A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS
The Oilers are 4-14-2 after 20 games and 29th in the NHL standings. They are 14 points out of a playoff spot. This is not the daily reminder that the Oilers are terrible. This is going to be a matter of fact statement of where the Oilers are and what that ought to mean moving forward.
The Edmonton Oilers’ season is lost. They are not making the playoffs and there will be no meaningful games in November, let alone March.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say with confidence that a professional season is done with 75% of the year left but there it is. And I’m not alone. I’m not being overly negative or speaking in hyperbole here either. This is just the sad, soul-crushing truth. And here are a couple of other people who try to make the point as well.
Oilers chance of making the playoffs down to 1/10th of 1%. They could play a millennium of seasons from this point onward and make it once.
— Michael Parkatti (@mparkatti) November 14, 2013
If the Oilers went 40-20-2 in their remaining games they'd miss the playoffs. When do we see first central scouting list?
— Terry Jones (@sunterryjones) November 14, 2013
These are dark times for sure. The expectations were that the Oilers would compete for that final playoff spot. They may not make it, but they would compete for it. Well you can put a big red X beside that goal. Kevin Lowe should probably prepare something to say about this fiasco when Katz asks him to do his employee evaluation this year, but I think we all know that’s not going to happen.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Well what this means is that we are indeed still in a rebuilding year. The Oilers effectively did nothing to their defense and goaltending despite major question marks going into the season and threw snake eyes in that dice toss. Dubnyk is terrible most nights and when he does play well the team is hilariously overmatched even against the 11th placed team in the West.
We are back to developmental hockey in the guise of NHL games. It means Yakupov should be playing 16+ minutes a night no matter how many mistakes he makes out there because he needs ice time to learn. It means Wins and Losses have ceased having any meaning and we can start looking for “Moral Victories… instead of literal ones. It means we should start thinking about the Draft if MacT doesn’t unload the Oilers’ 1st rounder, and IF he does move it then it means he better get something incredible for it.
Is that pathetic? Oh yes. It’s pathetic. The Oilers have been rebuilding since Pronger left. Sure, they didn’t call it a rebuild then. They tried though, then failed, then tried again but only in 2010 did they have the courtesy of calling it a “Rebuild…. No matter which date you start counting back, there’s no excuse for the level of incompetency that we’ve been forced to endure.
You deserve better, Oilers fans. You really do, but you aren’t getting it. Not this year.
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