Wait a second. Can you hear that? That’s the sound of thousands of Edmonton Oilers fans collectively releasing just a little bit of the pent up pressure that’s been building over the past few months.
What a relief!
Yes, Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish, with some assistance from above, finally came to his senses and made the first of many changes to his sorry hockey club by firing head coach Dallas Eakins after a season and a half of debauchery. Some say Eakins’ tenure behind the Oilers bench was a season and a half too long, as the team failed to dig itself out of the deep, dark bottom of the NHL standings.
Eakins’ firing is only the beginning. Besides, a lot of what’s wrong with the Oilers cannot be blamed on an NHL-rookie head coach who clearly could not make a sufficient positive change to the way this team and its players play on a consistent basis.
An immediate difference should be seen on the ice, as MacTavish serves as the team’s transitional interim head coach before handing the controls of this crazy train over to Todd Nelson, the now former head coach of the Oklahoma City Barons. And only time will tell if coach Nelson can keep this team on the right track for the rest of the season.
Possibly correcting issues behind the bench only scratches at the surface of the plethora of problems for the Oilers. Ultimately, the makeup of this team and the attitudes of its players need to change before the Oilers realize any sort of success.
The Oilers line-up is in desperate need of refurbishment, or a significant change at the very least. These players simply don’t play well together and the line-up is marred with very obvious holes down the middle, on defense and in goal. In order to fill these voids, the Oilers will have to stop relying on the draft and trade away some assets, namely its upcoming first round draft pick and young forwards such as Jordan Eberle and Nail Yakupov. (At this point, depending on the return, even Taylor Hall should be considered trade bait for the Oilers.) The Oilers will not improve unless MacTavish and the Powers-That-Be are absolutely willing to make some huge deals. Evidently, with an embarrassing mounting accumulation of playoff-less seasons and a current NHL-worst record of 7-19-5, what the Oilers have right now does not work and will not work.
The 2014-2015 season must represent rock bottom for the Oilers. Once upon a time, the Oilers were a proud and glorious franchise. Even the less-skilled Oilers teams of the 1990s and early 2000s prided themselves on hard work and determination—that’s how they were able to knock off two of best teams in the first round of the 1997 and 1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs and make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006. Since then, the hardworking Oilers of old are a distant memory. Now the fans have lost their patience.
For however long it may take, MacTavish will be able to assess his group at eye level. More changes should come swiftly. This is not the end.
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