Edmonton Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins is only 15 games into his NHL coaching career, howver, the guy looks like he just got run over by a zamboni.
The week of October 27-November 3, 2013 will forever be known by loyal fans and as one of the more challenging and emotionally charged segments in Buffalo Sabres history. What an emotional week it was. The team traded away its 40-goal scorer for a 30-goal scorer and some pieces of currency to be used in the rebuilding process. Then, the winningest coach in team history rode back into town with his new team. There were two losses to two beatable teams. There was a butt kicker of a loss to one of the best teams in the NHL. There was another disciplinary hearing and yet another suspension for a Rule 48 violation. Then, the coups de gras, a loyal soldier was given his walking papers and a stern message: don’t come back until you change the way you play.
Where to begin,
On Saturday October 27, the Sabres blew a third period lead and allowed the Tamapa Lightning to score two goals in 1:46 of clock time late in the third period, sending the Sabres home from their Florida roadie with a .500 record for the trip. Winnable game that slipped away, like so many before it.
The next night, just as Sabres fans were pushing away from the supper table, shock-waves reverberated through Pegulavile. Thomas Vanek had finally been traded. Though we knew the trade was coming, it still came as a shock. After 10 highly productive seasons in Buffalo, the UFA-to-be was traded to the NY Isalnders in exchange for 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, a conditional 2014 1st rounder and a 2015 2nd rounder. In its surface, a great deal for Darcy Regier. At first blush, it appeared as though Regier performed grand larceny on Isles GM Garth Snow for prying a 1st rounder and a 2nd rounder out of the struggling team for Vanek, who appears to be heading home to Minnesota when he’s aligible to become UFA in July 2014. Some 36 hours after the Vanek-Moulson trade, it was learned that the Sabres would be absorbing 20% of Vanek’s final year contract in Buffalo, which equates to approximately $1.5 million. It was also learned that Snow and the Islanders built in an insurance policy whereby if their 2013-14 regualr season falls apart and theur team ends up in the top ten picks in the 2014 NHL Entrty Draft, then Snow can opt to keep his 2014 1st rounder to invest in a difference maker for his team, while send his 2015 1st round pick to the Sabres. Not such a great deal afterall. It grades out as a very good hockey trade, not a great trade.
On Monday October 28,Moulson wasted little time scoring his first goal as a Sabre at the 3:26 mark of the first period of his first game in Buffalo. On the second shift of his Sabres career, Moulson one-timed a pass behind Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen. Moulson would later add another, to no avail, as Lindy Ruff’s Stars kicked the Sabres top the curb. After the game, Ruff spoke from the heart about how much he missed the Buffalo fans and how he was appreciative of the Sabres organization for paying video tribute to their former head coach of 15 seasons on the video boards during a TV timeout. It was a classy gesture by the Sabres to pay homage to the man who had been the face of their franchise for nearly two decades. Ruff saddled up his horses and rode off into the sunset with tears in his eyes and chills down his spine. Leaving Buffalo has a way of doing that to people.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ron Rolston preached his standard, boiler-plate philosophies of “compete”, “urgency”, “battle”, “will”, and “growing pains” as they attempted to find a solution to the slow start syndrome that has been undermining the Sabres all season long. It didn’t work. The Sabres had a fast start to the Ranger game, if you consider a ferocious first three minutes a “fast start”, then they reverted back to form and allowed the NY Rangers to skate all over them for the next 50 minutes. They had chances at the end, however, couldn’t solve an injured Henrik Lundqvist. Final score: 2-0 Rangers.
Just before puck-drop on Broadway on Halloween night, Sabres enforcer John Scott went trick or treating at the NHL offices in Manhattan and was promptly surrounded and wound tight with Charmin toilet paper. Scott had his windows soaped and his was given a 7 pieces of the worst brand of low-quality chocolate known as “Suspension”, for his hit to the head of Bruins power forward Loui Eriksson.
On Friday, Scott and the Sabres tried their best to put a lustrous shine on the situation, but to no avail. The good news of the week was that Rolston said that he was going to be making roster changes in the forward ranks for the Anaheim game. With Pat Kaleta returning from his 10 game suspension and Corey Tropp jhealed from his broken jaw and concussion, Rolston was going to send a message to his struggling forwads by sitting one, or two of them down for the Ducks game.
Saturday’s optional skate was a bit odd in that Kaleta wasn’t on the ice, nor in the building. Odd. PK36 always participates his skates, even optional skates, unlike some of his peers. Later Saturday afternoon, it was announced that the 27 year old energy man was waived by the club.Talk about a punch in the heart. Kaleta is like the Robert Moses Power Project: he creates hydro –electric power and furnishes the grid with zillions of mega-watts. Ironic Regier ended up waiving the exact player that his sleep-walking lineup needed to give it a kick in the arse. Just before puck drop on Saturday night, Regier hinted to the media that he and his Sabres organization are being watched right now by the NHL. “We don’t want to be under the thumb of the NHL, but, we are, a little bit”. Kaleta and John Scott accounted for three discipline hearings and two suspensions totaling 17 games in the forst 5 weeks of the 2013-14 season. Sounds like the NHL Player of Department Safety gave Regier a stern talking to. Its rubbish that Ray Emery can assault Braden Holtly by repeated punching the innocent, unwilling participant in the head with a flurry of brutal punches, but Regier and the Sabres the root of all evil in the NHL. The NHL tends not to mess with Philly or Boston players. He has no problem messing with Buffalo players though. Selective enforcement of rules. What standards?
