mc79hockey.com

For those not in the know, CanLii is a fantastic source of legal decisions. I didn’t realize just how fantastic it was until the other day when, trolling for legal decisions involving NHL players. If you want to find out a ton of stuff about NHL related issues that doesn’t make the papers - how Alexei Yashin isn’t the only person that the Ottawa Senators fought with about a signed contract, that Pavel Bure first asked for a trade from Vancouver in 1993, how the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation and Kosice Hockey Club tried to pull something douchey on Marek Svatos and, amazingly, a pile of old NHL arbitration decisions. Unfortunately, a bunch of them seem to have been corrupted in placing them onto the system but there are still a bunch of ones that are readable. You can see all of the available decisions here. I strongly suspect that this means that there are paper versions floating around somewhere, which gives me something to look for the next time that I wander into a well stocked law library.

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There are certain things that, despite being horrific, are majestic in their awfulness. The Oilers 12 game losing streat is such a beast - very, very few teams endure a stretch that bad. I was digging through some stats to try and get some perspective on just how bad things have been in Edmonton since Kevin Lowe, Pat LaForge and the EIG declined the opportunity to go the extra mile for their fans. I’ve put together some of the lowlights, along with some historic commentary for the enjoyment of readers of this site. Since we know that the Oilers like getting statistical nuggets phoned into them that they can then helpfully provide to the dailies, feel free to email a link to this to Pat LaForge’s BlackBerry - I’m sure that he’ll helpfully pass it along to the Oilers Ministry of Information and it will be provided to the proper people in the media.
The Oilers have scored 11 goals in their past 12 games. As I pointed out the other day, this was near historic offensive ineptitude. The list of teams who’ve scored fewer than 11 goals over a 12 game span consists of the 1928-29 Chicago Blackhawks, the 1928-29 Montreal Maroons, the 1928-29 New York Americans, the 1928-29 Ottawa Senators, the 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1997-98 Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2001-02 Colorado Avalanche, the 2002-03 Calgary Flames and the 2003-04 Dallas Stars. When you consider that the 1928-29 NHL was so bereft of offence that it forced the league to change the rules and allow forward passes the following season, you get an idea of the sort of circumstances that have to occur for a team to produce as little offensively as the Oilers did. The previous Oilers record for fewest goals in a 12 game span was 18, set by multiple teams in the early 2000’s. They’ve absolutely shattered that and in an NHL that’s more conducive to offence.
The Oilers went -33 over the 12 games. This is a lot more common. I was going to run the list but it’s too long - notable though that the vast majority of those teams did it in eras that had a lot more offence. This is, of course, the worst stretch that the Oilers have ever endured, topping the previous record of -28 set in 1994-95. Context should be noted here - with the game being more low scoring now than it was then, the gap between the two streaks is greater than it appears.

You can throw out a lot of what’s happened since Smyth was traded, due to the injuries and everything else. Pat LaForge has really been throwing this team under the bus - during his telethon in LA he basically said that these aren’t the real Edmonton Oilers. Much as I hate to agree with him, I think that he’s right. This is still a pretty disheartening way to finish out the season though, and with tonight’s 4-0 loss to Nashville to finish out the home schedule and six road games remaining, the end isn’t shaping up to be a lot more fun. There can be little doubt that the future is brighter - hopefully we aren’t forced to endure a similar year next year.

Colby Cosh recently got his shit together and put up his first post in nearly a month on his site. He doesn’t allow comments on his site. I recently threw up my first post-Smyth post on my Score blog, which does allow comments. The reaction isn’t pretty.

There’s an old MacT quote, and he admits it’s not an original of his because it came from one of his old coaches, about how at the end of a winning streak you’re winning games you should be losing and how at the end of a losing streak the opposite is true. MacTavish is a smart cat and throws out some real gems, ie his post game scrums during last year’s playoffs were gold, but this is true as anything he’ll ever utter. Keeping that in mind I’d like to warn the Avalanche to be very wary heading into tonight’s game in Edm because the Laughing Stock look just about due.

I know that wasn’t the real Canucks team the Oilers faced on Monday night given they were missing both Salo and Mitchell and no I’m not about to make excuses for a team being outplayed when missing two of it’s regulars when the team that outplayed them is missing eight, ie seven regs plus 94, of their’s but I’m just trying to say that if a depleted beyond recognition Oilers squad can outchance a red-hot Canucks squad then Colorado might just be in trouble.

