Craig MacTavish Death Watch: Around the Sphere, Nov 28

Lowetide works a lovely shot of Marilyn Munroe into his post about MacTavish, which alone makes it worth the read. Lowetide isn’t convinced that MacTavish deserves the lion’s share of the blame, but he is convinced that he’s on his way out. With nearly 400 comments already, this post also provides a look at a lot of the regulars around the ‘Sphere. It’s a look that might not satisfy a police sketch artist, given the flickering torches and shadows cast by pitchforks, but it’s a look all the same.

Guy Flaming continues his excellent work, writing one of my favourite regular items: the Farm Almanac. He takes a look at the AHL’s best scorers, and how Springfield’s top players (some combination of Schremp, Potulny, Brule and Lerg) compare. He isn’t blown away, but does concede that Schremp Potulny is probably better for the team right now than Reddox/Sestito. If I wasn’t already enamoured with the post, the references to Andrew Perugini, Linus Omark, and Johan Motin would have sealed the deal.

David Staples discusses the many and varied proponents of firing Craig MacTavish, but he personally doesn’t expect MacTavish to be fired this season. That Staples –- always needing to be different.

Pat at Black Dog Hates Skunks gives us his 500th post (congratulations, Pat). It contains a picture of crocodiles and a guess about MacTavish’s longevity with the team. If you can’t put the two of those together, read his post. For that matter, read it anyway –- it’s a good write-up.

Bryanbryoil mixes good posts with bad,giving us his weekly Springfield Falcons preview and suggesting that perhaps Craig MacTavish should become a pimp, if he feels like making his employees do stuff they don’t want to do. Naturally, you’ll decide for yourselves which of the two you prefer, but I’ll personally take the excellent coverage of the AHL team over Bryanbryoil’s Request that MacTavish be Fired #231.

Let’s take a break from all of the MacTavish talk. Bruce at Oil Droppings has a dynamite statistical look at the Oilers defense. For those of you not statistically inclined, it also has speculation and observation, written in Bruce’s inimitable style.

I hope you enjoyed that break from the MacTavish talk. Do you remember the Ides of March? Tyler at Mc79hockey.com warns us of the slightly lesser known Ides of Late November. There’s only one knife in the back of Craig MacTavish so far, but with an unidentified Brutus leading the way, one wonders when Cassius and the rest of the boys will pile on. Tyler figures it will be by the trade deadline, at the latest.

Over at PunjabiOil and Co., Co. (in this case Little Fury) is on the “Fire MacT” bandwagon. As he himself says, “That the Oilers aren’t getting results is one thing. I’m used to that, I can take it. That they don’t seem to give a shit out there is a whole different story.”

Scarlett at All Oil…all the Time isn’t completely buying Steve Tambellini’s vote of confidence in the coach. She does like the fact that MacTavish is taking some heat, because she feels he’s had it too easy this season in the press, given the sheer volume of inexplicable moves.

The latest from Xtreme Hockey discusses the role of motivation in coaching. It comes complete with references to coaches of yore, quotes from The Game, and a suggested Oilers lineup.

Sean at Puck Donkey takes a look at the team, and wonders what’s wrong. He’s got a few ideas.

Over at Bringing Back the Glory, they’re talking philosophy and fire sale. Would anyone like a slightly scorched Steve Staios?

Looking for depressingly bad news? How about an encouraging story to cheer you up? Matt at Battle of Alberta gives us both with his Friday Baseball Standings. The bad news: the Oilers are 8 games back of the Sharks. The encouraging story: wander over there and read it.

I hope you enjoyed the encouraging story, because it’s time for more depressing news. Kent W. at Five Hole Fanatics sends a letter of appreciation to Kevin Lowe. Given that Kent’s a Flames fan, it isn’t good news.

And since we’re looking at depressing news, Jean Shorts and Bagged Milk talk about Brian Burke and that game against L.A. the other night.

Today’s Best of the best: Lowetide, Coming Down the Pipe