GDB 14.0 EXPECTATIONS
Wanye
February 16 2013 12:25PM
As promised the 2012 Lockout has condensed the 2013 season and put 'er on FF. Normally as Oilers fans we are entitled to at least several weeks of unreasonable optimism, followed by about a month or so where we are confused and perplexed about the team. Are they underachieving? Is the performance we are seeing legitimate given the talent the team has? Then we turn on each other for a month or two and then finally invent snazzy acronyms for being in last place.
But with the lockout shortened season this annual dance has been compressed and months have become weeks. Weeks have turned into days. Days become seconds. It's all happening so fast.
THE POWER OF EXPECTATION
We all have one buddy who is the eternal optimist. No matter how bad things may get the guy just has that rosy expectation that things are going to turn out ok. And often as not that is exactly what happens. We have a buddy who is like this particularly when it comes to gambling.
He will walk into a casino and expect to leave up on the night. It's just in his DNA that on the odd night when his old lady lets him go out sans leash he is going to walk away up a fat stack and then will spend the next few weeks telling us how he has spent the money secretly without the Missus finding out.
Others may sit at the blackjack table with him getting bad hands. "I never win" they will mutter under their breath. "This dealer is crooked. I can't believe casinos are legal." As the night goes on they will come up with a million different reasons for why it is impossible to win at the tables.
And all the while our buddy will keep his mouth shut, brimming with secret positivity. If he loses a few hands - fine. If the dealer makes 21 off of a 6 and screws the entire table that's ok too. Even if he has to make a few trips to the ATM in the process he is still completely confident he is walking away at some point up on the night.
And he always does.
EXPECT TO WIN
As it goes with a guy who can't help but make a few hundy at the casino so goes it with professional athletes. Confidence is a big part of the game and an overriding belief that you are going to win goes a long way to being a winning team.
A team that is now this stocked with talented Super Kids has a major dose of individual confidence. Guys like Taylor Hall or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins didn't dominate through minor and junior hockey ranks by being fatalists. They operate on the base assumption that they are going to win - just like our buddy at the casino.
Organizationally the Oilers have about as much confidence as Lindsay Lohan on Oscar nominations day* We can't imagine what thoughts rattle around in Steve Tambellini's head while he assesses the situation for the 6907th game in a row but we can't think its "now with a couple more pieces added to the puzzle it's playoff time for Steve!"
Hardly. He has shown us beyond a shadow of a doubt that he lacks the confidence to make any major moves and put himself at the risk of being crucified by fans and media alike for doing the wrong thing. He continues to sit and be fit.
THE TRANSITION TO WINNING
Part of the transition of this club away from the Shitanusly Bad Hockey Era (2007-2012) is removing all of the negative nancies in the room and moving towards the swagger that seeps from the pores of 4, 14, 19, 64 and 93. Think that the Nuge considers himself to be crappy now that he has been cold for a couple weeks? Please. Think King Jordan of Eberle lies awake at night surrounded by naked sleeping supermodels wondering if he will ever score again? As if.
This team is loaded to the rafters with world class talent. The pieces that need to be added - a couple role players here - a couple upgrades on the back end there - are waaaaaay easier to find than the Fab 5 that will be lacing them up for the Oil for the next 15 years.
Expectations cannot be lowered. Period.
Ask teams like Columbus and the Isles what happens when expectations are lowered and the belief in winning is snuffed out. You sit at the bottom of the league and never ever leave. Think Scott Howson came to work every day looking for ways to make big moves to get the team out of the basement? Nope.
Winners win. Losers lose. Excuses in the long run are just that. If you are paid by Kay-Z to play or work for this club and you don't think you can make the playoffs with every fibre of your being you gotta go. Yesterday.
GAME DAY VS AVS
The Oilers (5-5-3) play the Colorado Avalanche (5-6-1) tonight. A team with high expectations for its season - say the lofty goal of being the 8th best team in the Western Conference - looks to a game like this with an opponent below them in the standings as a night to score some goals and walk away with a win. The Avs are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and there is nothing going on in Colorado that would suggest that the Mighty Oil can't break out against them tonight.