There’s no question Roloson made some bright saves but Luongo was magnificent at the other end which tells us two things: A: the Canucks really aren’t that good and I’ll wager now that they won’t finish 15 games over .500 in ‘08 when it comes to one-goal games and B: even without 16-18-19-83-94 the Oilers forward corps brought their shovels and were putting in sufficent work as to outplay their opposition.

10-14 had some real jam last game and 10 in particular was back to keeping the puck in the good end of the ice, 14 popped his first goal since Kevin Lowe didn’t have a combover and if they had someone better on their right-wing I’d imagine they’d have marked at least one additional goal and we’ll have more on that guy a little further down the page. On the 4th line 22-46 found some banging chemistry, yeah I guess that came out wrong;) with 28 in the middle, OK I’ll stop now, and even created a scoring chance or two. 78 made a couple of nice setups to 34 and hell even Lupul had a great scoring opp and set up Petersen for another. Things were starting to click scoring chance wise and usually when that happens goals will follow.

And that has me worried.

Despite all the talk of the Oilers tanking to ensure themselves of a top five pick, and don’t get me wrong I’m onboard with such sentiment because 11 games later losing has entered old hat territory and I’m so sick of hearing how the Oilers wanted to move up on draft-day to grab this guy or that guy that I’d like to see them get a top five pick just to see what they’d do with it or how they’d spin it after-the-fact, there’s really only four games that I’m cheering the Oilers to lose in regulation: these next two vs the Avs and the two in Minny in the season’s last week. Other than that I don’t really want to see the Oilers win but it won’t bother me either. But tonight is different and I hope the Avalanche are ready because even the Oilers look like they are despite employing no less than three third-stringers on D, ie #’s 40-60-76.

Everyone Despises Lupul: Pat Falloon was an Oiler the last time I checked out the scratches with such a keen eye and we all know how that ended: Ron Low healthy-scratched Smyth in the playoffs and somehow his old Manitoban buddy Falloon saw game-action. Well now we’re faced with the prospect of Lupul missing his second game of the last three and we’re hearing it’s because of the flu but I’d like to believe it’s because the guy sucks and has sucked for the vast majority of the season and by vast majority I mean at least 62 games. There are some guys that can go games without scoring and you can still point to them making positive contributions, ie Thoresen, and then there are guys like Lupul who either help you by scoring or hurt you if they don’t this and this especially rings true on the road. Lupul’s even at home but is a whopping -22 on the road. This tells us that MacT hides him enough at home that he doesn’t kill us, unless you want to factor in things like other people might be able to do more with those soft min or that he’s getting paid over 2 mill and can’t do anything other than stay even while playing soft min;) One thing I will allow to the Lupul-ologists though is that the 20-71-15 line just doesn’t work or hasn’t been working in forever and yet MacT keeps it together. I’d imagine that it’s MacT’s way of putting all the ES garbage in the same bag but the other night they actually created two chances and now it appears that Lupul will sit out tonight’s game. So once again macT screws over Lupul. That bastard!!!

Holdin’ her and lovin’ you or ex-girl collection: One song’s from the past and the other’s from the near present but both describe my unhealthy obsession with watching Isles games and getting excited whenever Smytty does those Smytty things and then watching Oilers games and rooting for Robert Nilsson but being disappointed when he does well Robert Nilsson things. I liked the look of the kid in his first game but he hasn’t made much of a difference in his last two and he’s getting a real push given he’s playing with Horc and Torres but maybe it’s hurting him that he’s playing tough opp. Does one cancel out the other I wonder? It’s interesting that I read his AHL coach in today’s Sun talking about how Robert is sometimes prone to roaming out of position defensively and he cited him playing left wing but sometimes finding him out on the right point. I swear to you that this is the exact same thing I saw from him during the third period in Sat’s OTL to Stl.  I rewound the tape just to make sure but there he was out on Torres point while the other sat unattended. I’m not giving up on Nilsson just yet and I’m not expecting either of him or O’Mara or for that matter him plus O’Mara to replace Smytty but it’s times like this when it sucks being an Oilers fan. And you guys know what I’m talking about because it’s now three years of the last six where Edm has missed the playoffs. Take away one admittedly exceptional and exciting run in ‘06 and we’re looking at two playoff series wins in the other 13 years combined. Of course Lowe is gonna ride and pimp that run for as long as anyone lets him, someone else must have caught his remark to the Springfield brass about the Oilers making every move to get back to the Final and they know something about that because they were there last year, but the guys who live and have lived and died with every season know that there’s been mostly bleak times for low these past 14 seasons and that things aren’t likely to get much brighter in the near future. But we’ll always have ‘06 and ‘90 and so on and so forth and pretty soon we’re Leaves fans.

