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Hysterical Oilers Fanclub

Thanks to Lowetide, I've decided to take him up and start this. 

Thanks, Lowetide. 

I probably won't keep this going for long, it's just an expression to show my viewpoint at the worthlessness of the entire Oilers organisation ever since the day they traded Mark Messier away for a worthless Bernie Nichols.

I am old enough to remember, even at the tender age of 31, how even before Gretzky got traded away there was always this talk of how "Edmonton will lose Gretzky".  As a child at the time, this made no sense. After all, the players only made so much money, and wasn't Wayne signed up until 2000?

Silly me. Imagine, expecting people to honour a contract. 

Fast forward to the 90s. The Oilers stink, threaten to leave town constantly, the populace knowing that once the Oilers leave town, CFL franchise aside the city is finished as a major sports/entertainment dot on the map. Luckily Kevin Lowe was there, to tell everyone how once the new CBA was signed, the Oilers would then be ready and able to compete, right up there with the big boys. 

And, Lowe's inability to ice a comprehensive team aside, they very nearly pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat. One game away from winning their 6th cup. 

But I grew up when the Oilers didn't just show up at the dance. The team I saw live 50 or so times as a kid actually used to win the thing. Like Wings fans today, I just knew the Oilers were great, and the odd year they didn't win, well, so what. I knew they would be back, next time. 

Unfortunately Kevin Lowe couldn't keep his team together. All of the good players left, leaving the grinders and slugs behind. Lowe then doubles everyone's pay out of loyalty i guess, and what are we left with today? A team that isn't good enough to compete for the cup. Yet, it's one of the most expensive teams in the NHL!

A lot of Oilers fans these days remind me of people raised in a cave, who have never in their lives seen the daylight. Like the Morlocks, in the movie The Time Machine.  No ability to think for themselves, they blindly believe whatever crap the current Oilers management sells to them. Craig Mactavish, having Chris Pronger and Mike Peca no more to lead the team has shown no ability to develop players, institute comprehensive systems, even keep the right amount of players on the fucking ice, as witnessed by so many too many men on the ice penalties. 

So what do these fans do? They huddle together and endlessly come up with imaginary line combinations, which no one in the world gives a fuck about playing. As the Oilers continue to flounder, these days looking more like a 2008 expansion team than anything else, they actually think/hope that by changing a few players around that it's going to make a difference.

Well. Sorry guys. You've got the wrong end of the stick. What you don't seem to understand is, the Oilers, a sports team, are essentially no different than any organisation, be it the army, a corporation, or even a church. In any of these organisations, everything starts at the top. When the leaders are incompetant, the organisations in question all will suffer.

The fact is, these Oilers show no more proclivity for success than at any time, 2006 playoffs excepted, since the 1990 cup run.

And the way things look from here, it's going to have to get even worse, before it gets better.




6 comments:

Oilmaniac said...

hopelessness aside...

do you enjoy watching any of the games or does it envoke serious flashes of pain, like a knife continuously being turned within your belly...

The ninties were a dark time for oiler fans.. no doubt... but there were small victories amidst the gloomly landscape... 2006 tho, if it wasnt for that teased taste of victory, its amazing comebacks pervading a sense of destiny that seemingly could bring back this team from 3-1 in the F'SCF, then perhaps the Oilogosphere would be slightly sainer place...

Either way, I took a few days off Lowetide and came back to you being persecuted,.. funny shit,.. i wouldnt worry about some of em being jerky, fuckm,.. but probably bringing something constructive would be a good idea... but what the fuck do i know, haha, I post lines up that no one in their right would give a shit about.. so.. c'est la vie...

hunter1909 said...

Thanks man. I never expected anyone to post here.

I was enjoying the games until this month. Then it became clear, once and for all, that the coach has to go.

I've been thinking this on and off for years.

That 2006 cup would have been the best. But, coming short happened for a reason. Lowe being a moron and not getting a better backup goalie being the main one.

What astonished me about the 2006 finals, was the way the team managed to alter its style of play to compensate for the fact they knew that Markannen was a shit goalie. Game 6 was as good a game as I'd seen the Oilers play since they whipped Chicago 12-5(?) in 1990.

Unfortunately, Lowe and MacTavish simply don't possess the entire toolbox to take this team to the next level. Especially MacTavish. Too many brain cells killed by alcohol. Fuck knows what goes through his mind, it looks like he's dying for a drink out there.

Persecuted, lol. That's just the reaction of inarticulate and frustrated people, when exposed to another viewpoint. The stress among OIler fans has gotten to the point where they should start handing out meds(not a bad thing, since Katz could arrange it).

