As long as the guy has the decency to chime in on a post that isn’t totally complimentary of him, the least that I can do here is throw him a link: The Cult of Hockey.  I’m sure there was no slight intended by the failure to do so in the first place; as Staples will learn if he’s to become an Oilogospherist, Dennis just doesn’t do links well.

One of the things I occasionally struggle with is just how much time I spend following, and obsessing about, my favorite sports teams. The Expos are long gone and the ownership in Washington has been cheap enough, not to mention stupid enough because as of this afternoon they’re still employing Jim Bowden, that baseball hasn’t really regained it’s hold on me since the stretch drive of ‘05. And looking back, it’s clear I only followed the Nationals that year because I was without hockey and I needed something to fill that void.

That being said, when the Expos existed, I was all in. It was only during the latter part of their existence did I find a few places online where sabremetrics was being discussed and in a couple of years time, a topic that had been the domain of Bill James and a relatively small number of disciples was now being throw around often enough in even semi-casual baseball conversation that stats like OBP were being featured even on local telecasts. The belief in numbers has not only spilt the baseball community according to beliefs, it’s also spilt them in terms of discussion. Guys who swore by the hit-and-run and placing a batter with a low average in the No.2 spot so he could sacrifice bunt, those guys didn’t seem all that interested in talking about the the prospect of trading a long-in-the-tooth first sacker because there was a kid down in triple A who might not have the range of the incumbant but could rake like Jack Cust. So, I think the discourse has gotten to the point of near insularity, folks on one side will throw a barb when a team like the ‘06 Cardinals win and then the other side whoops and hollers when the ‘07 Red Sox come out on top, but, overall, there’s really no meeting place.


The places on the Oilosphere that I visit, these places either tend to be either anayltical and/or mocking, depending on what guys like Lowe and Laforge are saying or doing on either particular day. These sites care about things like who’s killing penalties, who’s squaring off against the Henrk Zetterberg’s of the league and what the latest spin was on the last Oilers PPV telecast. Granted, I know they cater to the smallest percentage of the fanbase but it’s a release from conversing with the guys who only care that “Stortini was beaking off” or “Hemsky sure can dangle.” You know those guys, the ones in the workplace who constantly spout stuff that you used to be concerned with, things that you thought were important, when you were twelve years old. The folks I want to talk to, these are the ones who want to break things down, they want the why’s and how’s and while I’m sure there are Oiler fanboy sites on the net, I don’t frequent them. Well, unless you count reading The Sun and The Journal everyday.

Which brings me to David Staples.

There are some positive signs when it comes to this Journal blogger because, first off, he spoke to the Red Fisher of bloggers, the OS’s very own Lowetide, and just the other day I read a blurb where he went through stats to combine hits and blocked shits and while I’m not really a slave to the former stat, combining these two stats is a pretty cool way to measure the effectiveness of a defenseman. He also gave praise to Jan Hejda, and I was very impressed by that because whereas ‘07 was the year of the D corps being strong down low but unable to make a consistent breakout pass, ‘08 is the year of opposing forwards banging in rebounds and finding seams because the defense is built on guys who are more geared towards creating offense rather then stunting offensive chances. Of course, Staples failed to wonder aloud how Hejda slipped away from the Oilers, we’re getting to that, but at least he had the good sense to post a metric that showed that Hejda might be someone worth still having here.

But then you had today’s entry concerning Brian Burke and it makes me wonder if Staples has an agenda, if he’s trying to pander to a specific audience or if he’s drinking the Kool-Aid while a soothing voice emits from the loudspeaker.

To summarize, Staples considers one of the season’s pivotal storylines to be whether the Oilers finish low enough as to provide the Ducks with a top five pick, gleaned by Ana from the offersheet to Penner. Staples is dead-on with this assessment, this is the main thing to watch for. But the why’s and how’s of how Lowe got to the point of feeling such desperation, that’s where Staples and I disagree. And, where I’d wager, Staples and most guys with a clue would disagree.

