The coaching staff worked the team’s asses off in practice on Sunday. According to reports it was as close to a bag-skate as you could get. Did it work? At least in the short term it appears so.

The team was home to the San Jose Sharks on Monday night and came up with a great effort. It ended with a 2-1 shootout victory. The team played hard and worked hard. They still made mistakes but like in October, they got the goaltending to bail them out. Devan Dubnyk has not been the “goalie of the future” that the organization thought he would be. Monday night was hopefully the start of him playing like he is. He was spectacular in making 44 saves in regulation and another 3 on 4 attempts in the shootout. This was a game that both he and the Oilers needed. It was a game that the officials let the teams play, except for one glaring error, and it was a fun game to watch. The only call by the zebras that was questionable was the 5 minute kneeing penalty to Ales Hemsky along with the game misconduct to go with it. Intent to injure? First off, how can anyone determine intent unless they can read minds. 2 minutes for tripping I could live with but a major was over the top. Second, it is Ales Hemsky. The same player who hasn’t shown much of anything this year and is hardly known as a dirty player.

We had a bit of discussion on Twitter about that call with @SportsnetSpec responding to my question about knowing the intent of a player with: “How do we think we know when hits are intentional or not? And, why should that matter?”  @Magisterrex responded to that with “Uh…because it’s Ales Hemsky? Not exactly Andy Sutton-like.” We all know that Hemsky’s only intent on the ice is to score goals. Injuring another player isn’t in his make-up.

The Oilers then flew to Vancouver for a Tuesday night tilt with the Canucks. This was a game many expected the Oilers to be blown out of. What with the game Saturday, bag-skate practice on Sunday and the game Monday. We were to be surprised again. Another great effort by the team and another game taken to the shootout. Unfortunately the Oil dropped this one 3-2 but 3 points out of 4 against 2 very good teams was not something most were thinking about after that game Saturday but it was definitely a good 2 games. Again, the zebras let the teams play the game and there were only 3 penalties called. Devan Dubnyk got the call again and again was fantastic. This was the first time in his NHL career that he had played back to back games and made a statement to be the guy the team relies on over the course of the last 33 games.

I think that most of us are looking forward to those last 33 games if we get the same kind of effort we got Monday/Tuesday. I think we will all be wearing bags on heads if we get the same effort that we got against the Flames. The Oilers currently sit 29th in the league with a 9 point lead on last place Columbus Blue Jackets. If the Oilers do manage to finish the season in 30th, then everyone will be demanding heads on a silver platter. Looking forward in the standings they clearly have 6 teams within 6 points and could easily finishe 23rd. I personally would be happy with great a great effort by the players but for one last time I would be happy with them finishing 28th or 29th. ONE LAST TIME!! This will allow them to draft that stud defenseman that every team needs. They currently have some good prospects but no one who will be that play every situation and soak up the minutes that the stud defensemen do.

So here’s to a good last 33 games. A good honest effort every (most nights) and some team chemistry being fully developed. Here’s to Devan Dubnyk putting the stamp on the starting job for next season and here’s to one last top draft pick to finish off the drafting part of the rebuild.

The team then came out with a better effort against the St. Louis Blues and although they failed to show up for the first period, being outshot 19-4, they played a solid last 40 minutes and lost 1-0 with the Blues scoring with under 6 minutes to go.

They followed up that decent performance with another debacle last night against the Calgary Flames. The game was a joke and it was the 9th straight victory for the Flames over the Oilers in the Battle of Alberta. The Battle of Alberta has been hardly a battle the last several years and has become a game where those Flame’s players who are having scoring problems break out of slumps.

The Oilers, for the most part, seem to be playing good for a game and then bad for 1 or 2 before the compete level shows up again for a game. So where does the team go from here for the remainder of the season?

This team started the season with the goal of playing meaningful games in March and April and here we are, a week before the All-Star break, and chance of playing meaningful games in March and April have all but evaporated. Unless of course meaningful meant fighting to stay out of 30th place but seeing how they played last night, they appear to have a good shot at a 3rd straight last place finish.

