Apathy

No one in Edmonton who had a set of reasonable expectations picked the Edmonton Oilers to make the NHL’s postseason this year, it just wasn’t meant to be. The team had a large hole to dig out of and had a ton of young players and question marks on it’s back end. There’s no real shame in that, the team had a long way to go and asking for that kind of turnaround was too hefty of an ask.

Most people who watch this team, myself included, had pegged the Oilers for improvement this season. Somewhere in the 80-85 point range and between 18th and 22nd in the league seemed both reasonable and appropriate for the group that Peter Chiarelli had put together. Progress, that is what we were looking for.

The hype of the summer and of training camp rubbed off very quickly, and for the third straight season the Edmonton Oilers are out of the playoff chase and completely irrelevant in the NHL by December 1st. Folks, that’s down right unacceptable. I’m feeling apathy towards this team right now, and I know for a fact that a lot of you are too.

“Progress”:

Is there ANY progress going on in Edmonton right now? Yes, actually there is. The team has a sound coach and a solid GM in place currently, a massive step forward from what was running the show a year ago at this time. The Oilers also have a franchise forward in Connor McDavid, and even though he isn’t in the lineup right now we know how good he is.

Taylor Hall is also an elite forward at the NHL level, and the team has a whole is playing a more structured game. Oh, and the Oilers have potentially four NHL defenders they can build with moving forward on their roster, an adequate core group if you will.

The Painfully Obvious Issues:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’m not sure exactly who said that quote, but it couldn’t be more real when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers. For the third year in a row, Edmonton’s goaltending has been a nightmare, although Anders Nilsson is doing his best to turn that around all on his own.

The team also has a number of players who clearly don’t fit the coach’s system. These players just don’t mesh with what the coach is trying to do and it hurts the entire roster. There are at least six guys in which this applies to. In connection with that, the Oilers are still a painfully soft hockey club. Justin Schultz is the poster child for this soft kind of play that has allowed Edmonton to get it’s teeth kicked in for a decade now.

Then there are players that are supposed to be big dogs who simply are not producing. The top two candidates? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. This isn’t saying these two need to go, but it’s saying they need to be better offensively. Both players were simply awful on the attack on this five game road trip.

The Effort Level:

On some nights, the Oilers lose while putting their best foot forward. I can’t be mad at them for losing in Washington last Monday night and it’s tough to fault them for their loss to Chicago two weeks ago at home. Other than that, this team still has a knack for simply not putting forth the kind of effort needed to win in the NHL.

In Carolina and in Toronto, two teams at the bottom of the NHL who should absolutely be beatable, Edmonton came out and laid an egg. The team was essentially dominated for sixty minutes in Carolina and they didn’t play good by any stretch in Toronto. For about 40 minutes in Detroit, that was the case too. Let’s not forget the first Washington game or the Halloween night debacle against Calgary.

The Oilers have only played sixty full minutes about three or four times this season and that, my friends, is an issue. I believe this is a result of a losing culture. The Edmonton Oilers certainly have one of those right now, it’s not even debatable.

This is the biggest task for Todd McLellan and Peter Chiarelli, breaking the cycle of losing in Edmonton. Unfortunately I believe that this culture has spread far too much and can only be killed with a shake up to the core. Yes folks, I’ve gotten to that point.

Standings Don’t Lie:

Peter Chiarelli hit the nail on the head on Saturday in Pittsburgh when talking about his team, saying “I’m disappointed” and “I thought we’d be better than we are right now.” Peter, I think everyone agrees with that sentiment who follows this team.

The Edmonton Oilers are worse off this season in the standings than they were a year ago. Edmonton is 30th, dead last in the entire league. They finished 28th last season and that was supposed to be the final trip bottom. Through 25 games this season, over a quarter of the season, they have found a way to sink to a new depth.

Remember when Shawn Horcoff talked about playing in meaningful games in March back in the fall of 2011? Well it’s four years later and the Oilers have failed to play meaningful games in that month. They are once again out of the playoff race and done with at the start of December. No matter which way you slice it, that is failure.

Again, I didn’t expect the playoffs, but being respectable and winning 30-35 games out of 82 shouldn’t have been asking too much. The Oilers are falling quite short of that goal right now. Again, Apathy.

Here’s What They Think About You:

If you think I’m some irrational and impatient fan (which is laughable after a decade but whatever) who is just mad his team is bad, let’s take a look at what other people think of the Oilers. Some of these people quoted are bloggers, some are media members and yes, one of them even plays in the NHL.

@grabs40: Congrats @GSparks40 ..what a first start #easygame

@bruce_arthur: Garret Sparks will tell his grandkids he got a shutout in his NHL debut. “Against who, grandpa?” they’ll say. “I can’t hear you,” he’ll say.

@DimFilipovic: I don’t get why everyone is making such a big deal out of Sparks’ performance tonight. We already knew he could handle AHL competition.

@simmonssteve: I don’t know what move Peter Chiarelli needs to make, but it’s clear he needs to do something in Edmonton. That team just doesn’t compete.

@mirtle: Edmonton’s getting the top pick again aren’t they?

You think the rest of the league respects this group? You think writers and bloggers respect the Edmonton Oilers from the outside? Think again folks, people look at this team as a joke and they haven’t earned anything other than that title. I don’t think people get how much that pains me to say, I really do love the Oilers, but they just haven’t earned any respect around the league and it’s absurdly frustrating.

Final Thoughts:

Watching Oiler games is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be a three hour release from real life to have some fun watching a sport we all love. Instead, it’s become a stressful event, one that has given me gray hairs at 21 years old and one that has made me utter more curses than you can imagine in the last ten years.

If the progress was so visible and apparent, if the team was at least winning some games and pushing up the standings, I’d be a lot more rosy than I am. The fact is that this team is still the soft old Oilers, and they are still in thirtieth place.

After ten years of losing there is really only one emotion that can be shown. It’s apathy.