Now batting against fastballs but currently taking them in the ribs like he’s F.P Santangelo or Ron Hunt if you’re from LT;) : Matheson checked in today and while his mailbag’s being increasingly filled with questions of a tougher ilk then say “Jim I think the Oilers are great, what do you think?”, we’re still no closer to any semblence of truth or candor when it comes to the HHOF;) scribe. Today Matty tackled the Pronger trade when a guy dared ask why Lowe didn’t wait before he moved and thus might have put himself into a position where he could’ve received more in return. Matty responded that Lowe didn’t have to deal with the distraction of having Pronger sit out like Comrie before him and then in wondering why Pronger was dealt to Ana and why Getzlaf wasn’t included in the return instead of Lupul the longtime beatie wrote himself into the possibility that perhaps it might have came at the expense of Smid’s inclusion. Well sir that settles it then becasue I don’t know where this org would be without young Smid. I mean here’s a guy that can make a great first pass…if there’s no one within 15 feet of him. Here’s a guy that put up sterling offensive numbers in the AHL…wait that’s not true. And here’s a guy who’s shot could only break a pane of glass if the glass was comprised solely of bones taken from the back of Eric Daze. OK that part’s true but it does nothing for the team. To my mind this is the deal that sunk the ‘07 seasons and hampered the prospects of many following and what was Lowe afraid of distraction wise? Was it that the season would fall apart I wonder? Well then how did he feel in the aftermath of the deal when he was left with a top six D that included all of Bergeron, Greene AND Smid? Did that make him feel any better I wonder? And what about the twin destractions of Smid playing over his head and Lupul simultainously eating salary and soft minutes and killing the team in more ways that even I could’ve imagined last summer.

The Expos made a lot of deals that choked me, though Johnson plus for Langston wasn’t one of them because Mark was gold back then and there’s a time when you go for it, but the one that killed me was Sizemore, Phillips and Lee for Colon and that was under the rule of Omar Minaya. Mind you dealing Jason Bay for Lou Collier wasn’t fucking overly impressive either and you should never deal a guy who can hit in the minors and might be able to hit in the majors for one who you know can’t hit anywhere and is a utility infielder at best but the thing I didn’t like about the Colon/Sizemore deal was I saw right through it from the beginning and so did everyone with a clue. Omar was doing his first tour as a MLB GM and he was just looking to make a splash with the sadsack Expos and parlay that into his next job. He was slashing and burning his way through the org but on his way through the jungle he was telling lies. You see back then the term contraction was being bandied about and some dummies actually believed it. Myself I looked at the the history of labour talks between MLB and the PA and somehow I just couldn’t see the PA losing a battle that would be fought over the loss of not only 50 MLB jobs but also the minor league jobs that two team’s worth of minor league operations would provide.  But Omar spun and spun and had people believing that the Expos could be folded any day and they were close this summer and dammit he owed it to the fans to take a shot. The trade was an abomination and for a few reasons. First off I loved watching Colon pitch but what the team needed back then was a bat. Secondly it was one thing to deal off two prospects and try and make it sound legit but three was just gross. Sizemore projected to be a star, even though early on he didn’t show the power but he did show the patience and propensity for doubles that have scouts drooling and his defense right off the hop was outstanding. Lee was a LH starter with good numbers and Phillips progress had begun to slow due to an unwillingness to take a walk but he still had value. Omar dealt all of them for three months plus of Colon and he’d eventually walk to his big paying job with the Mets where he could throw money at problems instead of trying to correct them in-house with scouting and development.

The Expos have long left Mtl but the Nats remain and they’ll start next month with Guzman at SS, Shawn Hill as their #2 starter and they still can’t field three OFers who can hit. The trade is still hurting them.

