I find myself thinking about Leadership and the Edmonton Oilers more and more often. It’s obviously a problem right now at multiple levels. From top to bottom this organization seems rife with dysfunction. The owner is MIA, the top level of management is talking produce, the GM is seemingly handcuffed, the coach is only now a quarter of the way into the season about ready to bench key players who make mistakes, the Captain is calling the state of the team “a joke”, and the young core guys on this team are apparently moping about and are responsible for the lion’s share of the mistakes. This is the picture of a team that has lost 10 games in a row.
KATZ
Where is the owner of this team? What are his thoughts? He’s building a Hockey Empire via the Oilers Entertainment Group and he’s building this city from the Center out which is great, but the product he’s pushing (aside from generic pharmaceuticals) is terrible. Under his ownership the Oilers have abandoned all successful hiring principles and the results are predictably terrible. I don’t imagine he became one of Edmonton and Canada’s most successful businessmen by hiring his friends into positions of power. And yet, that’s what we have here with the Oilers.
Where’s the accountability? Former Oilers have milked that cow dry and now the team is standing at the bottom of the heap again with no explanations that can satisfy anybody. Katz has placed enough people between him and the day to day decision makers of the Hockey club for there to be reasonable doubt as to his over-involvement, but are they the right people? Is he even capable of discerning who he can trust with his prized possession and who he cannot?
OEG BRASS
Bob Nicholson is apparently the top dog of the OEG. Kevin Lowe is, by all accounts, not tasked with the day to day operation anymore. Well…what’s left? What does he do all day? Nobody really answered that at the OEG introductory press conference. They all played the “He’s not my boss, no he’s in charge” card that day. We all walked away with less understanding of who does what than ever before. So who really is in charge? Based on recent comments, I’d say that’s Nicholson, who just happens to be great friends with Lowe and all the guys he’s apparently going to flush out of the system.
Nicholson put the verbal brakes on last week when he said that he was going to peel back the layers of the organization like an Onion before making a major move. Really? More vague talk that could have easily been copy and pasted from an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives? If we want to talk about the produce section of the grocery store then let’s focus on finding whatever is rotting in the fridge. Something stinks in there. It used to be good, we wanted to use it for something special, but it’s gone bad and we need to throw it out. That’s the only food related Oiler talk we need to have.
MACT
MacTavish made a terrible mistake this past year. He fell in love with the player he just drafted and traded away an NHL Center to make room for him. Draisaitl didn’t earn a spot on this team because he beat out an NHL centerman. He won a spot on this team because he was the best out of all the centermen who hadn’t yet established themselves. It was either him, Lander, or Yakimov that was going to earn that spot. That’s a pretty dumb way to build a team and in August we were all wondering why another player wasn’t brought in. Well the answer is clear, the plan was for Draisaitl to win the Calder.
While we’re at it. MacT spent the summer playing hardball with two defensemen. 1 he treated like the Golden Child who was going to one day lead us down the path to glory but hadn’t yet established himself and the other he made sure was going to hit Unrestricted Free Agency on 1 year deal. Justin Schultz and the Norris trophy shouldn’t ever be mentioned together in the same breath. Ever. And yet MacT couldn’t help himself. I don’t know if that seed has been planted into Jultz’ head and now he thinks what he’s doing out there is actually called Defense, but it’s ridiculous. Meanwhile, the best Defenseman on the team (Petry) is on a 1 year deal and the club cant even offer him an extension until halfway through the year. What are the odds he looks at this steaming mess and wants to be involved in the cleanup?
And cleaning up this mess is MacT’s job. He made a fair amount (not all) of it and all the decisions lay at his feet. Well you can bet that the other GMs in the NHL arent going to be doing Edmonton any favours. They see a drowning man and they’re selling Life Preservers at $1000 bucks a pop. Everybody will be happy to take Eberle off of Edmonton’s hand for the Oilers’ pick of 3rd line Centers or middling prospects.
EAKINS
Dallas Eakins came in last year spitting fire and brimstone. He stole the sugary treats from the media who cover the team and talked physical fitness to the Nth degree. It was a good shtick, I guess, but under him the Oilers have lost a lot of games. He has a soft spot for AHL Marlies and has made a lot of bizarre decisions with his lineup until he finally sat Justin Schultz in the Pressbox. Marincin has been up and down from the minors, Petry was scratched one game, Nikitin has been paired with Jultz way too often, Mark Fayne was playing 15 minutes a night while it was clear he deserved more.
