SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - The Rime of the Ancient Edmonton Oilers fans...

Posted: Jun 03 2010 06:39 pm

bassguy252 wrote:

my bad

let me rephrase this

soldierhawk, you are like a long lost sister!

hasnt being an oilers fan been like being in an abusive relationship lately?

you hold on, night after night, getting your ass handed to you by your lousy excuse of a team all the while they promise over and over again "I can change, things will get better!"

Oh thank God there's another Oil fan on the forum! After this season, I really (REALLY) needed someone to alternately cry and cuss with. (You can guess how many hockey fans there are in San Diego. Now cut that by 90% and that's how many fans of CANADIAN hockey there are.)

It really has bordered on the abusive. The post-Cup run MacT era was bad, but things have gone into freefall since he left. The only bright spot I can see is our draft pick...we'd better take advantage of that, or we're toast. I don't even know what can help us anymore, the team has self destructed so bad.

Other bright spot: Calgary wallowing in mediocrity and getting a shitty draft pick while still missing the playoffs.

And speaking of whom:

That always makes me feel better . Very Happy

GO OIL!

Posted: Jun 03 2010 08:59 pm

lol ah yes that always brings a smile to my face so does watching this

I think the oilers are finally heading in the right direction, Tambellini is cleaning house, some of the old vets are getting sent off and we have a talented young core of players coming in

the three swedes

Linus Omark
Magnus Paajarvi Svenson
Anton Lander

two fins

Toni Rajala
Teemu Hartikainen

then of course

Jordan Eberle (voted whl player of the year and the only reason canada made it to the finals in the world juniors)

Taylor Hall/Tyler Seguin (both of them are franchise players, It looks like the oilers will probably dragt Seguin as we need a dominant first line center but theres several good arguments on why we should take Hall who has great chemistry with Eberle)

On defense I could See both these guys making the team within the next two years

Cody Wild
Alex Plante

left over we still have in our core

Ales Hemsky
Sam Gagne
Andrew Cogliano
Gilbert Brule
Ryan Potulny
J.F. Jacques
Zack Stortini
Ryan Stone
Dustin Penner

on Defence

Ryan Whitney
Tom Gilbert
Theo Peckham
Ladislav Smid
Taylor Chorney
Jason Strudwick

Goal Tenders

Nikolai Khabibulin (if he doesnt go to jail)
Devon Dubnyk

on there way out

Shawn Horcoff (I think we will still have him for the next two seasons becuase of his huge contract and mediocre pay but if the oilers are willing to eat up some of that contract we may find a team lacking depth at centre willing to take him)

Shedlon Souray... good riddance, over hyped, one dimnesional, high priced, injury prone primadonna bum!!!

Marc Pouliout... I do like him as a player but he just isnt thriving here and his inconsistent play makes him a liability on the ice, his NHL days could very well be numbered

Fernando Pisani... again I like his style of play, hes great on the PK but his cholitis makes him a huge liability, id be surprised if the oilers resigned him as a player, maybe theres room for him as a coach.

Ethan Moreau... He was great in Edmonton, did a lot of good for the team, very solid, consistent forward however the team needs to go in a new direction.

Patrick O'Sullivan... A talented forward however he just couldnt find his game here in Edmonton, time to send him to another team where he might be able to thrive and while he still has some measure of trade value

Mike Comrie... as far as I know he isnt in the plans for the oilers future but I really do hope we resign him, hes a hometown hero, a hard worker and was very productive in the few games he was able to play for us. We should give him another shot

Jeff Druin Deslauriers... A solid back up goal tender however Dubnyk is arguably just as talented, younger and cheaper. I was impressed with Deslauriers play but unfortunatly either him or Dubynk has to go and between those two the oilers are sticking with Dubnyk and rightfully so.

I would Say in two/three years are team could look something like this

Penner Seguin Hemsky
Omark Lander Eberle
MPS Cogliano Gagne
Stortini Brule J.F. Jacques

Alternates

Hartikainen
Stone
Rajala
Potulny

Defence

Whitney Gilbert
Smid Strudwick
Chorney Peckham

Plante
Wilde

Goal Tenders

Khabibulin
Dubnyk

Now thats a team that could vye for the Stanley Cup, Fast, Gritty, Hard Hitting, Three scoring lines, one checking line and a very talented Defensive corp, not to mention some solid goal tending... granted the bulin wall stays healthy

Posted: Jun 03 2010 11:13 pm

HAH!! I have a soft spot for the Stars cause I'm from Texas, but that video puts me on the floor every single time. A thing of absolute beauty.

I know Eberle looks incredible, but I'm forcing myself to stay unexcited about him until we see him in action with something approaching a finalized (and by finalized I mean "not sucking") roster. I just don't want to be set up for disappointment lol. Another one would kill me.

I think we have to agree to disagree on Souray; I've always liked him. Really though its probably just because he's a (very) poor man's Chris Pronger, what with his big slapshots from the blue line, and the only solace I could take when Prongs (one of my favorite players) ditched us for no reason after the Cup run was that Souray...kinda/sorta was like him. Weak I know, but Prongs leaving was (for me) almost like Gretzky all over again. No he wasn't the greatest of all time, but he was sure one of the best in the NHL and, along with Roloson (who I also miss terribly Sad

) a major reason we almost won a Stanley Cup. Sigh.

