How?

I had a post almost ready for the morning on goal tending and the team’s performance. It had been talked about elsewhere so I hadn’t quite decided which angle to focus on, but it was getting there. I’ve also been throwing around some more ideas about defending Petry. I’m not 100% sure which direction it should take either but I have some good thoughts, or at least what I think are good thoughts. After that I’m a little empty. Any guesses why?

Blogging should be fun. It’s a release from the daily grind. We do it because we love cheering for, discussing and arguing about our team. We like to explain our thoughts on why Luke Gazdic is good or bad for the team, why Dallas Eakins and Craig MacTavish have jobs or how they may be able to change their tactics to do their jobs better. We like to talk about how we, as individual fans, define what makes a good team tick. How we asses and measure it. We’re fans. That’s what fans do. But after a game like that what can a fan do? An 8-1 embarrassment, even though Taylor Hall says they shouldn’t be embarrassed, against THAT team (a team that a fan base can be proud of) after seasons of embarrassment and a never ending stretch of new lows. How can any fan muster any desire to do any of what fans do?

How?

I’m not sure which direction they should go from here. It is absolutely a never ending set of Scooby-Doo fun house stairs that keep disappearing from beneath their feet. Every next unknown step they take possibly being the one that sends them tumbling back towards the bottom. Should Dallas Eakins lose his job? In other cities he’d probably be out by now. MacTavish? Maybe yes, maybe no. Kevin Lowe? *SMH* How does he still have a job at this point? What about Hall, Eberle, Hopkins, Gagner, Ference, etc, etc; The group of players within that room that we assume are the “leaders” or share some of the responsibility? How much longer should fans wait for them to lead? The same canned answers come out after every game. Compete blah, commit, blah, need a 60 minute effort, blah. Just do everyone a favour and give an honest human answer. Say you’re embarrassed and pissed off and don’t know how much more losing you can handle. You MUST be thinking it, right? WE all are.

Katz. Great job. You’ve assembled one hot mess of sanctimonious “Here Comes the Oilers” crap. Your business acumen is undoubtedly, completely, in pharmaceutical chains and massive real estate deals. You obviously know jack about running a winning NHL franchise.

What else can I/we say? I am utterly disappointed, full stop. You, the Edmonton Oilers, are letting your fans down and it is embarrassing to be one of those fans. I hope you figure it out before you lose too many of us for good.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to yell at me on twitter, @borisnikov.