We know that a rebuild takes some time…in fact the Pittsburgh Penguins had the first or second pick for 4 straight years in order to build their championship team. Chicago Blackhawks also had some top picks for many years to build their championship team. But I don’t ever remember those teams lacking the compete level that many on this Oiler team has shown.

It is now assumed that the Oilers will become sellers over the next month before the trade deadline. Selling deadwood for value is going to be tough to do.

An even bigger question is who is going to be doing the selling? Is Steve Tambellini going to be the man in charge of any deals? Tambellini is out of a contract at the end of the season and you would think that if he was going to return as the GM of the team, he would have received a contract extension by now. If he isn’t going to return, then why would you let him be in charge of doing deals for a future he won’t be involved in? The team ownership and high level executives (Darryl Katz and Kevin Lowe) need to make a decision by the end of the All-Star break. If Tambellini is sticking around, then give him a contract extension and let him go to work swinging some deals to get rid of deadwood and get some draft picks in return. If he isn’t going to be around, then you better fire him now and get a GM in place who can start putting his stamp on the team with trade deadline deals.

The coaching staff is also out of contracts at the end of the season but not renewing their status is expected until the GM position is solidified. The GM is the man who hires and fires the coaches and each GM has their own favourite coaches and style of coaches and if Steve Tambellini doesn’t have his contract renewed you don’t want to saddle a new GM with old coaches who may not fit his philosophy.

The Oilers need to decide NOW the direction they are going with the GM and get on with the job of continuing the rebuild. Get rid of the deadwood and heartless players who are taking up positions on the bench and either bring up some kids who want to play and learn the game or bring in players with real heart. Ryan Smyth is a good example of this and while age is catching up to his play, his heart is always in the game. As a youngster, Taylor Hall also shows the kind of heart and desire needed to be successful. We need more of that passion and less of the Hemsky style of passion (or lack thereof).

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When things go wrong, you’ll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better. – C. S. Lewis

This is the only way that fans can look at the Edmonton Oilers season right now. Last night against the Dallas Stars was again a shining example of how those things that can go wrong, just continue to go wrong.

The Oilers started the game desperately trying to hand the game to the Stars. With 4 penalties in the first 11 minutes it appeared that the team was just going to play a lazy game and lie down and play dead. For the second straight game, they gave their opposition a 5 on 3 power play by taking 2 penalties at the same time. On this night it was again 2 veterans with Horcoff and Pisani both getting nailed. Again this was untimely as it was only 41 seconds after the Stars had scored to take a 1-0 lead. With the Oilers having the 29th ranked penalty killing unit you expected the Stars to make it 2-0 quickly. On this night, however, it was not the Sedin twins on the ice and the Oilers were able to kill that off. What did they do to celebrate this kill? Less than a minute after the brilliant kill Sam Gagner took a holding penalty and were again able to kill that off. With 6 seconds left in that penalty they Patrick O’Sullivan was pegged for unsportsmanlike conduct and with the team shorthanded for almost 6 consecutive minutes, the Stars finally solved the Oilers PK and made it 2-0. The shots at this time were 17-2 for the Stars and it looked like this was going to be Monday all over again.

The Stars did their best though to throw the Oilers a bone and 14 seconds after their second goal, they gave the Oilers a power play of their own with Kris Barch being caught for holding. Ryan Potulny only took 25 seconds to narrow the gap to 2-1. By the end of the period the Oilers had managed to narrow the shots gap to 18-11.

The second period was a better period for the Oilers as they controlled most of the play and ended the period outshooting Dallas 14-5. Dallas scored first in the period against the run of play with Taylor Chorney pinching at the Dallas line and getting caught. Jamie Benn finished the 2 on 1 we a perfect shot to beat Devan Dubnyk who was making his second straight start for the Oilers. Edmonton’s dominant play finally paid off with 19 seconds left in the period as Sam Gagner found the twine and again narrowed the score to a 1 goal game.

