed. They either relax after getting a lead or get too high as the goals are infrequent and can’t calm themselves down to start playing the game again.

1-1 after 2 periods and the Oilers were playing a decent game. Could the streak be over? Nope, as has been the case so many times this year, it is a soft goal that costs the team the game again. 2:09 into the final period it was Alex Steen firing a shot short side over the shoulder of Deslauriers from the top of the right circle. Again the big goalie was down on his knees early and the top side was open. I am sure this is the book on Deslauiers as he lets in lots over the shoulder or short side. 2-1 final for the Blues and the streak continued.

Saturday the Oilers traveled to Calgary to take on the Flames in what I had dubbed the Loser Bowl 2010. The Oilers were winless in 12 and the Flames were winless in 9. But has been the case this season, there is nothing like a game against the Oilers to quell those losing skids. The Flames got on the board early, 3:45, and they were in full control. The Oilers did show a bit of life and at 12:25 of the period as Gagner scored a powerplay goal but that was it and the Flames took over big time and made sure to put an exclamation point on their losing streak.

The Flames piled on the pressure and you would never know that they were a team that had been suffering offensively as they fired 6 goal behind Devan Dubnyk. The Oilers looked like they were happy getting that tying goal and played embarrassing the rest of the way as they were totally outclassed. Unlike the Hawks on Tuesday, the Flames didn’t take their foot off the pedal and kept the pressure on the entire game. Miikka Kiprusoff outdueled Dubnyk and made 2 or 3 10 bell saves when the Oilers did have chances particularly a great glove save on Andrew Cogliano after he has split the Flames defense. It was a highlight of the Oilers game but the result was how things have gone for this team. Too many problems that need fixing. Flames end their losing streak at 9 and Jerome Iginla, who has had problems scoring during that time had 4 points. On the flip side, Dustin Penner was the only Oiler that was not a minus as he was even. But Penner was zeros in almost every other stat line which shows how he along with the team have stopped trying. The big offensive weapon had 0 shots and only 1 blocked attempt, no hits, no blocked shots, NO NOTHING.

I was asked why I keep watching the games when the Oilers stink to high heaven. I reply, I am a fan and I will always support the team. It doesn’t mean I won’t complain and take the losses as easily as the team obviously does. I complain about the way they are playing because I care; again something that the players obviously don’t. Besides, if the team actually wins a game again this season I want to be able to say I saw the streak end. At least before they start another one.

Technorati Tags: Edmonton Oilers – Oilers – Calgary Flames – St. Louis Blues – Blues – Flames – Chicago Blackhawks – Hawks – losing – embarrassment

It appears that many of the Blue and Copper faithful are feeling the same way. I usually follow Oilers tweets on Twitter during the games and it was pretty consensual tonight that most fans didn’t expect any difference. Many had similar reasons; others were just hoping the Oilers continue losing to get the best chance at the first pick this summer in the NHL entry draft.

If I remember correctly, there are 2 terms going around for this idea. The “Fall for Hall” was one and the other was the “Dive for a Top 5”. I think I like the “Fall for Hall” the best. If this is the way you are thinking right now then you will be happy to know that the Carolina Hurricanes won tonight leaving them only 2 points back of the Oilers for dead last in the league.

Do the Oilers have a chance now to make the playoffs this season?  As I said before, only if and when the sun starts rising in the west.

I did expect, at least, the Oilers to come out for the first 1 or 2 games and play like they had learned something in the mini-camp before they fell back into their old habits. It actually only took 5 minutes for those old habits to creep back into their game and by the 5:27 mark, 2 giveaways and some weak goaltending and they were down 2-0. That was pretty much it.

The team played scared again and looked exactly like the pre mini-camp team that had lost 11 of their last 12. The team didn’t play with the crust that was needed to win. In fact that is rather disturbing, Andrew Cogliano had 3 hits in the game, second only to Jean-Francois Jacques 6. The smallest player on the team out hit guys like Sheldon Souray, Shawn Horcoff, Ethan Moreau, Zach Stortini, Dustin Penner,  Ryan Stone, Ryan Potulny and others that are expected to lay on the body. Potulny can be forgiven though as he was busy taking care of the scoring side tonight. A pathetic display to say the least. The team needs to make it tough to play at Rexall Place but playing hockey with the contact of figure skating isn’t going to win many games.

