Oilers not close to earning a passing grade
Trading ‘ our three best players’ not part of solution, says GM MacTavish as team continues slide
EDMONTON — This time, Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish under- promised and his delivery was bang- on.
“This availability is not going to satisfy anybody,” MacTavish said by way of introduction Friday morning at his second annual early season state- of-the-franchise news conference.
Anyone expecting a bloodbath — or even a modest housecleaning of the under- performing hockey operations department — was disappointed by MacTavish’s presentation.
Actually, this go- round was not substantially different from the November 2013 situation report MacTavish submitted, the ‘ perfect storm’ hypothesis.
Just 26 games into the 2014- 15 NHL season, the 6- 15- 5 Oilers are dead last, mired in the muck of an 11- game winless skid with back- to- back home- andhome sets with San Jose and Anaheim on offer this week.
The Oilers excel in just one category: the ability to find a new way to lose every time out. It often has to do with the Oilers failing to close out games, making fatal defensive zone mistakes that cause goals against. That pattern is deeply embedded and MacTavish knows it.
“We play well in spurts, but when the game is on the line, the opposition normally dictates the pace and play of the game,” MacTavish said. “And that has got to change.”
The fans’ patience has worn thin, to put it politely.
Somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 of them opted for other leisure activities the other night, as opposed to using the tickets they had already purchased for the game.
MacTavish said he can see on- ice improvement with his team, even though there isn’t “any tangible evidence of that improvement.”
This is the ‘ we are not what our record says we are’ argument. Those who buy into the ‘ underlying numbers’ crunched by analytics wizards like Oilers consultant Tyler Dellow take comfort in such truths.
Perhaps those readings comfort MacTavish.
But those who have seen the Oilers cough up turnover after turnover, making soft defensive plays after ill- advised passes and so forth, are deeply skeptical. And a growing number of those skeptics are mulling ways to off- load their tickets.
On the ice, as opposed to the spreadsheet, hockey is about winning puck battles, taking your man, taking the body, finishing the scoring play, making the timely save. The Oilers, it’s safe to say, do not consistently score well in those categories.
MacTavish re- stated Friday what has been out there for a while, that a full Oilers organizational overview, supervised by Bob Nicholson, co- vice chairman of the Oilers Entertainment Group, is ongoing.
This encompasses player recruitment in all its phases, coaching, player development, pro and amateur scouting, player performance, the whole nine. Other than that, play on. As he has since he was named GM in mid- April 2013, MacTavish again asked the fans to be patient, to trust the Oilers’ plan, keep making the leap of faith that the growth of the core players like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent- Hopkins, will be supported by the addition of prospects like Darnell Nurse and other prospects, someday soon. Just you wait.
In the meantime, head coach Dallas Eakins will be expected to coax more competitiveness and consistency from a group that displays both qualities only fitfully, if not grudgingly.
In the meantime, don’t expect a major, or even a minor roster shakeup.
Asked whether the plan itself might be structurally flawed, that it’s time to redraft it, MacTavish said: “OK. And what would that outlook be?
“With all due respect, outside of changing everybody — and that might be the outlook that you’re professing — what would that strategy be?
“... is it time to punt out the core of these players at 23 and 24 years old as they’re developing?”
Having effected the turnover of 14- 15 players since he took over from Steve Tambellini as GM, MacTavish emphatically believes trading Hall, Eberle or Nugent- Hopkins would worsen a tough situation.
“I know we’re all getting close to reaching our choke point, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to punt out our three best players,” he said.
Nor, evidently, does owner Daryl Katz have the stomach to ditch his GM or his head coach. Not right now.
And fair enough. You don’t foster stability with near- constant turnover of key people.
A GM probably needs a minimum of three seasons to put his stamp on a franchise and MacTavish has not yet been in place for a season and a half. MacTavish deserves that minimum term, at least, it seems to me.
There are 56 games to go. Along the way, they will be compiling their own inventory of Oilers merits and demerits. Headed for a ninth straight nonplayoff season, the Oilers’ grade continues to be unsatisfactory.