The Problem With Poo

In my last article I talked about the Oilers, their fans and their goats. I asked that maybe we as fans try and take it easy on the players because, you know, we’re having a somewhat successful season and the real bottom line is that this team sits in a playoff spot at the beginning of December. But then I remembered how dissapointed I am by the play of one Benoit Pouliot, or more affectionately known as Poo. I might be the only one that refers to him that way, but hey…..

So anyway, Pouliot has been playing poorly this whole season. So poorly in fact he’s found himself both stapled to the end of the bench and glued to the press box multiple times this season. The previous two seasons with the Oilers have seen some pretty good numbers offensively, and if you follow the advanced statistics those haven’t been bad either. The big problem for Pouliot as an Oiler hasn’t so much been production but staying healthy, playing just 58 and 55 games in his last two seasons in the Blue and Orange.

Something that I’ve always kept in the back of my mind with regards to the big left winger is that he’s a 4th overall selection from his draft year but is on his 7th, yes 7th NHL team. That should be a sign of what his previous GM’s thought of him. Very rarely do you see a player of that draft pedigree move around to so many teams in such a short period. It appears he’s been given up on numerous times.

Minnesota, Montreal, Boston, New York and now maybe Edmonton have all tried to see if he can reach his potential, and I’m afraid we’ve already seen it. It’s highly likely that Pouliot has peaked and his current production numbers might be the new normal. His desire to take penalties at the worst times in the worst areas of the ice has been know for quite some time.

Currently he is on pace for less than 20 points this season, which would actually come far under his average of right around 30 points per season. As a player that is supposed to be slated at the number two left winger his performance just isn’t good enough. We need to see more from this player for the Oilers to have a chance of consistent success. The lack of secondary scoring is a big concern right now for this team and there are no adequate replacements for Pouliot anywhere in the system.

That is another concern, because trading Pouliot right now is probably not in the cards for GM Peter Chiarelli. Poo’s value is to low to garner any sort of return that would bring help or even a similar styled player. The only thing that can help Pouliot this season, and for the rest of his career is Pouliot. If he can stay healthy, if he can gain some consistency than I’ll be happy, you’ll be happy, the coach will be happy and more importantly a consistently producing 2nd line left winger will mean the team is spreading out their scoring and still winning games.

If Pouliot doesn’t turn it around soon than I hope Coach McLellan won’t be afraid to keep him sitting on popcorn row. The team needs some scoring from players not named McDavid and if Pouliot can’t get it done than find someone to fit in the line-up that can. It’s a big task but I think he can do it. Let’s face it, the Oilers need him and the rest of the top 9 forwards to be as good as they can be game in and game out. For any chance of play-off success they’ll need the whole team, Poo included. Connor can’t do it all.

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