The one interesting stat from the game was the faceoffs. The Oilers supposed best faceoff guy, Shawn Horcoff goes 10W and 20L for a 33% success rate. The rest of the team went 24W and 13L for a 65% success rate. Maybe it is time to start using some of the others in critical situations to see how they perform because Horcoff is obviously not doing what he was supposed to do best.

The Oilers also didn’t learn how to shoot during the mini-camp as they had another 25 shots blocked meaning they don’t pay attention to where they are shooting or don’t know how to change the shooting lane. They also missed 15 more shots. Had they been on target with all their shots they could have had 81 shots on net. Even still they had 41 shots on goal and still only scored 3 times. Lack of finishing, lack of bodies in front of the net. That’s how you only get 3 goals on 41 shots.

Leadership that is sadly lacking and questionable goaltending continue to haunt the team and something needs to be done here but that is another post (soon).

One of my favorite quotes on winning seems to be very fitting with this team.

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” ~ Vince Lombardi

Wow, did I have to put up with a brutal night last night. I am not sure which pain was worse. The pain that comes after the freezing wears off after having a wisdom tooth extracted and tooth next to it getting drilled and rebuilt or the pain of having to endure the Edmonton Oilers play their game against an equally inept Columbus Blue Jackets team.

Let’s face it. There are some serious issues with this version of the Edmonton Oilers. What team, (a) knowing their golfing weekend had been cancelled due to lack of effort, (b) having to deal with wives/girlfriends who were looking forward to going to warm California and are probably pissed at them, (c) wanting to prove that they were better than they had been playing and thus making the upcoming mini-camp a little easier on themselves, comes out against an equally bad team who hadn’t won on the road for 13 games and lays an egg like the Oilers did last night. I am sorry to say that the 4 day mini-camp that starts today is not going to make one bit of difference. They might (just might) win the first game or 2 afterwards but the last 37 games will be back to normal.

The team proved last night it doesn’t have the leadership to take this team forward. The leadership on this team clearly showed last night that they don’t have the heart, soul, want or desire to make this team better. Leaders, like Mark Messier, would take the team on his shoulders and show the rest of the team the want, desire and way they needed to play the game. He would also make that you followed his example or you paid the price. The Oilers get none of that from any of the guys who wear the “C” or the “A”. And, the guys not wearing those letters are either too small, too young and inexperienced or not talented enough to lead this team; at least at the present time.

So what did the team do last night besides lose the game 4-2. Did I mention that the Blue Jackets were on a 13 game road losing streak. It is the second time in a couple of weeks that the 15th place Oilers played the 14th place team and got their butts handed to them. The Oilers were outshot 29-26 and only blocked 6 shots compared to the Jacket’s 19. They had 11 giveaways and I am sure that was being generous. It is not hard getting outshot when the opposition blocks a third of your attempts (means the shooter isn’t paying attention to where they are shooting), miss the net with another third of their attempts leaving only one third of their shots hitting the target. Not acceptable and it won’t win you many games. The hits they made were half hearted and weren’t made to punish the opposition.

Is it possible that the Oilers had the right players before but just got rid of them for one reason or another. Columbus had 4 ex-Oilers in the line-up last night with three of them getting a point each and being a combined plus 2 and the other got the win in net. 2 of those players also combined for 10 blocked shots…4 more than the entire Oilers team.

So what is the mini-camp the next 4 days going to accomplish? At this point of the year does it matter? I am as big a fan as the next Oiler fan and it bugs me to see them lose but they are at a point now that maybe it is time to clean house. Get rid of players not performing, buy out contracts of those you can’t get rid of and look at how the rest of the players play as they earn jobs for next year. This will also give the coaching staff a better idea of what the young guys can do and where they fit into next years plans. A mini-camp at this time of the year is useless. If the players haven’t don’t know what to do by this point of the season then maybe they should be looking for new professions. If I went through the motions at my job for half a year I surely wouldn’t be employed. It is time to clean house on the Oiler team and build for the future. Putting a run together like they did a couple of years ago and missing the playoffs is the worse thing that could happen to this team long term. Most Oiler fans would be happy with finishing last if it meant getting a player to build this team around. It worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Black Hawks, why can’t it work for us?

Technorati Tags: Edmonton Oilers – Columbus Blue Jackets – NHL – National Hockey League – mini-camp – leadership – Oilers – losing