The Edmonton Oilers announced a press conference last night to discuss their recent performances. This press conference ended up being less about the Edmonton Oilers, and more about general manager Craig MacTavish.
It has been a running joke each year to wonder exactly when the Edmonton Oilers would finally break out of a perpetual state of failure, and finally move into becoming a competitive powerhouse in the west. It used to be fine for fans to wait for guaranteed stars like Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov to develop. This year it isn’t so fine, when in the same province, reside the Calgary Flames. The Flames were supposed to be just beginning their rebuild. They currently sit only one point from the top of the Western conference, and 21 points ahead of Edmonton. Six players on the Flames currently have more points than any Oilers player, including 4th round picks Johnny Gaudreau and TJ Brodie. When your neighboring rivals have fourth rounders outpacing your first overall gems, patience expires.
It has become a running theme for fans to toss their Edmonton Oilers sweaters onto the ice, a gesture that infuriates the franchise. For the players themselves, perhaps it’s because they can’t do the same. Management may refuse to.
Speculation for the press conference was that it would likely be an announcement that changes would be made. Questions would be answered. MacTavish might step down. He might fire head coach Dallas Eakins. Oilers fans were screaming, “Do something, anything!” Trade Perron. Trade Eberle. Instead, they ended up learning only two things: Oilers’ own Daryl Katz is “just as angry as the fans”, and Craig MacTavish isn’t responsible.
The Word of the Day: Scrutiny
The key word that kept coming up by MacTavish amidst his stuttering, sweating, and complete and utter nervousness, was “scrutiny”. The players were under scrutiny. Coaching was under scrutiny. Management was under scrutiny. Lots and lots of scrutiny. Bottles of it, even! If Brian Burke sells Truculence© by the box, MacTavish was trying to ship Scrutiny© by the pallet. He wanted to make it clear to the fans (that have been under attack for showing anger and disappointment at close to a decade of failure) that there was heavy scrutiny for all decisions made. But not so much his.
Craig MacTavish is fighting for his career.
MacTavish presents the first batch of Scrutiny© for the players, who have been through a carousel of coaches with the same results. The general manager wants to defend the players without throwing them under the bus. He wants to make it clear that their slow development (he admitted to underestimating how long it would take for them to become “top-flight players”) isn’t a condemnation needed to trade them. That said, there’s some “big bodied players” in Oklahoma who could be coming to take their jobs. They’re just not ready. Maybe MacTavish should see if he plugged in the oven down there in Oklahoma.
The next batch of Scrutiny© was for Dallas Eakins, who he defended, based on the coach carousel, and that the players are getting the same message every time, but not listening. At the same time, Oilers captain Andrew Ference was right in calling the locker room out… but he doesn’t know how it could be changed. I guess that’s a job for somebody else. He concluded the conference, proclaiming that it doesn’t end with the coaching staff. One has to wonder, where does it start?
What about the drafting, that has only produced first rounders for the most part? MacTavish agrees in the Scrutiny© for that… except it only extends to the time that he wasn’t general manager. Now they pay attention to analytics, scout local, do more tests, and communicate more with their scouts! Meaning, only judge the job based on how long he has been there. The GM pointed out that they didn’t have a second round pick in 2013 due to having traded it (for lesser picks in the third and fourth round), so everyone just needs to sit tight, be patient, and see how drafting is now. I guess that was Scrutiny© Lite.
The final bottle of Scrutiny© was for pro scouting, but that wasn’t really a bottle Craig MacTavish was selling. It was a bottle being sold for him. MacTavish struggled to explain that Nikita Nikitin was an “NHL defenceman”, and that pro scouting has been better… since he got there. I suppose we should call that Scrutiny© Zero. It was interesting that, oft-rumoured-to-be-traded David Perron was not mentioned in defense of his pro scouting, neither was Teddy Purcell, nor Viktor Fasth. When asked about the decision to go with only two NHL centers, MacTavish said his hands were tied. The deal wasn’t there to be made. This said after trading away NHL center Sam Gagner, and watching the Nashville Predators sign three NHL centers in Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy, and Olli Jokinen.
Tier One: Patience for the Oilers. Tier Two: Patience for MacTavish
This press conference wasn’t about explaining the woes of the Edmonton Oilers for the past eight seasons. It wasn’t about defending the decisions of Kevin Lowe, who worked as general manager from 2000 to 2008, only to move up to president of hockey operations for a job well burned. It wasn’t about defending head coach Dallas Eakins, though he did try to deflect blame. It was about defending his job, and his job only.
“Don’t lop me in!” exclaimed MacTavish, when a reporter asked if the problem was that Lowe, MacTavish and Tambellini were a part of this Oilers franchises decision making since 2000.
A scene in the 1999 film, Office Space, comes to mind, when “The Bob’s” bring in Tom Smykowski to explain his position with Initech. When you have zero results to show for your body of work, there’s no way anyone is going to understand exactly what you’re saying. Smykowski shouted at the Bob’s, “I have people skills!” because he just handed information from customers to engineers. Here’s Craig MacTavish, under pressure, trying to prove that since he took the position of general manager, he’s made enough positive progress to warrant avoiding the axe. He doesn’t want to be judged based on his time as a head coach and friend of Lowe’s. He doesn’t want to be judged on his year as assistant general manager to Tambellini. He is, however, ready to be judged on signing Benoit Pouliot and Nikita Nikitin, with complimentary excuses. He will be ready to be judged on Dallas Eakins, but only to a point. MacTavish has no problem with people being angry, but just don’t get angry with him. He has only had two years to make things right, and the fact everything is wrong, he has no real answer for.
A Plea for Charity
It’s one thing to judge MacTavish based on the sins of the Edmonton Oilers, but it’s another to judge him on how effective this was, as a general manager. If being the general manager is to defend your coach and president, his job was admirable. Just as he balanced excuses, blame and responsibility, he simultaneously balanced taking none of the blame while also making himself a target for fan ire, instead of Lowe and Eakins. It would be an admirable move if it wasn’t so completely selfish. The job of a general manager isn’t about blame, it’s about results. MacTavish has provided zero results with zero responsibility for the lack thereof. It’s no wonder he was ready to toss Tambellini and Lowe under the bus. I don’t think he believes he’ll ever get a job in the hockey world after this.
MacTavish went out to save his career, and tried to do it by deflecting any blame that could come to him, while also trying to create the illusion that something is being done. The illusion, ultimately, isn’t his fault. It’s Daryl Katz fault. Katz entrusted mediocre hockey men, and now expects them to clean up the mess they made (and sorry MacT, that’s regardless of how long you’ve had the power to make that mess). Katz has allowed his organization to be handled worse than the Atlanta Thrashers, except with the safety net of being a Canadian franchise. When the Florida Panthers fail as an organization, they fail in front of nobody, making us wish they could go fail somewhere else. When the Edmonton Oilers fail, we just roll our shoulders and roll with the punches. This is the City of Champions. It’s going nowhere. And neither is Daryl Katz, the man who put Lowe and MacTavish in charge of his investment.
When a fan tosses a sweater on the ice, Rexall Place holds it for 48 hours before giving it to charity. I can’t think of a better way to give this Christmas, than to go to an Oilers game and toss your sweater onto the ice. So long as Daryl Katz owns the team and puts folks like Lowe and MacTavish in charge, the number one priority will always be their employment over your favourite hockey team. You can’t change their performance, and neither can they. Instead of getting heated about it, you’re better off warming someone with a sweater that has bigger concerns than the decimation of the house Wayne built.
It gets cold this time of year. Do what Katz, Lowe, and MacTavish could never, ever do.
Give away the Edmonton Oilers.
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