An Open Letter To The Edmonton Oilers

Dear Edmonton Oilers,

For the last eight seasons, I’ve paid a lot of money to see you. I’ve gone to see you live, I’ve traveled to see you live. I buy your jerseys, hats, t-shirts, you name it, I’ve bought it. I pay out of my pocket each year to watch you online, and I give up countless hours of sleep to watch you out here on the east coast. I’ve taken a lot of verbal beatings for you from people out here too, but I’ve worn your colors proudly for a number of years.

I’m not alone either. There are so many fans, great fans, that care about this team and will keep coming back and supporting their team, our team. Year after year we hope that this is it, the time when all of our pain and suffering will be worth it, and you will finally reward us by turning a corner. Last year we thought it was it. This year? Well this year we were convinced it was it.

In both cases, you hit rock bottom. This year you are only one win better than last year, which quite frankly is unacceptable, and actually downright embarrassing. You’ve promised change, and while you did tweak with your roster this summer, it just wasn’t enough. We knew it, and you knew it too. You’re course of action? Sitting on your hands and praying that everything would go right.

We tried to warn you, and we hate to say it, but we were right. Not only did everything not go right, but you can argue everything has went wrong for this hockey club. That goaltending we all thought was improved? That’s not the case. Viktor Fasth can’t stop a beach ball, and Ben Scrivens has been the definition of up and down.

That improved defense? On paper it is, but you still use Justin Schultz the most and your best defenders, Fayne and Petry, the least. I don’t care what your depth chart is, you’ll fail every time deploying your team that way. Up front, yes you fixed the wings, but you blatantly left your center position weaker than the year before, which was arguably the weakest it had ever been.

You can fire another coach, go ahead. Sure, Eakins hasn’t been very good, he might not be the right guy, but it’s not all his fault. As a GM, you have done some good things Mr. MacTavish, but have left big holes open each and every year, holes that we all knew would sink your roster before the year even began. If we can see it, I’d imagine you can too. The fact these weren’t filled says it all.

Mr. Katz, I’ve attacked you already, and I’m coming back for more. Since you have taken over this hockey club, it has been nothing short of a joke. It has been the worst NHL team in terms of winning percentage, and has been the worst in terms of entertainment when watching games. It’s boring and losing hockey. That’s a terrible product, that is YOUR product.

You have run this team into the ground, and turned it into an embarrassment, a laughing stock. The Oilers are nothing but the butt end of people’s jokes at this point, and quite frankly I am sick of it, and I know I am not alone.

The term “controlled rebuild” has been tossed around quite a bit these last few days in the blogging community. A controlled rebuild in which the Oilers have the assets to turn north, but just don’t have the urgency to do so. Sadly, I’m starting to think that this is true, that the organization is trying to tank this thing. That makes me sick, and that is totally unacceptable to this hockey fan.

The signs are there, and the signs are blatant. Mr. Katz, it’s become highly apparent to myself and those who watch that you simply do not care about this hockey team. As long as you get your new arena, and your pockets are lined with cash, you have nothing to stress over, nothing to care about. I guess I understand, why bother fixing something if you are already making a disgusting amount of money off of it?

Do it for us, do it for the fans, do it for the pride dammit. This fanbase, that city, none of us deserve this. Cut the crap and demand that the people you have hired give you a hockey team that can compete and earn respect around the league. You don’t have that right now, and it’s sad.

You aren’t the only one that doesn’t care it seems. There are a lot of players on this hockey club that you can tell don’t give a crap whether or not this team wins or loses. That is unacceptable. I don’t care how good they are, I want them gone. If you don’t care, then I don’t want you wearing that sacred jersey, those colors, that logo. It’s a privilege, not a right.

On Thursday night in Boston, once again I’ll be attending one of your games. Look for me, I’ll be the one wearing a big brown bag on my head.

So go ahead, fire another coach, make another trade for a useless fighter to bring the “character level” up on this hockey team. Pretend like you are doing something Mr. Katz, Mr. Lowe and Mr. MacTavish.

Remember you told us all you knew a thing or two about winning? Yeah, it might be time to pull that thing or two out of your sleeves and use them, because this has gotten beyond embarrassing, it’s become petty.

I challenge you, we as fans challenge you. Do something, try to save this season, our pride, our sports watching sanity.

Signed,

Edmonton Oilers fans

Updates: Dave Gordon posted a retort to my article here