The third period was again a good period for the home team and they should have faired better at least had a few more power plays but the referee’s (Wes McCauley and Justin St. Pierre) swallowed or lost their whistles and allowed several plays, that were far worse and more blatant than some of the calls made in the first period, go unpunished. It just so happened that most of those blown calls would have gone in Edmonton’s favor. Finally, with Dubnyk on the bench in favor of the extra attacker, Sam Gagner scored his second goal of the game. 1:02 to go and it looked certain that the Oilers hard work was at least going to get them to overtime and get them a point. It would have made sense considering the first 2 games between the teams this season had gone to the shoot-out.

Unfortunately for the Oilers, a late minute brain freeze cost them the game. It was that situation that when things go bad they just continue to go bad. Jason Strudwick fell to the one side of the net while covering Brad Richards which allowed a wide open James Neal to pot the winner. 23 seconds left and the Oilers were again down and had lost the game in the final minute once more. The Oilers did make it close in the final 10 seconds but Marty Turco was able to shut the door and hold on for victory.

Another hard effort by the Oilers that probably deserved a better fate but again it was an L beside their name on the game sheet. Again, Devan Dubnyk was in line to maybe pick up his first victory but again the Fickle Finger of Fate was shown to him and he added another loss to his stat line. 

Technorati Tags: Edmonton Oilers – Oilers – Dallas Stars – Stars – National Hockey League – NHL – Rexall Place – fate – things go wrong

The Edmonton Oilers played possibly their best game in months yet they still managed to lose the game. They outplayed the opposition almost to a man, they out shot them, they out hit them, blocked over 3 times more shots, and even had less giveaways yet they still lost the game. There was 2 places they didn’t outplay the Canucks and in the end, those 2 facets of the game ended up costing them the game.

5 on 5 the Oilers were a far better team than Vancouver. But one of the major achilles heels of this team was blown out of the water. The Sedin twins were almost non-existent for most of the game however they were busy strutting their stuff during the power play. A power play that was 3 for 4 and only spent a total of 3:27 on those man advantage situations. Between them the Sedin’s picked up 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points.

The first goal was the result of a weak Stortini penalty and the second goal, with only 4:06 to play and the Oilers hanging to a 2-1 lead, was the result of a lazy, weak, stupid, selfish (you can continue to add adjectives here) penalty by Andrew Cogliano. The third was a gift given to them by brutal officiating by referee Kyle Rehman. On a call that was clearly a dive, Oiler’s Denis Grebeshkov was called for hooking and the twins made the abysmal Oiler penalty kill pay. No wonder this team is 29th on the PK after a performance like that.

Unfortunately the penalty kill overshadowed a rather spirited and gritty performance by a team that forgot to show up Monday in Denver. It also wasted the best performance of young goalie Devan Dubnyk’s career. Unfortunately for Dubnyk he is still winless in his young NHL career. In fact he played equal to probably the second best goalie in the world in Roberto Luongo.

The Oilers again failed miserably in the face off circle only winning 42% but to make things worse, they only won 38% of the face offs while short handed. Pretty hard to kill penalties when you can’t win a face off and be able to control the play.

With Carolina winning tonight the Oilers find themselves only 1 point out of last in the league. With Dallas and Chicago up next it doesn’t get any easier. It looks like that maybe the February 1st meeting with the Hurricanes could be the battle for last place. 9 losses in a row and in a free for all fall, we are looking at the possibility that this version of the team could break 3 records in one season, something that hasn’t  happened in a long time. The team has already set a record for the longest winning streak on the road with 5 games. Now they are working on the longest losing streak and lowest number of points in a season. 33 more games to go; at least we have the Olympics to look forward to in the middle of that stretch.

