GDB XL: Battle of the Dregs

The last 24 hours have been sobering for citizens of the Nation. From Brownlee’s indictment of Oilers’ management to Willis heaping on the shame, things look grim. What looks even more grim are a few Oilers fans so readily leaping off the bandwagon, so let’s get a few things straight, shall we?

Under no circumstances does a true fan abandon ship. We complain, we lament, we gnash our teeth. But we stand firm on the deck of this sinking ship. The Dive for Five doesn’t stem from a desire to suck. It stems from a desire to return to the glory days of playoff runs and cup wins. DFF is rooted in the sad-but-true knowledge that in order to be awesome, there have to be sacrifices.

(By the way, that image was provided to us by Nation citizen Gerald R. Ford.)

So while some of you reconsider your season-ticket purchases and pay-per-view subscriptions, remember this: the Oilers will be good again. However, just like Andy Dufresne from the Shawshank Redemption, we have to crawl through a tunnel of poop in order to get there.

I’m sorry, that reference came out of nowhere.

While the Leafs haven’t fared much better than the Oilers this season (they’re 14-17-9), they’re still three points ahead of the Mighty Oil. Which means tonight, we’re all paying to watch bottom-of-the-barrel hockey. I find no solace in the Oilers’ home record (8-10-2) or the Leafs’ road record (7-9-4) either. This could go either way.

However, I’m going to err on the side of optimism. The Oilers have lost seven games in a row. This streak needs to end, and I’m thinking right f@%king now. In the Oilers’ two meetings against Toronto last season, they won. (I was off on this. My bad.) It remains to be seen whether or not we can do so on home ice against a Burkefied Leafs Squad.

I’m sure a lot of you were sitting at your radios or in front of the television listening to the extremely drawn-out Olympic Mens Hockey roster announcement earlier this morning. There were very few surprises here: neither Sheldon Souray nor Dustin Penner made the team.

Still, I’m pretty happy that Yzerman picked the guys he did — and that he didn’t pick a single Calgary Flame to play defense. I’ll take my Schadenfreude where I can get it. Misery loves company and all that.

Take a look at the entire roster on TSN.ca.

Note that both Lubomir Visnovsky and Denis Grebeshkov will be in the Olympic for their countries, Slovakia and Russia respectively.

It’s hard to watch, but loyal fans will keep the faith… or keep the DFF alive. Tonight, the Oilers do it on PPV, and they win it 3-1 as well.

Trust me.