I'm know I'm not exactly being positive. The thing is, I went to college in NY in the late 90s and became a bandwagon Ranger fan in the process. Their cynical humor I found more in line with my own mentality. The way I see it, the Oilers are like a team on the way to an execution. Whats positive about that? Better to laugh about it. Gallows humor. Ranger fans laugh at the rags, when they play like shit. Oiler fans should learn how to do more of this because nothing is more effective than laughter.

Oiler fans take this all too seriously. The current situation is fucking hilarious. A gong show on ice, night after night. Alkie coach, desperate to prove that he can return from doing jail time. Irish clown at the helm, handing out giant sized contracts to shit players, without understanding that once he's done that, there simply won't be any money left for the Hossas etc. The blackmailing of the Edmonton community, threats to leave town. Saying the coach can get a job at the snap of a finger in half the rest of the league. Hiring always from former dynasty players, but never from the great ones who seem to know better than to want to have anything to do with this fucked up organisation.

This is a hicksville, small time operation we're talking about.

It's like servants taking over a great castle, and putting on airs and graces that yes, they're really posh, even though they're not. I find it tragi-comic. Embarassing. Silly. Outrageous. Living off something that happened 20 years ago, with fucking nothing to back it up, other than threats. Lowe lecturing the fans, on how lucky we are to have him and his cronies - all this despite the fact that with 30 NHL teams, the Oilers would easily be able to attract almost any coach any player, provided they come to a healthy organisational culture. Fans supporting MacTavish, because Peca and Pronger soft soaped the press, probably more out of devilment than the truth. Peca hated MacTavish. Pronger simply ignored him.

Trading away Pitkanen for a 1 year player, who's wife totally hates Edmonton every bit as much as Pronger's did. Wondering why UFA's don't really want to come here, when the word is out: the Oilers are a nepotism run, cancerous team more like the 1970s Leafs than anyone seems to notice. Coached by a blockhead. Perpetually gunning for 8th place. Annual run for the finish, usually fails to make it. Middling draft picks. Jesse Niinimaki should have got Lowe fired all by itself. Mikhnov looking great, then when he comes over, treated like shit. Schremp a superstar white trash yankee in the making, cut down to size just to 'prove something'. Not drafting Cherapanov, possibly a really really good player, for Alex Plante, LOL. All this with the tacit approval of the fans, who after 20 years of being bitch slapped wouldn't know what a good team organisation was if it kicked them in their collective balls.

I've got a cousin playing in the WCHL right now. I hope he doesn't get drafted by the Oilers. Why? because MacTavish has developed exactly zero players. Hemsky? Played in Europe in the lockout. Nope. Horcoff? Horcoff is self motivated like almost no other player in the NHL.

It's more of a shame they won 7-2 last night. I only saw the 1st and part of the 2nd period, and turned the tv off in disgust when they were up 2-0. Disgust, at the horrible stye of play. It's not Oilers hockey. It's bottom of the barrel, clog up the zone, hack away and hope for the best hockey and any good team(read Detroit, Montreal, Boston) will have absolutely no problems exposing it for the terrible, terrible hockey it is.

I believe that Katz will fix this team, eventually. He fired Lowe, almost to the day he took over, lol. He's no fool. He just paid over 100 million for a third rate franchise, that's in need of a major overhaul. But, as we all know, Oilers fans are some of the very best in hockey, a top 5 team if fans have anything to do with it. Those of us who are old enough to have seen the dynasty know something that almost no other fans know, that is, what a crazy great hockey club can look like.

I could rant all day long, but I'd better think about going to work. Life in the big city demands commitment, lol.

All the same, thanks a million for posting. Its made my morning.

kris said...

Interesting stuff Hunter. I have to admit I have a lot of anger in me too at this organization-- a lot of bad years. And yeah most of the fans do seem too sunny in their disposition. "Just you wait till next year, our young guys will be great" is a line I've heard once to often.

Ultimately, I'm a little less angry than you, though. Not many small market clubs did much better than us pre-lockout. Money matters, we could never keep our guys. I know that sounds like an excuse for the oilers, but...

hunter1909 said...

Just how much are fans supposed to put up with?

Years of paying for a virtual AHL(feeder to the big clubs) franchise, then once the wonderful new CBA comes out being tantalised with the cup run, followed by another instant slide back into the pit?

Anyone with half a brain following the Oilers this year cannot possibly say they're playing anything resembling good NHL level hockey.

Now, I could even happily live with a shitty team, provided there's hope. But Lowe's hamstrung the future, with drunken Irishman(I'm scots-irish myself so am expert in the stupidity of my own kind lol) contracts to players who aren't ever in a million years going to lead anyone anywhere, ever.

It's obvious that Lowe simply doesn't understand the value of money. And I mean this like, he's got the mentality of a 6 year old kid. $4 million to Gilbert coming off a rookie season??????

