I feel like just reposting the blog I wrote yesterday. What an embarrassing game against the Nashville Predators. I am completely lost for words.

My wife says to me on the drive home tonight, "why are the Oilers so terrible?" Fair question; she's not a hockey fan. She wants to know why I keep pulling handfuls of hair out of my head game-after-game. It took me a long time to come up with an answer.

"Well, there's two problems. Two main problems. Actually there's a whole stack of problems, but there's two that are the most significant. First is, the core of the team is a bunch of kids. If you had a Top 6 of Hall, Eberle, Yakupov, Hartikainen, Gagner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, you'd have an average age of about 22. That's a good five years younger than all the other cores in the league. The Oilers might be full of talent, but with youth comes inconsistency and streaks. They could go through a five game winning streak and look unbeatable, and follow that with a ten game losing streak and look like the worst team in the world."

I could tell she was falling asleep at this point, daydreaming about Channing Tatum or some other doorstop, but I continued.

"The second problem with the Oilers is, the vets sucks. Especially the defense. You have one guy back there...Jeff Petry...who is a mature, responsible puck-moving defenseman. Justin Schultz is a brilliant puck-mover, but lately he's been exposed as a defensive liability a few times. Players like Ladislav Smid and Nick Schultz belong in the NHL, but are over their heads playing in the Top 4. They are more 5/6 players. And everyone else simply does not belong in the NHL."

At this point, Susan rolls over and mumbles something about going to the movies tomorrow. But I'm not finished talking, so I continue.

"If I was running the Oilers, I'd be scared for my job now. Why? Because it seems like there's absolutely no leadership. If this was my team, I would be going crazy trying to put some fear and urgency into my players and coaching staff. The vets on this team half-ass it, and play like they don't care. This problem has been here for years, and no one wants to change it. Give me a chance: I'll change it."

Here's what I'd do at this point:

1. Forget about this season. It's done.

2. Make two lists: Players who we want to be here next season, and players we don't.

Players we want to be here (16): Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Sam Gagner, Teemu Hartikainen, Magnus Paajarvi, Anton Lander, Lennart Petrell, Mike Brown, Justin Schultz, Jeff Petry, Mark Fistric, Nick Schultz, Oscar Klefbom, Devan Dubnyk (although he's skating on very thin ice right about now).

Players we don't want to be here (11): Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff, Eric Belanger, Ryan Smyth, Ryan Jones, Ben Eager, Linus Omark, Ryan Whitney, Theo Peckham, Ladislav Smid, Nikolai Khabibulin.

3. I do everything possible to finish as badly as possible so the Oilers get a shot at drafting either Seth Jones, Jonathan Drouin, Nathan MacKinnon or Aleksander Barkov. All four players would solve a problem on the Oilers roster if drafted.

4. Shawn Horcoff and Ryan Smyth would be compliance buyouts. Thanks for coming out.

5. Hemsky could be dealt for a decent prospect, as could Ladislav Smid. Find two players for the future who could play in the NHL next season. I won't suggest names...I'll just say Hemsky and Smid could both be moved for younger, real, actual NHL players.

6. Omark, Whitney, Peckham, Jones and perhaps Khabibulin could be turned into draft picks. 2013 draft is suppose to be loaded, so we might as well go crazy.

7. For the rest of the 2013 season, Play with whatever players we have. If that means a player like Jonathan Cheechoo, who's playing for the Oilers farm team, needs to be signed and brought up, fine. We'll still be stuck with Horcoff and Smyth to the end of the season. Bring up Martin Marincin too if we need D. Or Colten Teubert. Just put together whatever the hell team you can, and don't give a thought about trying to win hockey games.

8. Come draft day, hopefully we should still have Klefbom, Schultz x 2, Fistric and Petry...Adding Seth Jones to the group would be super duper. If that isn't possible, a big center like Barkov would be my next choice. If the Oilers had Nuge/Barkov/Gagner/Lander as their four centers going forth, we'd be fine.

9. After the draft, the Oilers would have a ton of cap space, so they can go find a different goalie, go get another defenseman, go get some veteran depth players who actually care...whatever it takes.

At this point I've driven home and Susan is completely asleep in our SUV. It's a cold night out. I hope she's okay.

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