u/sasksasquatch

Well, the Oilers fired their head coach, Kris Knoblauch. We could all see it coming, but the problems with this organization do not start at coaching, it goes all the way to the top.

I am honestly in two minds about Daryl Katz. On one hand, he saved the Oilers from relocation and kept a hockey hot bed alive, on the other hand, he had used his pairing just so he can hang out with the dynasty-era Oilers instead of building a competent front office.

I've long had the belief that Katz was a fanboy of the Stanley Cup winning Oilers teams (I've had this confirmed by someone with ties to Katz through other Katz owned companies). So many executives and coaches where their only qualification was a Stanley Cup ring from the 1980s. It didn't matter if there was another better candidate available, you had a ring with the Oilers, he wants you around, and he'll pay you to do so.

When he actually does go outside of dynasty-era Oilers, he is going name chasing, and you better have a shiny trinket (Stanley Cup ring) you can impress him with. Bob Nicholson was the former president of Hockey Canada, it is best not to go to deep into that bag. Peter Chiarelli, Ken Holland, and Stan Bowman all have Stanley Cup rings, and all have done a shit job, why?

Chiarelli got his ring because the Canucks were injured to hell and Colin Campbell fuckery. They had a good team and a hot goalie, but it took a long time to figure out who the maestro actually was who should have been promoted, that guy finally is getting his flowers in Montreal in Jeff Gorton.

Ken Holland nearly had enough rings to fill a hand, but three out of those for came pre-salary cap and the fourth was a run off off pre-cap decisions, when Steve Yzerman originally left, it was because he thought he was still good at his job. He wasn't, it just wasn't in obvious sight because people were distracted by his shiny trinkets.

Now to Stan Bowman. I am really at a loss on this one for any other reason to hire him other than he has relatively recent shiny trinkets. I don't know if the Oilers were trying for a Hallmark movie redemption story because of the Kyle Beach stuff, or they thought he was the guy behind the Blackhawks run, or just fucking nepotism because of who his dad is, but everyone was saying, bad hire. The way I have had his Chicago run described to me, he was given a running Ferrari, he crashed it into a tree. He wasn't behind Toews and Kane or putting that team together, he got to reap the benefits of it though. Blackhawks fans were pissed that it took the Kyle Beach cover up to get him fired, not his incompetence at the position.

When Katz has gone outside this box of shiny trinkets for an executive, it was to keep his best player happy, by hiring his agent, Jeff Jackson as President of Hockey Operations. Way to think outside but right up against the box.

I was honestly surprised earlier this week when I found out that the amount of NHL caliber forwards the Oilers have drafted since McDavid doesn't even fill a hand. That is right, less than five forwards of NHL quality, and the two I would consider the best aren't with the Oilers.

I am at a loss for how they continue to fail in so many areas yet the people who should be raked over the coals go unburnt. How many fucking continuous issues has this club had when it comes to goaltending and depth but they just ignore those and continue to rely on McDavid and Draisaitl.

You may have gotten close, but you hit the iceberg and this wreck is as clear as day to see coming.

Read some of the stuff happening in r/canucks, I am just so burnt out on Aquilini's shit that if hiring Pierre Dorion actually happens, I'm going to need a break from this team.

Oh my fucking God, Oilers. You lost to a team that lost three teams to the Vancouver Canucks this year, and not only that, you lost convincingly. You lost the pillow fight.

I know you are a team with holes but holy shit were those holes exposed.

Connor McDavid has been shut down by the fourth line from hell. Leon Draisaitl has been more visible but he's been the third best player on his line. RNH has been invisible. Oh, and your so called Norris worthy defenseman, Evan Bouchard, well, he is showing why he hasn't been in the conversation for years, defensively irresponsible and the ultimate McDrai merchant.

Where to begin with all your problems? McDavid and Draisaitl have done a great job over the last couple years of covering them up by literally outscoring the issues, they finally don't have the gas to pull away and the issues are being exposed.

And where to begin the blame? It starts at the very top. Katz has always had an issue with having names of yesteryear in the Oilers offices. However, bringing in your best player's agent and coach is more a lateral move than a move forward. Jeff Jackson has been meh as president of hockey ops, and he was a fucking idiot and coward in his biggest mistake, hiring Stan Bowman as GM. Yeah, the guy who was handed a running Ferrari in Chicago and promptly drove it into every tree he saw. Hey, he could have improved since his time in Chicago, nope, he goes back to making the same dumb decisions, it must be nice being a nepo baby, the only reason he could have rose this high is because his dad is the greatest coach of all time. Stuart Skinner for Tristan Jarry, I know Skinner had his warts, but Jarry had far worse ones that were being hidden and everyone could see it, except for Stan Bowman.

Just going down the list, and outside of the gifts of contracts that Draisaitl and McDavid signed, instead of using that extra cap space to improve the team, jut mistake after mistake in most of the contracts. $10M+ for Evan Bouchard? I hear all the Oilers fans saying he should be a Norris candidate like Makar and Hughes who also put up monster offensive numbers, but the one thing they don't have, a lowlight reel have minimal effort on defense. Jake Walman getting $7M, the entire NHL community wants to know what drugs Bowman is on. 8 years for Trent Frederic as a potential McDavid linemate, have you actually watched him play? If he is playing with McDavid, every other winger on the team better be injured.

It felt like every time the Ducks came up the ice with the puck it was an odd man rush, the goalies were given minimal help but expected to perform like prime Hasek. That don't work in the current NHL, and the goalies definitely passed the eye test, the defense on the other hand failed miserably.

Oilers, you need to teach your players to play a two way game, and that is not one way to the offensive zone and one way to the bank.

Way to waste potentially one of the last years of McDavid in Edmonton.