Follow @james_tanner123 The Coyotes are off until tomorrow when they play the Oilers, again at home. The Oilers will be playing the second of back-to-back games, so that is a slight advantage in the Coyotes' favor. A slight disadvantage will be if the Oilers lose tonight to the Kings, putting them at 0-3 and adding some desperation to their game.
Since there is no Coyotes news to pass on - other than the demotion of Justin Hodgman, who did not see the ice in two games so far, to the AHL - I thought I'd take this blog to talk about the Oilers.
What I want to know is, what is going on with people? I have never seen such abject negativity. They lost two games. So what? Not like you should even bother looking at the standings yet, but they are a whopping 1 point out of the playoffs and they lost their second game in a shootout. You know, those random events that we use to decide tied hockey games because coin flips are boring?
Boston is 1-3 and the Canadiens just allowed 7 goals. It's OK to relax a bit, I mean, I know it's been a rough few years but you were compensated well for it and things are going to get better. Like, potential dynasty better.
In the time since the still young Oilers blew a couple leads to the still very much veteran Canucks team on Saturday, I have seen all sorts of insanity.
A guy threw his jersey on the ice. For one, they ought to ban this jack-ass from the building for the rest of his life. You aren't cool, and worse, you're not original- -, you're just a loser. A hockey team doesn't owe you anything. You aren't making a political statement, you just make yourself look like an idiot.
People who throw $200 jerseys on the ice deserve the scorn of everyone. Its non-sensicle and the team doesn't care. Do you think Criag MacTavish woke up the nest morning and said "Gee we better try to win some games, the insane portion our fanbase is getting restless." I guarantee you he did not. What he did when he saw that, was be disgusted by the idiocy and sense of entitlement of the jersey thrower, just like every other intelligent person who saw it happen.
Almost as bad as the jersey thrower are people who act like this team is permanently bad just because they are yet to have success. They could easily be 1-1 right now. They were a coin flip away. Did they lose two winnable games? Sure, but they'll also win a bunch of loseable ones, these things have a way of balancing out.
Why not focus on some positives? Yakupov is off to a good start,getting points in both games. Taylor Hall is Taylor Hall. Perron and Purcell each have 3 points so far.
Instead of the possible resurrection of former #1 overall pick, I just keep hearing about how Jordan Eberle's career is finished at the age of 24. Despite having a supposedly off year last season, he still scored 28 goals. I heard someone call his contract an "albatross," and yet, I don't think six million per year is too bad for someone who can pot you 30 goals even in an off year. It's two games guys.
I am not kidding, but on one of the forms I am pretty sure I heard someone suggest they "trade Eberle while he still has value." Trust me, he still has value and will continue to have value. In fact, if anything, trading him at his lowest possible ebb is probably the panicky insane -asylum kind of move the Oilers would best be avoiding.
But, hey, we will take him in Arizona, no problems. You guys like Joe Vitale?
Come off it. Jordan Eberle is a great player and is only going to get better. Just like the Oilers. They have coaching stability, they have an NHL lineup - things they haven't had in a while. They also have Taylor Hall.
Things will be fine.
Young teams, even good ones, lose games they should win. They don't need to fire their coach or make a trade two games into the season. All they need is patience. You have RNH and Draisaitl down the middle for the next decade. Just about every team in the NHL would kill for that. Your best player, Taylor Hall, is the age of a prospect.
Keep your jerseys on.
This is going to be a fun team to watch for years to come.
Thanks for reading.