A coach really only has ice time at the end of the day. He can yell and scream or make changes to the system but the only thing that matters to most players is how many minutes they get to play. Taylor Hall dogs it back after a turnover and he’s out there the next shift. Nikitin is terrible for a month and a half and he’s out there every night. Yakupov turns his game around and he’s still consigned to 12-14 minutes a night. Pakarinen scores a goal and shows lots of life but he’s benched in the 3rd however Gazdic is taking regular shifts in the same role.
It’s time we see some tough love from Eakins. If he’s tired of the mistakes that his team is making then he is free to start teaching them some lessons. There’s nothing to lose now. They’ve already lost so much that come the end of the year there’s nobody who can argue a replacement is a completely terrible mistake. If he has principles that he’s been sitting on, now is the time to dust them off.
THE CAPTAIN
Andrew Ference hadn’t played a minute for the Oilers before he was made Captain of the team, in large part due to his veteran status and the fact that he is good at exercising. Yeah, he works out for free with whoever wants to wake up early and run up some stairs. So what? The Captain was terrible last year but now he is finally playing better now that he’s been taken away from Schultz. But was he ever the leader of the team? He has a C sewn on his chest but he isn’t the face of the team and until yesterday I haven’t really heard him say anything that would make me think he’s tried to hold anyone accountable for the way they play.
Finally yesterday he said this:
“It’s there, it has to be done (on the ice). To come in here and try to convince guys that they should be excited to play in the NHL and have some pride and not mope around — it’s a joke. It shouldn’t happen at this level. Until guys can figure that part out, it’s going to be a constant cycle.
“It’s about working hard and learning and not making the same mistakes over and over again. And that’s not something that we’ve been doing. To do it, it has to come from players, from individuals making up their mind to do those things. But, we’re hammering the same nail.”
That is an excerpt from John MacKinnon’s piece that you can find
here.
I like the passion and those are the right words but I fear he’s the wrong person to be saying them. He’s still the outsider.
THE CORE
These are the players who have disappointed the most when it comes to Leadership. This was supposed to be their team. They came aboard with Moreau wearing the C and the divide in the room was reported even then. It was the kids vs the vets. Now the old guys have been shipped out and the men in the room are much closer to the same age than they used to be and it seems like it’s the same division. Except this time, it isn’t Old vs Young. This time it’s about Winners vs Losers, and The Core are the losers.
Justin Schultz has had sweet Norrises whispered into his ear so long that he thinks he’s the best defenseman on the team. There’s no attempt to get better. Grade 9 Dance Class in Gym had more physical contact than a Justin Schultz play in front of the net. Bad positioning, worse instincts, and a complete disregard for the team are all he’s showing in a contract year. Wait until he gets paid what he thinks he’s earned.
Jordan Eberle backchecks about as hard as most people accused Sam Gagner of doing but he’s wearing an A on his chest. Where is his battle level? The fact is he couldn’t even get past that creepy ATB lady who was standing between him and his coffee. He’s been here for virtually the entire rebuild and what does he have to say about this mess? Who is he holding accountable for this 10 game losing streak? Heck, for this 9 year losing streak?
The fact is this team or any of the younger players aren’t going to get any better. They aren’t. At least they wont until Taylor Hall takes this team by the neck and demands they get better. He is the centerpiece of this team. He is the beating heart of the Edmonton Oilers. It isn’t good enough for him to get points if he wont also skate hard off of line changes and start making smart plays with the puck. This past week he has been in on at least 3 back-breaking turnovers and on none of them was he working hard to get the puck back.
Taylor Hall is not the reason this team is losing so many games. He is not the problem.
But he has to be the solution.
Eberle, Schultz, Yakupov, whomever, they arent going to change until their leader changes. They arent going to stop moping around until their leader stops moping around. Taylor Hall went to MacT and told him that Eakins isn’t the problem. Great! But if Eakins isn’t the problem then it’s up to Taylor Hall to find out what it is and fix it.
It’s up to Taylor Hall to prove that this core group isn’t rotten from the inside. He needs to hold them accountable to each other. When he does, THAT’S leadership.
Until then it seems as though this Organization is a rudderless ship.
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