Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Folding Easier Than Origami, The Story of Your '08-09 Edmonton Oilers


How in the blue hell does a teams coaching staff and the teams leaders allow their team to get obliterated twice in about a months time? Where was the fire? Where was our coach tearing a strip off of the players? Where was Moreau, Staios, Horcoff, and Souray to lead the way on the ice?

Moreau had 1 big hit, Staios was far too busy trying to help Buffalo run up the score, Horcoff bailed late in the game instead of trying to inspire the team with some heart, and Souray? Well, he was letting his shot fly, but for the most part hasn't been as physical as he could be. Since Souray plays so many minutes I suppose we can excuse him of that, but what in the hell does Ethan Moreau bring when he isn't hitting or doing a particularly good job on the PK?

What does this team need to do before changes are made? Is running in place for the better part of 8 years not good enough to warrant change? Do we have to mirror the last 20 games of '06-07 while healthy to force managements hand?

People were celebrating the Oilers recent stretch of games, however I knew that it was a matter of time before they fell back into the same rut. It's inevitable, this team and its coaches don't know what it takes to be a top tier team. We need new leadership, leadership from outside of the organization that has had a lengthy recent history of success.

Leadership that will not accept excuses, leadership that won't accept mediocrity. Leadership that would've demanded that the team responded when they went down 2-0 or 3-0 yesterday. MacT called a timeout when we went down 3-0, it did nothing.

That says all that you need to know about his hold (or lack there of) on the team. I guess now we've become accustomed to 7 and 8 goal defeats, so now the ante has been upped to consecutive massacre's. Maybe that is next on MacT's agenda of craptacular coaching 101.

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