Thursday, January 8, 2009

Why MacT Must Go, and Why Lowe Won't


The coach at the start of the year was very outspoken about how this was a division leading type of a club. Half the season later, and they aren't anywhere near that level. Injuries are not a valid excuse, prior to Hemsky's recent concussion, this has been a relatively healthy team.

Pisani and MacIntyre are really the only 2 Oilers that sustained lengthy injuries. So how can a team that has been healthy fall so far short of what it is expected to accomplish? If the coach felt that he had a team full of deficiencies he would've been a fool to raise expectations so high.

Whether you are a MacT booster or you dislike him, he is an intelligent man. MacT "haters" like myself dislike him for his stubbornness not because I think that he couldn't spell potato like a former US Vice President couldn't.

Lowe has been bumped into a very secure job. Daryl Katz' right hand man. Katz would not have trusted Lowe to be his right hand man if he didn't feel that Lowe would do a good job of overseeing the team.

No matter what Kevin Lowe may or may not have accomplished in his time as Edmontons GM, he is all but immune to the current on ice product, unless the town sours on the team and the bottom line goes head first into the toilet.

Unless Tambellini can do in a few weeks what Lowe failed to do for 7 of his 8 seasons as a GM, the best method of change and the easiest is to replace the coach. Sometimes a fresh new approach gets teams to play above their heads. The Oilers did as much in the '05-06 playoffs, but didn't prior to that and haven't since for that matter.

A change in coaching will see who may have been held back by MacT's system, and who is just flat out an anchor on this team. It would be wise for the GM to get a new coach to reevaluate the players in the room.

The last thing that we need is to trade away players that could've flourished here under a different system for more players that will fail under this current system.

Lowe rightly or wrongly won't be going anywhere, Tambellini hasn't even been broken in yet as GM, there is only one way to go unless Tambellini can pull off a coups like Lowe did with Pronger from St. Louis.

5 comments:

hunter1909 said...

MacT has to go for putting his personal preferences over the good of the team.

It's that obvious.

If I was playing under MacT, I'd probably float around the ice, all the while waiting for my agent to tell me I've been traded.

You know, just like half of the current lineup.

Bryanbryoil said...

Amen hunter, a number of people have been claiming that no one wants to play there because of the weather, etc. IMO it's just as likely that they don't want to be led by the 3 ring circus running the show.

hunter1909 said...

The team I'd want to play for would be Montreal. Cool hockey city(Mecca really), hot women, great food, and what else is there?

Edmonton in it's present state would be near the bottom of my list of preferences. Like Florida. Or Atlanta.

Bryanbryoil said...

hunter, there's some really beautiful women in Alberta and IMO it's a pretty good place to raise a family (when a player is ready to settle down). I think that Edmonton has a lot to offer, the problem is that when the hockey is bad, the rest doesn't matter much. Unless a player is a guy that plays for $ only, a winning environment would help our cause.

I'm not a world traveller by any means, but I've been to BC, Alberta, California, and of course I live in Hawaii.

hunter1909 said...

Of course Alberta has beautiful women. Women are everywhere, and there are always enough of them(for me one is always enough).

The only reason I said I'd put Edmonton low on my list is the bad vibe I get from the hockey team.

MacTavish and Lowe, along with Pendegrast and in all likelihood some of the assistants have managed to build an organisation that is starting to remind me of the Harold Ballard Leafs - a team that relies on a long lost past to sell tickets to a starving fanbase, lying through it's teeth every chance it gets, all the while offering nothing but a paycheck to it's players.

Bad mouthing so many of their departed players gets you a reputation, and fast. Consistently inconsistent coaching doesn't go unnoticed by the rest of the league either. Nor does jerking it's prospect pool around, failing to develop anyone of note.

Playing favorites no matter what the results drives a wedge between players. Those in the door feel 'special' regardless of merit. Those on the outside, no matter how hard they try, never, ever manage to fit in.

If ever I saw a team that needed a new sheriff, it's the 2009 Oilers.

On the other hand I did grow up near and in Edmonton, and most of the girls start to look old around 25. In the big cities, you see gorgeous women well into the thirties.

It was one of the first things I noticed I in the first week of going to the big city: just how hot older women can be.