Staples starts off his timeline by citing the Pronger trade and how that doomed the Oilers to rebuild. Now, if that’s not giving Lowe an easy out, I don’t know what is. No one told Kevin Lowe to trade Pronger to Anaheim for Smid, Lupul and picks. Smid isn’t a blue-chipper and no one will convince me otherwise. And no one will convince me that Lupul was worth the trouble either because there are a tonne of guys who can read shiftcharts;) and they’ll show you he racked up his goal totals in ‘06 playing against nobodies. And, later on in his timeline, Staples fails to mention that Lowe buggered the Pronger trade to the degree that he would later trade Jason Smith for Joni Pitkanen in a tacit admission that Smid wasn’t the guy to build around. And there’s also no one that can argue that if you give an already strong team one of the league’s best defensemen, also signed to an affordable contract, BTW, without really taking away from their corps in the process of the return, that the first round picks you receive in return won’t exactly be surebets. Later on, Staples goes on to say that gosh darn it, Billy, if the Oilers manage to avoid finishing in the bottom five, Ana would be lucky to get an impact player in the 6-14 slots. Sure, the Oilers were lucky to get a Gagner in that spot but that’s not the norm. Of course, what Staples fails to tell you is that the ‘08 draft class projects to be a very deep draft, and while that isn’t the case for all draft years, this one is supposed to bear much fruit. But, let’s say Staples is right, ok? If a 6-14 pick isn’t much to brag about, then how would you feel about having all of those Ana first round picks when they were good before you went and gave them Pronger for basically nothing? You think it’s hard trying to help your team with a 6-14 pick, try picking anywhere from say 22-30. How much value would those first rounders have? Curiously, Staples failed to mention that.

Also, if you want to talk about why the Oilers were so thin heading into last summer, which is why this mess began in the first place, why not mention the decision they made on Ryan Smyth? Where even I can argue that the Oilers hands were somewhat tied by the Pronger trade demand, no such hurdle existed when it came to their decision on Smyth. They had a chance to hand him his payout in the summer of ‘06 while numerous others got their respective bumps, but, in the end, they decided Smyth really wasn’t worth the trouble and they ended up trading him for let’s say 60 cents on the dollar. But of course, that didn’t seem to be worth Staples trouble.

Staples also throws out the word “top” when describing the status of free agent Sheldon Souray. I don’t think you can use that word without any quantification. You can say Souray had value because he put up a great point total on the PP but if you’re going to say that, you also have to cite his plus/minus total. But Staples doesn’t bother to do that and he doesn’t bother to tell you that while the Oilers thought Smyth was perhaps getting too old and might break down because of his style of play, they signed a guy in Souray who was just a few months younger than Smyth and had a longer injured reserve record. Plus, when talking about how Nylander and Pronger didn’t want to play here because of family issues, guess who who did playing here? Exactly.

These are journalistic sins of omission on Staples part and it makes me wonder if this is just the latest example of an employee of a company possessing a small stake in the ownership of the Oilers, The Edmonton Journal, making excuses for Lowe because they’re basically all in it together. There’s a weird dynamic in the Edmonton mainstream media where criticism of ownership or management seems to be nearly taboo. Bob Stuaffer, for example, has no trouble slamming the head coach because of the style of play he employs, but he fails to mention that the general manager has mismanged the talent quotient of the team to the point of where success isn’t really an option.

Staples, listen, you’ve got a chance to be one of the good guys here. You throw out links to blogs around the sphere, which means that you should eventually learn some things if you’re open to it, so I imagine you’ll wind up here and you’ll read this. You nailed the primary storyline of the season, so good on you. But in listing how the Oilers got to this place, you left out huge chunks of the novel. You nailed the beginning when you listed Pronger’s departure and you obviously have the ending because it’s all combined to leave the Oilers is a sorry on-the-ice state. But it’s the middle that elicts the best discussion. Why did Lowe move so quick on Pronger, for instance? Remember when Yashin wanted out of Ottawa? Remember how long that took and the return he brought? Exactly. I never saw that mentioned once in either of the Edm papers, so, hey, you can take that from me and run with it. Regarding Smyth, why would they go hardline with him over 100K per season and then a few scant months later throw money and picks at Nylander, Vanek, Souray and Penner? Would that have anything to do with the Katz ownership interest, I wonder? Were the Oilers making enough money all along that they could afford to go to the cap every season and once that was reflected in Katz’s offer, did that suddenly spur the sending? And are you allowed to talk about that? Or do you just ignore it and hope that other people don’t call you on it?

Look, it would be pretty boring, although truthful, but if you want a topic for your daily entries everytime it looks like the Oilers are going to finish in the lottery, and you want to explain how Lowe found himself in the position that he gambled away picks in the year of a stacked draft on the premise of first Vanek and then Penner, here’s your explanation: you can’t trade away Pronger, Smyth and Smid for Smid, Pitkanen and a bunch of devalued picks and expect not to drop precipitiously in the standings. That’s why Lowe was in a hole talent wise and that’s why he jumped at Penner. Brian Burke might be a loudmouth bore but in the Pronger and Smyth decisions, and the Souray move that followed, Kevin Lowe has done much more to tarnish his reputation than Brian Burke could ever hope to do.

I’m not sure if you think that, if you know that or if you’re even allowed to print that. From here, it looks like you have an agenda. Then again, maybe you’re just the guy who’s happy that Zach Storini will occasionally beak off.