Its Time For A Change
The Edmonton Oilers have been completely ineffective the last couple of games in which they have been outscored 13-4 and in the immortal words of Owen Hart – enough is enough, its time for a change. Today in practice MacT changed the lines playing Horcoff with Cole and Pouliot, Hemsky with Cogliano and Nilsson, and Gagner with Penner and Moreau and I’ve gotta say its an absolute exercise in futility. I mean Hemksy, Horcoff, and Penner have been very effective and the Kid line has been looking dangerous as well, but the biggest issue I see is that the coach is making changes and spending time in practice on 5 on 5 play while the PK and power play is what is killing the team. When the Oilers were successful down the stretch last season a major contributor to winning games was gaining momentum with successful penalty kills which has been the Achilles heal of the team lately. So whats the difference in what the team is doing now and what they did last season? Well for one thing Stoll and Reasoner are gone but there is nothing that can be done about that now and the Oilers still have the right players to be successful on the PK. The difference is all those hockey cliches you hear players talk about: heart, winning battles, and the most important one of all: playing for the crest on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back. I don’t remember the last time I seen an Oiler player go down to block a shot, and I was shocked to see Ethan Moreau not go down to block a shot against Chicago the other night. Moreau was killing a penalty and had plenty of time to go down and get the block on the point shot but instead he tried to block it standing up and unfortunatly the only thing he blocked was Garons view of the puck and Chicago scored. That play to me was an eye opener on what is wrong with this team, the captain, the heart and soul guy, won’t block shots.
Obviously something has to change if this team is going to make the playoffs and I think its coming sooner rather than later. So what changes are coming? Here is what I would change on this team to turn things around:
1) Kill the 3 headed monster. A 3 goalie system never works and with the way Roli is playing Garon is the guy to go so trade him, put him on waivers, whatever just get him out.
2) Its time to get rid of the old boys club. Fire MacT and hire a coach who has not had an affiliation with the Oilers in the past. The Oilers need the type of coach who will hold players accountable and push the players to increase the effert level, a coach like John Tortorella or Marc Crawford. While I have never been very fond of either of these coaches I think they would be a good fit in Edmonton right now and they both have coached teams to a Stanley Cup.
3) Send Sam Gagner to Springfield. Gagner is the future for the Oilers but he is still really young and a few games in Springfield will help him get his game back.
4) Fix the PK. This team should be spending almost all of their practice time on killing penalties and winning faceoffs. I think this is an opportunity for Kyle Brodziak to really set him mark on this team, he has the work ethic to be very successful on the PK but needs to spend a lot more time practicing faceoffs.
5) Wake up Eric Cole. Maybe a couple of games as a healthy scratch will work.
Vancouver signed Mats Sundin today so the Oilers need to take action now if they want to have any chance of keeping pace. Lowe, Tambellini, and the Oilers need to have their eye on the playoffs and the Stanley Cup, not the John Tavares sweepstakes.
The Voice