Dubnyk is starting in the next for the Oil and the lines are as follows courtesy of the Oilers twitter feed:
Hall-Nuge-Eberle
Hartikainen-Gagner-Hemsky
Smyth-Belanger-Yakupov
Eager-Vandevelde-Petrell
Whitney-Petry
Schultz-Schultz
Smid-Fistric
IN CLOSING
Leave your game day predictions in the comments below. We predict only one thing: the Oilers win. Seriously.
*ZING!
**ZING!
call timeout ralph
Yes - that too ...
Visiting fans always bugged me in Edmonton and this guy exemplifies a Calgary fan wearing a Canucks jersey with a green riders wig on and can kiss my ass.
That being said - they need to pull Dubbie before six this time ....
Don Cherry is crazy saying the Oilers should get bigger. We are building an All Star team here. We don't need grit or size. We like soft players here.
Go home Cherry
Wow. I'm happy that I at least have "reasonable expectations"... and beer...
@Darrell
dsf ROXXX
Is it weird that its yours ?
@DSF
Is it weird pretending your mom is reading over your shoulder?
Back to hockey - Dubbie gets pulled - Lets keep it going now !
LOL - sorry I was pissed off and thought that was for me :)
Colorado 3 ES goals
Oilers 1PP goal
Who could have seen that coming?
At least when we now see the Oiler's implode, they give us terrific effort in the cause... ELPH...
These are 2 bad team look how much ice each team has. Looks like the AHL
Krueger...Nope
Coaching Staff....Nope
Tambellini....Nope
KLowe....Nope
Mac-T.....Nope
The Oilers scouting staff......Nope
Guess we're screwed!
@Wanyes bastard child
PANIK?
never ;)
Couldn't hurt to have a couple of players that can punish opposition and make a little room for the guns to work.
I think that's the message Brownlee was trying to get across in his post yesterday about expectations.
http://www.capgeek.com/oilers/
if $14M under, or 20% of the available cap unspent, is near the cap, then I must need new maths classes.
Fail.
edit: not that I don't disagree that Dithers still strikes me as... unsure - however, what do you think another GM would/should do differently? yes there's holes, how would you fill them?
But, what if it's another SNAFU? And I mean really, if you want to break it down, SNFU.
@Felt
Maybe this guy saw it coming
Yes you must need math classes because they are only about 4 to 5 mill short of the cap
@Oilersfan4
Oh, well I blame the interwebs then. It says $14 million. Apologies for the fail, I was apparently misled. Kindly point me to your data?
Where is the game available online? CBC needs stupid flash player
@Wade
trust me go with the stoopid flash player. Better than what vipbox.tv puts you through.
@mesh
Hockey buzz cap central. Nhlscap.com
@Johe
The oilersnation is waiting.......
Thank god a win on hockey night in canada and a comeback to boot.
51 shots?!?
DSF eats crow. Who could have seen that comin?
Oilers dominate a non NHL team.
Means nothing.
That was a lot of fun to watch. It is only just that we won that one. It would have been very frustrating had we lost. With everything that happened tonight, Dubnyk was probably not the best choice for After Hours. Nice to see us absolutely pound the net with shots! Hall, Hemmer, Eberle, Nuge, Smyth and others had terrific games. Props to Khabi for being a vet and holding the fort when we were on our heels late in the 3rd. It was an off night for Dooby but at least we came back. Hopefully this win can give us some confidence. The dam finally burst tonight. GO OILERS GO!!
@mesh
Do really think the oilers have 14 MILL in cap space. C'mon really?????you think the oilers can take on a lets say Weber contract without shedding money. Don't you think if they had 14mill they would have done something by now. Really Reeeeally Really
Still think this team needs size and grit. How much you people think Ott or Clutterbuck type players would take to get a deal done?
@Oilersfan4
Dood. Read my response. I'm agreeing with you, lacking other information, as I agree it doesn't make sense - though honestly 5M in space isn't necessarily panic time given Khabi, Whitney, etc, are all coming off the books soon enough. Honestly, I would agree it seems unlikely we have 14M, I'm curious why capgeek says we do.
