Oilers fans, Leafs fans occupy same boat
Edmonton’s fortunes at all-time depths
Vancouver / Just about every place in Canada considers itself the anti-toronto: either small next to its vastness, polite next to its Hogtown-ness, placid next to its frantic bustle and chronic gridlock, or hard done by in the image department compared to the attention lavished upon the Centre of the Universe.
But of all the anti-torontos, there is one that has a special axe to grind, these days, with the Metropolis.
That would be Edmonton, where it’s quite bearable to be smaller, more isolated, colder (though it’s a dry cold), slower moving — and it’s even tolerable to be dismissed by holier-than-thou Easterners as red-necked, planet-killing oilsands enablers (because, let’s face it, Toronto’s paying 20 cents more for a litre of gas).
But the latest indignity is more than anyone should have to endure.
Yes, it has come to this: Edmonton’s hockey fortunes have sunk to such all-time depths that it is no longer possible for Oilers fans to lord it over the moonies of Maple Leaf Nation.
The distinction between smalltown lousy and big-city lousy, between “wait-’til-next-year, or the year after” and “wait ’til some day” is academic, at best.
Those poor sheep who can’t let go of their allegiance to a blighted Leafs franchise that has resisted the efforts of 45 years’ worth of unsuccessful administrations? They’re no more pitiable, now, than the ever-hopeful dreamers of Edmonton who see a gleam in the distance and are told it’s sunshine, though it might be one of those helmet lights worn by miners to see in the dark.
Holding up the 1990 Stanley Cup as evidence of more recent hockey acumen than Toronto’s is hardly a killer argument any more. It’s still 22 years ago, and though there was that out-of-nowhere run to the 2006 Cup final, everyone knows — even Edmontonians, in their secret hearts — that it was a Chris Pronger/dwayne Roloson, postlockout one-off: thrilling but utterly unrepeatable.
Even the blindly faithful know that the Oilers should be better than this, if only management hadn’t thrown so much good money after bad and, instead, had brought in players who could have been a passable supporting cast by now.
Two No. 1 draft picks in a row in Taylor Hall and Ryan NugentHopkins, a steal in Jordan Eberle in 2008, toss in a 2009 No. 10 pick in Magnus Paajarvi, clever little Sam Gagner, the undeniably talented (if underachieving) Ales Hemsky ... this is a nucleus of forwards any team in the NHL would be delighted to build upon. But as Margaret Atwood noted in
Cat’s Eye: “Potential has a shelf life.” And it can be heavy to carry around for any length of time.
Is it preferable to be in Edmonton’s position — so crummy that a third successive No. 1 draft selection in June is quite possible — than facing the eternal malaise of Toronto, where the Maple Leafs are bad, but never quite bad enough to guarantee a difference-making player when their turn comes to draft? Of course. In theory. It might be wiser, all things considered, if the Leafs could just put their minds to being really terrible for these last few weeks, instead of cloaking their mediocrity in an occasional win.
But Randy Carlyle can’t afford to send that message, this soon after replacing Ron Wilson as coach, so he said Friday of tanking the season for a higher draft position: “That’s not in our vocabulary.”
Apparently, Edmonton’s thesaurus is more forgiving.
Because sucking has worked before, and the Oilers know it, and so does their executive brain trust.
Everyone is familiar with the Pittsburgh Penguins model: they drafted first, second, first and second from 2003-06 and ended up with Marc-andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal — the Crosby pick resulting more from luck than pure awfulness, because all 30 teams were in the 2005 draft lottery, after the lockout season. And three years after drafting Staal, the fourth major piece of the puzzle, they won the Cup. The Chi cago Blackhawk s essentially climbed their mountain on the strength of two drafts — Jonathan Toews (No. 3 overall) in 2006 and Patrick Kane (No. 1) in ’07. They were terrible for more years than that, but blew high picks in 2004 and ’05 on scant contributors Cam Barker and Jack Skille. By 2010 they had their Cup.
It’s now apparent that if the Oilers are to follow this most reliable pattern of team-building in a salary-cap age, it will have to err more toward Pittsburgh’s end of the spectrum, because years of appalling play have yielded little progress so far.
The Penguins finished 29th the season before drafting Fleury, 30th the year after, to net Malkin. They lucked out to win the post-lockout lottery and got Crosby, but still finished next-to-last, and took Staal as their consolation prize.
The Oilers? Since all the stars aligned in 2006, they haven’t made the playoffs, finishing 25th, 19th, 21st, 30th and 30th. They are currently 29th, only because there is a Columbus.
So as long as they don’t become too polished at the techniques of losing, they’re surely laying a foundation of some kind.
Having already taken the Fall for Hall, and ridden the Luge for Nuge, they are well on their way to the Fail for Nail, as in Russian Nail Yakupov of the Sarnia Sting, the presumptive top forward available in this June’s draft. Or, if they are taken by a sudden uncontrollable urge to actually draft a defenceman, perhaps they will come to remember their current quest as Barely Tryin’ for Ryan — as in Ryan Murray of the Everett Silvertips.
At least there is still this sliver of difference between what failure looks like in Ontario and Alberta, unflattering as it may be.
For generations, the Leafs have presented their fans a thinly disguised ineptitude.
There’s no disguise in Edmonton. The Oilers, most nights, are wearing nothing but well-practised scowls.