Over the weekend, the Oklahoma City Barons played some statistically-uninspired hockey: Three games, two losses, one in a shootout. Shouldn't the Barons be blowing other teams out? How many other teams in the AHL can boast talent comparable to Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Justin Schultz?

Well, none.

Somewhere along the way, we all seem to forget that hockey is a team sport, and it takes 20 quality guys to make a team successful. Pull Hall, Nuge, Eberle and Schultz from the Barons roster, and what do you have? A really, really bad AHL team. Teemu Hartikainen is ready for the NHL. Magnus Paajarvi and Tyler Pitlick have enough skill for the NHL, but not enough experience. Everyone else? They're either trying to overcome a deficiency in their game (see Anton Lander's lack of foot speed), just isn't ready (see Magnus Paajarvi), or just isn't that good (see Alex Plante).

Here's what scares me if you're an Oilers fan...Management has yet to do much to fix some of the gapping roster holes that have existed for several seasons.

Last season, why were the Oilers bad:

1. The veteran players were terrible. They didn't contribute offense. They weren't defensively sound. They didn't bring physical play. They were injured frequently and easily. They, more often than not, didn't look like they cared.

2. The D was weak in a literal sense. Ladislav Smid is a beast, but after him? Theo Peckham has size but not enough skill for the NHL. Andy Sutton looked okay at times but suspensions kept derailing his season. After those three, the Oilers D was too small, and was often pushed around by biggest, faster, and more skilled opposition.

3. Team defensive play was weak in a metaphoric sense. Hockey, as I mentioned, is a team game. How many times were the Oilers scored on last season by the third man up on a rush, because the Oilers center on the ice couldn't (or wouldn't) backcheck? The issue here isn't a lack of skill on the team. The issue here is with players acting like they can`t hustle any more than they already do. Check player sizes...Shawn Horcoff and Eric Belanger are not really any bigger or smaller than the average NHL player, and yet, they constantly were weak on the puck. The whole idea that the Oilers are an undersized bunch of smurfs is a lie we tell ourselves to let them off the hook. In reality, the team is pretty average in size, and there`s no real excuse for the weak attempts at backchecking. There`s a difference between being weak and playing weak.

4. The Oilers are weak in a psychological sense. Do you know a moment I liked last season? When Taylor Hall had a tantrum on Tom Renney for pulling the goalie. People were critical of Hall for doing it, but I thought it was brilliant. Professional athletes are suppose to hate losing. Way too many Oilers veteran players have an "oh well" attitude. Aside from it leading to loses now, it teaches the newer players bad habits, and that creates a dysfunctional team culture. It's a good thing Hall, Eberle, Nuge and Yakupov all have ridiculously high levels of compete built into them, or the Oilers could turn into another Leafs franchise, where year after year of horrible hockey is tolerated by everyone. Last season was perhaps the first where Oilers fans began to revolt. If the players can't get upset about the on-ice product, it's time for the fans to make life impossible for the franchise until they do something to fix things.

It's not that the Barons are vanilla and lacking talent. The situation is more complex than that. People are over-estimating where the Oilers are in their rebuild, and what an immediate realistic expectation for the team should be.

Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, J. Schultz, Teemu Hartikainen and Nail Yakupov are part of the long-term solution in Edmonton. I'd also add to this group Ladislav Smid, Jeff Petry, Oscar Klefbom, and Sam Gagner (if you can believe it). These ten guys make up half of a future-winning franchise. Of course, the biggest challenge with this group is teaching them to play responsible two-way hockey at the NHL level. It will come.

Horcoff, Belanger, Peckham, Sutton, Ben Eager, Corey Potter, Ryan Smyth and Ales Hemsky are the players who need to go. I like some of these guys, Hemsky in particular...but if fortunes are ever going to turn around in Edmonton, these players need to be replaced with guys who are younger, hungrier, and at least as skilled (if not more skilled). As talented as Hemsky is, he pouted his way through half of last season. I heard rumors all year about a rift between Horcoff and Smyth vs. the kids, and the kids (the future of the team) don't need that. From what I hear, no one liked Belanger at all, so why he continues to be part of the franchise is anyone's guess. While I applaud Oilers GM Steve "Metamucil" Tambellini for not making a bunch of bad deals over the summer in a panic, I think he's too cautious and he's not worried enough about how the team plays immediately.

Players who could be part of the long-term solution, but most likely aren't include:

Ryan Whitney - Has all the skills, but injuries keep him from playing to potential
Ryan Jones - Stats are better than his skill level. Not a bad guy to have around though.
Lennart Petrell - Also a decent role player like Jones, but isn't much more than that.
Darcy Hordichuk - Ditto

And then there are players that I have no idea if or how they fit:

Magnus Paajarvi, Devan Dubnyk, Martin Marincin, David Musi, etc.

Dubnyk is likely the player who can help the most if he turns into a legit #1 starter. Paajarvi has skills and size, but I can't see how he fits into the Top 6 with Eberle, Hall, Yakupov and Hartikainen ahead of him on the depth chart. There's a bucket-load of kids who have great potential but aren't anywhere near having an NHL career yet.

This is bleak.

So why did I bother to write all of this? What is the message?

1. The Oilers management still have plenty of tinkering to do if the goal is to be a winner now. If everyone is okay with the Oilers finishing in the Bottom 5 again in 2012/2013 (provided there is a season), then there's nothing to worry about. They'll easily finish in the Bottom 5 if management does nothing. If you ask me, the Oilers have enough high draft picks to work with, but some might disagree.

2. The Oilers as an organization needs to send a message to the players, regardless if it's at the NHL level or the AHL level, that expectations are changing and growing. Players who don't sing for their supper need to be shipped out before they interfere with players who actually want to be here and actually want to win. When I said Horcoff belongs on the 4th line this season, I wasn't joking. Sooner or later a message needs to be sent.

One thing that does make me feel better is the knowledge that new Oilers Head Coach Ralph Krueger doesn't mind playing kids. The group of players we have identified as being the leaders in Edmonton will change under Krueger, and doing so is the first real step to change the attitude of a team grown far too comfortable with losing.

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