MacTavish returns behind the bench in the same circumstances from which he left it: with me convinced he should be fired.
I’m not going to sugar coat things here. The more I look at this team, the less convinced I am that anyone currently employed by the Oilers has the vision or hockey sense to see the problems for what they are and the wherewithal to fix them. Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish, and Scott Howson are leading this team on a path to nowhere and I don’t think anyone brought a map.
This morning Dallas Eakins had his own news conference where he was “speaking freely"…at Rexall…in front of an Oiler logo. Make no mistake, nothing about it was a former employee speaking freely. Dallas Eakins is still very much a believer in Craig MacTavish. Even after being fired by the man Eakins is still in MacT’s corner. That’s the kind of friend you want when you need to sacrifice someone to keep your job.
In any event, Eakins handled himself with a lot of class today doing something that many others would have (fairly) chosen not to do. When Renney was let go he went into hiding for a bit. When Krueger was let go he went to Europe (actually he was already there but whatever). Eakins is staying in Edmonton with his family until the next position becomes available.
One of the big take-aways were that Eakins believes this team needs time. Lots of time. How much time? He said a new GM would come in and ask for 5 years. For those following along at home on their television sets, the Oilers have been in some form of rebuild/retooling since 2006, it’s 2014 (almost 2015) and the last coach who is incredibly tight with management suggests 5 more seasons of hell. Carry the one, divide by Robbie Schremp, account for wind variation and that leaves you with a 14 year rebuild.
Eakins said the goal was to be hitting the playoff success button when the team moves into the new building. If that doesn’t send warning signals to you that this team has weird motives when it comes to winning then I don’t know what will
Beyond time, Eakins went out of his way to mention growth in players like Taylor Hall, who was subject of plenty of talk last night about his coachability from pundits like Darren Dreger. The TSN Insider also started the discussion of how Hall may or may not be shopped soon. We can get into that in more detail at some point I’m sure but it seemed as though Eakins has gone out of his way to put the notion of Hall being a Coach Killer to rest.
LINEUP
I imagine we’ll see a very similar lineup to the one we saw the other day but with more silver hair behind the bench. Todd Nelson will eventually take over as the Interim Head Coach and when he does I wonder how long it will take before he calls up his guys from OKC. We wait. Boyd Gordon took the morning skate and I am going to tentatively put him in the lineup but he may not actually play. Hunt was paired this Schultz this morning which should end terribly for everyone.
Hall RNH Purcell Yak Draisaitl Eberle Perron Arco Pitlick Hendricks Gordon Pinizzotto
Ference Petry Davidson Fayne Hunt Schultz
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) The Transition. It begins today as MacT does the time honored transition between coaches that all General Managers do when they replace their Head Coach. As tradition dictates MacTavish will accompany Todd Nelson on the bench, work on line combinations with him, help him tie his skates up, and even chew some of his food for him. In all reality it looks like MacT is running the show for the next few games at least. He’s at the center of the practices. He’s calling the shots. Let’s see what he does.
2) Hunting For Change. Brad Hunt was not good enough the last time the Oilers gave this a go. He is a very talented AHL scorer. His shot is NHL caliber for sure, but that’s where it ends. He at least brings that dimension with him, but he was exposed by NHL players in his own zone. Paired with Schultz looks like the makings of a bad start for Craig MacTavish.
3) Wake Up. The Oilers managed 16 shots after they themselves were rested and playing against a Ranger team that had played the night before. The effort was sufficient to warrant the coach being fired. Now what? Who takes this team by the horns and drags it out of this funk? They cannot show up looking like someone slipped tranquilizers into their water bottles one more time. The GM is barking orders tonight. Let’s see if they respond.
Puck drops tonight at 7:08 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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