And you answer your own question given your comments about management. Do you think Dithers would do something with 14M? - hell even 5M is enough to get a top 4D or get a couple useful bottom six players. This assumes useful talent available in free agency, or a willingness to trade more than just spare parts.
In summary, in back-pedalling fashion, I don't entirely disagree with you. A bit of projection, your original comment was making me sick of my own despair at that crap first period result.
@Oilersfan4
Too much to pry them out without sacrificing something bigger than its worth.
I thought this was a very good game by 64, made some solid plays. Needs to pass that puck on the PP, but he played very well.
Can't say enough about the boys pulling that out of the fire though, 89 with his usual give one away get one back (14 PP goal was all him there, 83 scoring goals is always a good sign, 94 showed up, 4 was of course 4 and finally 93 pots one.
Whitney clearly has to go, love the guy but he simply is not keeping position....sad to see.
Exactly. Unless you luck out in FA, you need to develop this.
@mesh
Capgeek counts bonuses separately. So if you look, cap is $70 mil, payroll is $55.5 mil. But if all bonuses are hit, add another $12.5 mil so only $2 mil room.
@mesh
Unfortunately we have nothing in the corps to develope in that reguard. When it comes to FA I would be looking for getzlaf or iginla: big body, scores goals, isn't afraid to throw down and cannot be intimadated. I wouldn't be signing a clutterbuck type until I knew those guys were unavailible.
Capgeek seems pretty clear: $14 .7 million in cap space. Bonuses include things like winning major trophies (including Stanley), which are unlikely to be hit, you would agree. Sometimes people here listen to DSF extolling other team's cap management so often that they lose sight of the fact that the Oil are in pretty good shape cap wise.
capgeek/nhl numbers do not add salary numbers of players on IR, at last look the total did not contain the salaries of Horcoff, Belanger, Khabi, Jonesy, etc. Hence the apparent 14.7 M.
@RSD
No I totally agree. The question of how the oilers get more grit and size is a tough nut to crack.
HA
I can see it now... The male nurse tightens the restraints(unnecessarily), checks up and down the hallway, locks the door and proceeds to... do things while the incapacitated geezer moans ' Sam, you are my daddy'.
@treblecharger
Ahh... now that makes sense.
@mesh
A savy GM would know, is Tambs savy enough to figure it out.
So close.
i remember that Darrell but i was never one of them ...EVER...MacT has hockey acumen suited well to be the GM of this club imo...your Tambeloni ( ya i know sounds like a sandwich meat ) is a feckless oaf who has squandered opportunities to make this team a contender and for any number of reasons has survived in spite of his incompetence...now apart from DSF being a Hall of Fame troll please never refer to him and any inference to me in a sentence from this point on in time ...thankyou
Yakupov looked invisible on the Smyth line. Not sure if it was a Hartikainen injury or if Krueger wanted to get some more pop into the top six but once Yak got his spot back on the Gagner line, man he looked like he had something to prove. And then on top of that Eager looked great on the Smyth line and I think he drew two penalties via hard work.
The new PP units looked good. Strange not seeing Eberle getting in position for one-timers but he seemed pretty comfortable down low. Also great play by both Yak and Gagner on the Eberle goal.
Very exciting game to watch. Strange to see a team dominate and then have to overcome two three goal deficits.
Sincere apologies - I would not compare any of my Oiler brothers to DSF and here was my thought. I am far from a Tambo fan but have grown tired of starting from scratch as the solution. We may be one Management move away from the goal but have to be ready as its our last option for any excuses.
Once again, I apologize and would NEVER compare you to DSF as I can't stand him and everything he stands for .... Cheers brother
After 30, 30, and 29, it feels like we haven't been there before. And if we say little when we win, when do we get to say anything? Come on, Oilcruzer, a little slack.
Not defending yours team against bullies in your house is childish .... I am done with him as it takes too much energy and ruins this site for true Oiler fans who come here to see their potential not weakness .... cheers dude
A little too much single malt during the game last night to drop by.
The game was pretty much going according to Hoyle with Colorado dominating early until the Oilers apparently decided they'd had enough.
An amazing 30 minute performance makes you wonder why they haven't been able to summon that kind of effort in the past.