Francis Bacon had a quote that will fit perfectly with the rest of the Oilers season:

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

Technorati Tags: Edmonton Oilers – Oilers – Vancouver Canucks – Canucks – National Hockey League – NHL – Murphy’s Law

I have watched the Oilers since the beginning of the WHA days and this was one of the worst games I can remember in a very long time. This made 8 straight losses and 15 times in the last 16 games. We all know, and the team knows that their playoff hopes are totally gone but the least they can do is try or give the semblance of try when they step on the ice.

Again, the leadership on this team must come into question. The leaders on this team are obviously ok with losing and unfortunately they are dragging the young guys down that rutted road of no return. This team brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from the legendary Vince Lombardi:

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.

This team has obviously gotten into the habit of losing and the leadership of this team seems to be quite happy with this. How could things have gotten this bad? I believe that the leadership of this team started to try and take control of the team when Craig MacTavish was coach and I don’t think things are any different now. The leadership wants to control the team and don’t want to do anything other than their way.

The penalties in the game were all of the lazy variety. The forwards didn’t come back very hard to protect their own zone and when they did they didn’t seem to know what they were supposed to be doing. The defense was equally inept in their own zone and had no idea what was going on. Jeff Deslauriers didn’t have a particularly strong game either in net but when you are hung out to dry all night it would have taken a miracle anyway.

Captain (and I use the term loosely) took an absolutely brutal penalty in the first period to give the Avalanche a 5 on 3 and Pat Quinn pretty much stapled him to the bench in the third period giving him only 2:35 of ice time which was less than every other player on the team.

This was an embarrassment to the proud tradition of the Edmonton Oilers and the 20 guys who are dressing every game had better put out even if it doesn’t result in a win. I am sure at this point of the season that all the fans want to see is effort. The wins are only a bonus at this place and time in the season but effort is a necessity. This reminds me of one final Vince Lombardi quote:

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

The Edmonton Oilers are no longer working hard and have obviously surrendered.

Technorati Tags: Edmonton Oilers – Oilers – Colorado Avalanche – Avs – National Hockey League – NHL – Vince Lombardi – embarrassment

The Oilers have shown over the first 46 games that their line-up and team make-up is filled with weaknesses. If only took the San Jose Sharks 3:51 to expose one of them. That dreaded weak goal. Patrick Marleau was given credit for the goal as his centering pass from the corner hit Oiler’s starting goaltender Devan Dubnyk’s stick and deflected through his legs and into the net. Definitely not the kind of gift that the league’s top line needs and not the way the Oilers need to start a game.

The Oilers did have a bit of life though and were able to tie the game briefly with 16 minutes gone in the period as some hard work down low by Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner lead to a great cross ice pass from Gagner that found the stick of a pinching Denis Grebeshkov who made no mistake beating Shark’s starter Thomas Greiss who was making his 7th start of the season.

That was as close as the Oilers would get though as another of their nemisis bit them less than 3 minutes later. Dustin Penner was nailed for a high sticking call out near center ice. It was one of those lazy, unnecessary penalties that ultimately seems to cost the Oilers and it took the Sharks only 54 seconds to find the twine as Devin Setoguchi gave them the lead for good. Outshot 16-6 in the period the Oilers were lucky to get out only down by 1but some good goaltending by the rookie Dubnyk kept the Sharks circling but not biting.

The Sharks took that final bite out of the Copper and Blue only 22 seconds into the second period as Setoguchi scored his second of the game and it was going to take a miracle for the Oilers to close that wound and win the game. That miracle was not going to happen. In fact that would have been a miracle of huge proportions as the team has had a rough enough time as it is and with the flu bug again hitting the team taking Gilbert Brule out for his second straight game and Fernando Pisani who had just come back from his latest bout with his ulcerative colitus. Ryan Stone also missed the game with his knee bothering him to the point the pain was to much to endure.

Joe Thornton closed the scoring for the Sharks with less than 5 minutes to play in the middle frame with one of the nicest plays you will see as the Sharks passed the puck around quickly with the final cross ice pass finding Thornton for a tap in.

