In the midst of upheaval, I disconnected from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday evening. I left my laptop untouched on the dinner table, avoided Twitter and the blogosphere, and, like a hidden CBA subsection, my phone and e-mail account went unchecked. Under my fiancé’s watchful eye, I prepared and seasoned some chicken for dinner. She handled the actual cooking, which helps us avoid being unintentionally poisoned. Alex Trebek’s mustache is coming in nicely, but Final Jeopardy! stumped me again and the answer—Adolf Hitler—was obvious in hindsight.
During dinner, the local news offered a decent mix of bright and bleak: Jamaican ganja reforms are long overdue, but the chikungunya epidemic keeps spreading. Laurie mopped the floor, restricting me to the couch until it dried. I didn’t have a problem with that, since I was still blissfully unaware. I flipped over to The Blues Brothers for a bit, watching that mall demolition derby for what must be the 64th time. Ouch… too soon. Finally, after several hours of sweet ignorance I checked back in to Twitter, hardly expecting my world to fall apart. I knew something was wrong immediately, because this tweet was the first one I saw.
Scrolling backwards through Twitter was like watching Titanic in reverse. My thought process went like this:
1) Hey, why does that lady on a piece of floating ice look so sad?
2) Oh, I guess she’s sad because Leonardo DiCaprio committed suicide.
3) Jeez, that huge boat just sank, and the human-to-life-raft ratio looks perilous.
4) Wait, something terrible happened in, on, or around that boat before it sank.
5) Jumping Jehosephats, the Titanic struck an iceberg!
As the story pieced itself together, I felt a combination of shock, anger, grief, disappointment, and sadness. I probably shouldn’t have developed such an emotional attachment to an 18-year-old Russian dwarf, but Vladimir Tkachev was the Oilers’ best player at the Young Stars Tournament, and most consistent preseason performer. Ultimately, I can’t explain why Oasis’s “Champagne Supernova” came to mind once the news finally sank in. I have no idea what a champagne supernova is, but the song and its sentiments seem fitting on a day when Tkachev slipped into the fold and then right through our fingers.
For a full recap of the day’s
jubilation and
desolation read Matt’s accounts. You wouldn’t think the last day of September could contain both the highest highs and lowest lows, but that’s the Edmonton Oilers for you—a franchise that continues to disappoint its fanbase in mystifying new ways. I hadn’t expected to write something like this until at least the third week of October, but Craig MacTavish should be fired for his managerial incompetence. Ignoring the Eakins hiring and Bryzgalov experiment, the Tkachev debacle marks the third of three massive blunders by the Oilers’ general manager, and it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out.
Strike One: Clarkson
Toronto Maple Leafs winger David Clarkson’s contract is widely regarded as the worst in the entire National Hockey League, and it’s high in the running for the worst in NHL history. The seven-year, $36.75 million pact he signed last summer looked bad before the ink was dry. However, after Clarkson posted 11 points in 60 games during 2013-14, the deal has become an enormous millstone around the Maple Leafs’ neck. How does MacTavish factor into this? He reportedly offered Clarkson more money to join the Oilers, but the deal was rejected. Read that last sentence again, and then remember that MacTavish is the current Oilers GM.
Strike Two: Nikitin
Facing elimination during a first-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins in April, the Columbus Blue Jackets decided they would rather have defenceman Nikita Nikitin watch from the press box than play the game. Two months later, Columbus traded him to Edmonton for a fifth-round pick, and MacTavish negotiated a two-year, $9 million deal. Not only is Nikitin grossly overpaid, but during his career he’s played 30 fewer NHL games than Jeff Petry. MacTavish gave up a fifth-round pick to overpay a mediocre defenceman nobody wanted. What could a 2014 fifth-round pick have gotten you? Vladimir Tkachev.
Strike Three: Tkachev
Looking back, it’s maddening to know that the Tkachev camp invite was an exercise in futility from day one. MacTavish’s CBA ignorance ensured that the story was always going to have an unhappy ending. Now, this would be easy enough to overlook if the Oilers had built up any goodwill during the last eight years, but it’s been one embarrassment after another since the 2006 Cup run, both on and off the ice. The entire franchise has egg on its face. No, actually the egg is just added to the existing layer of egg on the franchise’s face due to the eight-year playoff drought. I’ve always liked the “Heartland of Hockey” tag, but it’s time for less heart and more brains.
Another disappointing side effect of the Tkachev debacle is the fact that he clearly outshone every other player in the Oilers’ prospect system, and we’re now stuck with each of them. While Vladdy Hockey—we can’t beat the Flames, finish higher than them in the standings, or mock them without the hockey gods crapping on us—returns to Moncton and chips in on boatloads of beautiful goals in the QMJHL, we’re left staring mournfully at guys like Tyler Pitlick and Anton Lander. It begs the question: Was Tkachev really that good, or did he just look exceptional because he was surrounded by a group of granite-handed muckers?
MacTavish has already shouldered the blame, but there has to be some real accountability for turning the NHL’s attention to the league’s laughingstock. While there have been some positives (Perron trade, affable personality, nice ties) during MacT’s tenure, the bad far outweighs the good, particularly with so many question marks on the roster. Everything is sure to remain status quo in Edmonton, with many viewing the Tkachev incident as an innocent blip on the radar. However, I don’t trust MacTavish, and with him steering the ship I can still blissfully disconnect for a few hours, but I’m scared of what I’ll discover once I check back in.
[email protected]
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»