All We Need Is Just A Little Patience

Patience: the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance,misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.

It’s that time of the season where Oilers fans are losing their collective minds about the state of the team. I realize that we’ve been waiting for things to change for almost 10 years, and it seems like we’re never going to get out of this desert. These last two losses certainly have not helped the mood among fans, but I’d like to ask Oilers fans to have some patience.

As far as I can tell the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a train barreling toward us, but the sweet redemption of a not-so-distant Stanley Cup championship (well before the 2026-27 I predicted before the McDavid draft lottery).

Are the Oilers frustrating at times? Yes.

They scored 5 GOALS on Friday night, and lost 3-2 against the Lightning. It was definitely not the greatest result, and was sort of indicative of the last few years. Work reasonably hard, lose. Rinse. Repeat.

And then last night against Florida, they outshot the Panthers 25-14, scored 2 goals and STILL lost 2-1. (Taylor Hall scored a goal on a play that was later deemed to be offside. Coach’s challenges are the worst.)

It’s really unfortunate that there are so many people in the fanbase who can’t see that there is improvement. It’s unfortunate that they’re still at the bottom of the league, but things are better. They have more points at this point than they did last year, they have a couple guys scoring close to a point per game, and most of the time (barring some Jultzing or other terrible things), they’re fun to watch.

I think the thing that gets me is that the Oilers are over halfway into the season, and they haven’t played a game with a full lineup. Eberle missed the first 13 games, Schultz (say what you will about him) missed 14, McDavid has missed 30 (!), Klefbom has been out for the last 13….

This is a depleted lineup, and they can only get better once they get those guys back. (I know, I know. Patience.)

I realize it FEELS like it’s been an eternity since anything good has happened with this team, but I can feel the tide turning. Last night’s game was as good as a loss is going to get. There were a couple bone-headed plays (as there will be) and one goal that I’m sure Talbot would like to have back. But it was a lot of fun to watch. And maybe that’s not enough for some of you, but it’s good enough for me (right now).

I get the feeling that a lot of people expected that McDavid was going to be the magic balm that saved the team and their playoff hopes. I was never on that bus (thankfully). I’ve kept my expectations tempered because I couldn’t imagine putting those kind of expectations on an 18 year old. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled that the Oilers won the McDavid lottery, and that we somehow ended up with the best hockey player in the last 10 years on our roster (what? Crazy.), but without a few other pieces in place, I don’t think that the Oilers were going to be playoff ready this season. Maybe not next season either. But if by the last season of McDavid’s ELC the Oilers make the playoffs, I’m good with that. (And when future captain Taylor Hall hoists both the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe trophy in June of 2020, I’m going to say “I told you so”.)

Last night, after the Oilers loss, I was talking to a buddy of mine who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) recognize that the game wasn’t, in fact terrible. I got frustrated with him, and finally had this to say:

Just remember that they’re professional athletes and we’ve chosen to be fans. And if we’re upset that they’re bad, we should walk away. But if we don’t walk away, it doesn’t do anyone any good to keep seeing the negative in everything. Except for about 10 minutes, they played a hell of a game tonight. And moral victory or not, it was fun to watch. And if you can’t see that, or enjoy that, then I’m sad for you.

And that’s the key. This team, for better or for worse, is the team we’ve chosen. Are they hard to watch sometimes? Yes. Do I wish they’d win once in a while? Obviously. But are they as bad as they’ve been? Absolutely not.

They’re missing a few key pieces, and we know this. We’re not going to see a trade for a top-pair defenceman anytime soon, and we’re not going to win a Stanley Cup this year. But we’re getting better.

All we need is just a little patience.