The one positive for the Oilers on this day was that they finally scored a short handed goal. Half way through the third period, with Sam Gagner sitting in the sin bin for hooking, Patrick O’Sullivan blocked a pass in the Oiler zone and went coast to coast beating Greiss for his 10 goal of the season and the Oilers first shorty. It was little consolation with the final score ending up 4-2.

The Oilers were outshot 36-29 in the game. The one stat that really sticks out for me though was that the team only won 30% of the face offs. You are not going to win many games with that kind of win rate. In fact, most games will be a lot worse than this one with that kind of performance at the dot. Shawn Horcoff continued his brutal play and for his multi million dollar contract the Oilers got 18% success rate in the area of his game he is supposed to be strong in. 3 wins and 14 losses. I guess at least that since he was 0 +/- in the game he didn’t increase his lead at the bottom of the leagues plus/minus stat. The team as a whole did a decent job against the top team as they were dishing out the hits, blocking a good number of shots and kept the number of turnovers down, but in the end, a few weak points and a far inferior skill set lost this game.

The first period tonight had to be one of the most boring periods of hockey I have seen in a while. There were only 7 total shots (4 by the Oilers) and no goal and very little in the way of action. Other than some good work by Robert Nilsson and Andrew Cogliano and a great hit late in the period by Dustin Penner it was booooorrrrring hockey.

The one thing I was impressed with in the first period was the defensive work (yes, defensive) by Robert Nilsson especially in taking the puck away from a much larger Michael Rupp in the defensive zone. The Oilers did some good work and ended the period getting a 5 on 3 powerplay as the Pittsburgh Penguins were guilty of taking 2 penalties at the same time with 12 seconds left. The Penguins played the period like they thought this game was going to be a gimmie.

The second period started on the 5 on 3 powerplay and finally with 14 seconds left, Cogliano was able to pop his own rebound into the net after a great save by Marc-Andre Fleury. If I remember correctly, that was the first PP goal for the Oilers at 5 on 3 this year. If it wasn’t then it was a really long time ago. Speaking of a really long time ago, that was the first goal for Cogliano in 28 or 29 games. He has had the jump lately but just hasn’t had the scoring luck.

The second game then went back into booorrring mode for a while with neither team doing a lot of anything. Half way through the second the Penguins Rupp was nailed for a penalty (stupid offensive zone Oilers type) and again the Oilers scored with Lubomir Visnovsky finding the twine with a point shot after Patrick O’Sullivan had hit the crossbar but followed up and passed the puck to the point for the shot.

The Penguins got their first chance on a powerplay 2 minutes after that goal. Ranked 29th in the league on the powerplay is really hard to fathom with the fire power this team has but watching them it is easy to see why. Other than a breakaway from Bill Guerin the Penguins did very little and most of them were standing around. I don’t care how talented you are but if you are going to stand around then nothing is going to happen. 

With 25 seconds left in the period Robert Nilsson took the puck away from a Penguin just inside the blue line and he drove the net 2 on 1 with Cogliano and made the deke which Fluery saved. In the process, Nilsson was bumped a little by Evgeny Malkin and he embellished it a bit as he drove over Fleury. Fleury took exception to the collision and immediately pounced on Nilsson leading to a small melee in the net and both Nilsson and Fleury with minor penalties. After the really boring first period the second period had 32 shots with 18 of those by the Oilers. That was probably one of the better periods of play by the Oilers since their 5 game winning streak in early December. I was also reminded that during the Penguins last game in Edmonton in December, 2007 the Oilers were leading 2-0 after 2 periods and ended up losing 4-2. Not again right?