Kaleta surprisingly cleared waivers on Sunday. He’s now the property of the Rocehster Americans. Kaleta hasn’t worn the red, white, and blue of the Amerks since April 2008. He should get used to it. Sounds to me like the goons in the NHL offices wanted Kaleta buried in the minors, and that’s where he’ll stay until further notice. Lets see if coach Cassidy players Kaleta in his top six and gives him 13-16 minutes a game, and plays him in all aspects of the game. Lost in all of the hoopla from last week, Regier hired former Amerks head coach Randy Cunneyworth as a pro scout. On Saturday night, Regier said that if/when Kaleta cleared through waivers that he would then work one-on-one with coach Cunneyworth to improve his game.
"In fairness to him, he has to make some changes in his game," said Darcy Regier said Saturday night.. "He (Kaleta) has to play more hockey in his shifts”.
I see Kaleta emerging from this period of his career a better player. He will embrace this opportunity and make th emost of it. He'll prove all of his haters wrong. This situation lis like a box of Legos. Kaleta will study it, then assemble an impressive structure that he and others will be proud of. Those of us who know the man's character know that he will succeed.
I get the feeling that the type week we endured last week will become the new normal.
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The rookie head coach has run out of answers. The time for cliches and ship talk is over.
Eakins kept it real in his post game presser on Saturday night after his Oilers were embarrassed for the umpteenth time this season o Hockey Night In Canada. This time, they were spanked by the Detroit Red Wings.
Eakins left his suit jacket and tie in his office when he spoke the truth about his team's lack of confidence and its propensity to commit fatal errors.
“They’re dying,”. “They’ve lost their confidence.”
You can't get anymore direct and succinct than telling the truth.
Thanks, Oilers TV
The Edmonton Oilers are not a work in progress anymore. They are a bona fide mess.
Seriously. The 5-0 curb stomping that the Detroit Red Wings applied to the unresponsive Oilers was haed to watch. I felt bad for the fans as the booed the team off the ice at the end of the second and third periods.
How can all of this losing be good for the young players?
At 3-10-2, the Oilers are the 29th ranked team in the NHL, one win better than the 2-13-1 Buffalo Sabres.
They are 1-5 on home ice this season. They have scored one or less goals in 4 of those 6 games. They've been outscored 9-0 in front of their home fans in the last two games to Toronto and Detroit, respectively.
Oilers GM Craig MacTavish said last week that changes are coming. I don't expect Eakins to lose his job, considering he's playing the hand that he's been dealt by management. MacT isn't going to resign. Expect a player or two to be traded away as a form of shock therapy to correct the course away from losing to winning.
According to MacTavish, the Oilers "makeup has to be jigged”.
That's code for "I've got my dealing shoes on, and I'm open for business".
Goaltending?
Forwards?
Defense?
Yes to all of the above.
MacTavish is about to shake up his young team. He has no other choice. His team is already 10 points out of a playoff spot.
Mac Tavish is a patient man, but his patience may be reaching its end. He also said this week that he's not about to enter into a trade(s) that he knows that he's going to lose. Translation, "I don't want to look foolish after the trade is done". See Garth Snow trading a 1st and a 2nd rounder, plus a UFA-to-be Matt Moulson to Buffalo in exchange for rental sniper Thomas Vanek. Say what you want about Snow looking bad, but his team team has won two of three since the trade. He risked pissing off his captain John Tavares by trading away Moulson, who happens to be JT's best friend and former line mate. Snow took the calculated risk because he and his head coach Jack Capuano grew weary of watching their young, talented, struggling Islanders mail in too many periods in recent weeks. So far, so good. The Vanek-Tavares-Okposo line was a scoring machine in their first week together. Snow wanted change, and he got it. He wanted a solution and Vanek seems to be the answer. Vanek may play like an all star between now and the end of the season on Long Island, then, end up signing with the Minnesota Wild as a UFA when free agency opens in July 2014. High risk. High reward. Snow rolled the bones and he's hoping that Vanek will want to stay and play with the Isles. If not, the Isles GM will look like a novice when posterity judges the Vanek for Moulson trade. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
MacT might have to "lose" a deal in order to turn around the fortunes for his team this season.
MacTavish would be wise to stay in close contact with Sabres GM Darcy Regier, whose club is in a similar position as the Oilers right now. Mac Tavish and Regier each have under achieving players on their rosters right now. Perhaps a change would do each team a lot of good.
If that means trading the former first overall pick in the draft Nail Yakupov for Ryan Miller and Jamie McBain then so be it. You do the deal to correct the course of the team.
I'll be watching Mac T closely this week. If his team is indeed "dying", its incumbent upon him to perform CPR on his young team. He better do it now for it flat-lines on him.
Veteran D Ladislav Smid called out his teammates in his media scrum after the Red Wings blowout. Smid may be one of the guys who gets "jigged" by MacTavish.
“I’ve been through this a few times and it’s really uncomfortable,” said Smid. “I don’t think we should be in last place. We have good personnel, good guys in here, but we have to play as a team. It’s like everybody is on their own page, we’re so disconnected.
“We are not working hard enough. After two goals, we just kept our heads down. That’s unacceptable,” he continued. “It’s going to get uncomfortable, but that’s the only way to get out of this. And it has to start within the team. The coach can come in and yell and sit people in the box, but we have to make each other accountable.
“If the mistakes keep happening over and over, somebody has to stand up and tell him.”
Hard work beats talent when talents refuses to work hard.
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