Bob Stauffer keeps beating the drum that if everyone knew the Ryan Smyth story, the city would be perfectly unified behind Lowe and the Oilers. He praises the Oilers for not trashing Smyth after he left town. The thing of it is, when a team employee goes on the radio and says this, the team’s kind of having it both ways. Stauffer’s story might be true, it might not be, but a team employee going on the radio and saying that the organization was blameless doesn’t mean a hell of a lot.

In addition, it’s awfully curious that Stauffer is so sure about this when, in the days following the trade, LaForge & Co. were happy to say all sorts of things about Smyth without mentioning something like this. We all know that they were less than forthcoming in painting it as a hockey trade and not about money. I don’t know who Stauffer’s sources are, and they’re obviously good, but he’s not too good or too smart to avoid being used by someone else. Without having the opportunity to evaluate what he says the facts are, I don’t know how anyone can take an Oilers employee seriously when he says that the secret story would prove the Oilers right.