The third period started with a couple of Oiler type giveaways by the Pens resulting in breakaway chances by Penner then Pisani. Fleury with 2 pretty good saves on both chances. The Penguins then started to look like they might get interested in playing and with just over 3 minutes gone the Oilers goaltending bug bit them. After 2 good periods, Devan Dubnyk allowed that weak goal at the wrong time that has plagued the team all season long. The old softie under the arm on the short side by Tyler Kennedy. 2 minutes later it was Ryan Stone taking one of the Oilers trademark weak-assed lazy penalties to give the surging Penguins their second powerplay of the game.

And for the upteenth time this season that dreadful penalty cost them. This time it was Matt Cooke who punished Stone for his stupidity. The Pens had probably played hockey for 5 minutes in the game to this point and they were tied at 2. The Oilers continued their “Fall for Hall” as again the defensive zone coverage was dreadful as Smid, Visnovsky and Cogliano are all beaten to the puck and with Ethan Moreau out picking his nose in no man’s land in the slot and no Pen within 15 feet of him, Jordan Staal’s centering pass deflects off Pascal Dupuis’ knee and behind Dubnyk. Last time these teams met in Edmonton it was Sidney Crosby with 3 points in the third period. Tonight it was Jordan Staal’s turn to pull the feat. 3-2 was the final score with Crosby and Malkin going pointless.

So, why did the Oilers lose again? This team has 4 or 5 (ok maybe 10 or 12) things that cost them every game and tonight was no different. While Pittsburgh was getting NHL calibre goaltending from Fleury, the Oilers were giving up the weak goal at the wrong time of the game. While Fleury was making 2 breakaway saves early in the third to keep his team in the game, Dubnyk was allowing the softie to let the Pens back in. I know he is a rookie but with both him and Deslauriers fighting to keep a job with the Oilers next year, you have to be better than that.

Then it was the penalty that killed the game. Ryan Stone started the season as one of the Oilers better players but since he was injured he has been average at best. Tonight he sunk himself officially into the doghouse as he took that lazy penalty that the Oilers weren’t able to kill off (as is the case with most of those lazy penalties) and that tied the game. The Oilers then failed to win the puck on a dump and chase in their own zone and that too ended up in the net. Captain Ethan was on the ice for less than a dozen minutes tonight, ended up –2 and had zeros in every other stat line. No hits, no blocked shots, no shots…nothing. Good job again leading by example.

I guess the one positive to come out of the game was that the lose helped take them further behind 28th place Toronto as the Leafs won tonight. The “Fall for Hall” is still working in the Oilers favor but as is normal with the team they will either not get the first pick or will go “off the board” with their first overall pick if they do get it.

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

After the 4 day mini-camp what are the Oilers left with? The same players who for the most part have lots of try but lack the heart and desire to do the things necessary to win. They are left with the same leadership group that for the most part have been non-existent and a waste of salary. Leadership that takes stupid, lazy penalties. Leadership that doesn’t show the heart and soul of a true Oiler’s leader.

This 4 day exercise may in fact make them a better team defensively. Although with only 3 teams giving up more goals there isn’t many places to go but up.

It may make their pathetic special teams tolerable. The powerplay sits 17th in the league with a success rate of 17.9%. Not bad but good teams are usually in the top half of the league. The penalty killing is a woeful 28th at 76.1% efficiency. It is also the only PK unit that has not scored a short handed goal.

A team that Pat Quinn wanted to see play with more crust is either 27th or 4th in the league with 38 major penalties so the guys are showing a bit of feistiness but I think most of those majors come when the team is losing (which is most of the time) and the guys are frustrated.

Unfortunately we may see the positive result of the first game tonight and maybe even the second game against Kid Sid on Thursday but it probably won’t take them long to slide back to the way things have been. Until the leadership of the team either steps up to lead by example or is replaced or the Oilers start receiving NHL calibre goaltending the last 38 games are going to be as hard to watch as the first 44.

As a fan I will continue to watch and cheer. I guess on the bright side, the mini-camp did give us one thing. The Oilers haven’t lost a game in 5 days and that is something that hasn’t happened since the first week of December.

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?

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