The Pronger trade killed the ‘07 season and will continue to haunt the Oilers as well. For as much as Lowe likes to walk as a hardass and has some stuff on his resume that will back it up, ie the Comrie trade, the time of the season he dealt off Niinimaa and the decision on Smyth, it’s when Lowe has a softside for a player that we should all close our eyes and go to our own happy place. Of course that also happens when he goes all tough as well, ie the returns for Comrie and Weight. The soft side is a point of Cam’s but it’s clear that he’s correct. Weight gave a list of two teams he wanted to go and Lowe obiliged and whereas Lowe made Comrie wait for his return and then tried to steal his wallet on the way out of the door, Pronger made his demand and Lowe obliged and did it quickly and gave him a chance at a Cup and the Oilers a chance at the next two lottery picks. Matty took another one for the team by skating around the issue but the Pronger deal is, at least for fans of other NW teams, WC teams as well and Oiler-haters in general, the gift that will keep on giving.

Terry Jones made sense today:

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I hope the Flames miss the playoffs. I’ll take it but I didn’t want to see it happen this way.

Calgary is in grave danger of missing the playoffs, almost entirely because of the ridiculous manner in which the NHL hands out OTL/SOW points. The Flames are, by Andy Dolphin’s reckoning, the best team in the NW and by Sagarin’s reckoning, they’re number two. I suspect that Sagarin is using the GF/GA numbers published by the NHL, which include SOGF and SOGA, and would accordingly bugger up the system.

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With thanks to Scarlett. I’m reminded of a quote Joff gave earlier this year about how it’s tough in cities like Edmonton when things aren’t going well - you can’t go out and you just have to hide at home. I have no idea when this picture was taken.

While we’re on the topic, at least some of the local media are really starting to get the knives out.  Barnes in today’s Journal:

Joffrey Lupul has been wasting ice time all year long and they finally scratched him Saturday, allegedly with the flu. If he was truly sick, he shouldn’t have been breathing on his teammates in the press box, lest they catch whatever it is that has affected his play this season.

Hopefully it’s not communicable, or that poor girl will likely have been ineffectual at her post and loathed by her clients since her encounter with Joff.

The question of how profitable the Oilers are is one that I’ve been pondering lately. The team’s been taking a bit of a beating from a lot of different places on the Oilogosphere and even the sycophants at HF have started to ask some of the more obvious questions. It’s an oft raised argument that the Oilers lost a bunch of money back in the day. I’m not so sure that’s true. I’ve gone back though the Journal’s archives to pull out some quotes that I think are interesting so as to offer them up for public consumption/comment.

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Looking at the Oilers lineup, they dressed nine rookies tonight, plus Matt Greene, who might as well be a rookie - he misses by like two games. If that’s not a record, it would have to be close. We need the Elias Bureau on this - I’m genuinely curious.

Also, they’re now halfway to the all-time consecutive loss record. 8 more to go for a piece of history!

You should also check out YKOil’s post on his site - he makes a fantastic point about how nuts the “10% of cap space in reserve” argument is.

Eklund’s rosy cheeked boy had Patrick LaForge on his show tonight, something that he was pushing on Hockey’s Future this afternoon, looking for questions, promising a willingness to ask real questions.  He didn’t, of course, but LaForge did drop this little note:

Of course, Ryan had a demand for compensation.  We matched it and it was rejected by him at the time.  Nobody sent us a note but it was what he wanted.  Kevin was left with a very short deadline.

Tencer, whose voice was remarkably clear considering you’d kind of think it’d be muffled given the circumstances, chimed in with “When he turns down an offer like that and then goes to the airport and had that emotional scene, doesn’t that strike you as a little bit odd?”  Bryan Hall is looking over his shoulder somwhere right now, I’m sure.

LaForge went out of his way to say that the Oilers matched Smyth’s demands and that they were surprised that the offer wasn’t accepted.  This seems like a new twist.  LaForge was bragging earlier in the show about how honest he and the Oilers are as well.  We haven’t really heard from Smyth yet what it was but I’m more and more interested in hearing his side of the story.  I have an amazingly hard time thinking that they gave him what he asked for and he welshed on it.  It doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t fit with anything that’s been stated publicly.  I keep hoping that they’ll go too far and goad Smyth into a response - hopefully someone asks him about this.