Then the propaganda: "Oh, Gilbert scored more than Paul Coffey did as a rookie".

It's that kind of shit that's soured me on Lowe. Lowe thinks that he was an integral member of the dynasty, and basically talks down to the fans. This is clearly the mentality of a second stringer. Real stars don't need to talk down to anyone.

Plus MacTavish is cracking up. I always hated him as a coach, unless I was drinking Lowe's propaganda, but this year I just can't bear to watch as_________(insert any MacT critique) happens, over and over and over.

I've been driven to the point of simply no longer caring what happens to the team, so long as it's terrible enough to get MacT canned. I'm sure not worrying about pampered millionaire players.

I kind of feel sorry for Souray though. Out of all the UFA signings, I get the impression that he was ecstatic about coming home to join his home town team.

Souray looks like he's really pissed off at the direction the team is taking. Actually, most of the players look pretty talented out there, as individuals. Visnovsy in particular, for a new player. Unfortunately, they're getting led by a proverbial donkey.

Even that last game, against the Bluejackets I turned off halfway through, because even though they were up 2-0, they were playing a seriously flawed style. Mactavish really REALLY needs to go, asap as in right now, and if I'm Katz and I seriously want this franchise to move once and for all in the right direction, I get myself a hatchet man to cut though this 20 years ago dynasty role player country club, fire anyone who can't cut it, and bring in a fresh infusion of dynamic hockey minds.

It's the only chance. Oilers fans are some of the best and most knowledgable in hockey. We deserve a proper hockey team.

Oilmaniac said...

"We deserve a proper hockey team" Amen brotha...

"Gallows humor. Ranger fans laugh at the rags, when they play like shit. Oiler fans should learn how to do more of this because nothing is more effective than laughter."

I was reading nietchsze yesterday and it was the same lesson... if you want to destroy something use laughter as it much more effective than anger.. my interpretation would be destroying the frustration felt... hopefully i didnt mis-paraphrase,.. anyways, cool concept...

I cant believe Kris commented here, he/she was ragging on you pretty bad on LT.. to the point I had thought about posting w my own stfu comment... (alas, I was looking the day after)

Anyways, you talked about alot in these comments... fools taking over the castle and trying to retain the air of nobility, humourous stuff... I dont know where the alkie comments are coming from but we all have our own way of interpreting people...

Oh, one last thing... If Roli doesnt go down to injury in the SCF the oilers 'dont' lose... plus goaltending was bad all year, they picked up roli as the answer, and yet you wanted them to have brought in 2 goalies at the deadline (although im sure the arguement would be for getting goaltending far before that point)
Regardless, I think your too hard on Markanen.. he played alright for a backup and gave them a chance to win (bouncing back from that 5-0 lose in game two shows some character).. if anything... the arguement, as its already been made, should be that MacT should have picked one of conks/mark instead of continuing this stupid shit 3-headed goalie situ all the way to the end!..

hunter1909 said...

Laughter is one of the best weapons, particularly when all else fails.

The English soccer team management makes the Oilers look good, and has done so for the past 40 years. Now, the English have one of the wickedest senses of humour in the world, and when everything else fucks up(virtually guaranteed sad to say for them), their satire is second to none.

George Orwell that great 20th century writer was musing what would have happened if the german army, having conquered the place had done one of their patented goose stepping marches through the main street. Orwell said he imagined that the streets would first be crowded(out of curiosity), but soon people would start laughing at how silly they thought the germen posing looked, then once they stopped laughing would start throwing things, presumably ending up with a riot.

As for the Oilers, I reckon they've gone about as low as possible this season, Mactavish obviously is not teaching anyone systems or basically fuck all, he just stares blankly like a man looking to buy his wife a birthday present. I just hope the Wings slaughter them tonight, so everyone will forget about the 7-2 win against the team which has never even made the playoffs.

I think personally think MacT could be out the door by Christmas.

Oh yeah, he's alcoholic. I've never made any comment that I can remember as to him being this way, but my point is, coming from a family with alkies on both sides of the family I've seen what that does to a person's mind. Not having to bend over backwards to be PC here(once again thanks a million LOWETIDE lol), he looks like his brain is seizing up or something.

It would be merciful to can him at this point. Like putting the family cat to sleep.

Of course Roloson probably would have won Oilers that cup. They were slapping the physically weaker Canes around seemingly at will before Bergeron basically destroyed the hopes of a million people.

For THAT, I blame Kevin Lowe. Oilers needed a decent backup goalie, and didn't have one. That being said, MacTavish according to general thought over on HF Boards "can't use goalies"...to wit I would ask the court...Why does someone who clearly doesn't understand every facet of coaching, coach in the NHL?