Pisani, in my mind, was handled ALL wrong after '06. Sure he's a hometown boy and he was a big hero in the playoff OT game, but then Lowe went and threw a RIDICULOUSLY huge contract at him. In spite of his heroics, as an overall player, he was worth far less than we gave him. (I have this personal theory that his contract--among others, but he has the biggest pay/worth gap imho--is one of the big reasons our salary cap looks so bad, and why we had such a hard time recovering and rebuilding after the team was pretty much decimated in '07.)

Other than that, pretty much agree entirely with your assessments. And I LOVE the prospective team! I think the skaters could definitely vie for a Cup. I loved Roli with a passion, but Khabibulin is pretty damn convincing (when he's not injured.)

Posted: Jun 03 2010 11:40 pm

I really miss Roli too Sad

, he had a lot of heart and I think he couldve done the job just fine with the oilers but... Bulin when he is healthy is easily one of the top 5 goalies in the league,

Dont even get me started on Kevin Lowe

Pisani, Torres, Stoll, Horcoff, they all got ridiculous contracts after the cup run... Horcoff makes like 7 million a year! unbelievable.

Then he fucks up the pronger trade

trades Ryan Smyth because hes too cheap to give the guy another 100k

gets rid of Jason Smith, fucks up and trades away our best face off man Stoll and a solid Dman in Matt Greene for Viscnovsky (although now we have Ryan Whitney through all of that)

and HES STILL WITH THE ORGANIZATION!!! how does someone fuck up that bad and not get fired?!?!?!

its like, if he ever comes in to my restaurant, ill burn his appetizer, then fuck it up and send it out wrong... fuck up his entree a few times and then fuck up on his desert, and make him wait two hours to get his food which will be cold by then and then get promoted to sous chef or executive chef for my troubles because for some reason the higher ups like me even though I completely fucked up

Posted: Jun 04 2010 12:02 am

Oh god my head hurts now...I had ALMOST successfully forgotten about Smyth and Smith.

Pronger I could forgive him for; that wasn't really under his control, and you don't want someone of that calibre sulking on the bench or not playing his best because he wants to be somewhere else.

Horcoff making 7 mil, while Ryan gets traded because they can't give him what he wants (which wasn't even that much!) is a fucking travesty though. The man should have retired an Oiler. He wanted that, and he damn well earned it too. I still remember the game where he lost his two front teeth, picked them up off the ice, and then gave the camera a big toothless grin. That dude had more guts than our entire current locker room combined, twice over.

Posted: Jun 04 2010 12:05 am

oh definitely! he was the heart and soul of the oilers! we never should of got rid of him Sad

its Lowe! we need to Lynch him!

just curious, have you been to Edmonton? what made you decide to cheer for the copper and blue?

Posted: Jun 04 2010 02:00 am

No, I've never been to Edmonton. Nor any part of Canada sadly, although I love the country. Not like I like the USA, but its still close to my heart.

My Oil-cheering came about in a rather odd way, and that's through my love of figure skating. See, I'm a huge fan of Kurt Browning (to a distressing degree really--good grief he's awesome), who is of course an Alberta native and a gigantic Oilers fan. I started watching hockey because he said playing it as a kid helped him learn to skate. I fell in love with the game of course, and started rooting for the Oil because they were his team, and I didn't know any others. Of course, as soon as I started watching them, Gretzky and Messier hooked me on the game and the team like a fish. Very Happy

Like I said, never been to Edmonton, but I have been lucky enough to see the Oil play in person a couple times, when they come down to Anaheim to play the Ducks. I LOATHE the Ducks, but their being close does let me see my team play in person. Also, the Pond is a *sweet* rink. Empty most of the time of course, and NOTHING like the atmosphere of Rexall Place (hearing the background noise during game broadcasts gives me chills!) but there's literally not a bad seat in the place. I have to buy nosebleed seats when I go, but that's never a problem; perfect view every time.

Also: I agree on Lowe. I was one of those people who backed him for far, far too long. I kept thinking there was some master plan or logic behind what he was doing. I HAD to rationalize; I couldn't believe anyone could truly be that stupid. All I got for my trouble was a last place finish and a decimated team. Sad

Posted: Jun 05 2010 04:44 pm

I'm a Red Wings fan through and through, but Edmonton is my #2 (some days #3) team in the NHL, and you don't want to see a Canadian team finish dead last in the league. Those spots are reserved for Atlanta and Florida.

Don't get me started on hockey in the south.

2011 SNES Champ Joined: Dec 04 2006 Posts: 1929

SoldierHawk wrote:

Also: I agree on Lowe. I was one of those people who backed him for far, far too long.

I don't know much about the Oilers, but reading this made me remember about people saying the reason the Leafs have been so bad recently
is because the fans and journalists from Toronto were way too lenient with the organization when it made bad decisions or completely fucked up.
If it's the same in Edmonton, and considering this year they were both dead last in their conference, that might actually make some sense.

Posted: Jun 08 2010 03:33 am

that and Burke screwed them big time!! although he did unload most of his crap onto Calgary lol but trading away your 1st overall pick in a year like this Razz

lol

Posted: Jun 08 2010 01:27 pm

SoldierHawk wrote:

Other bright spot: Calgary wallowing in mediocrity and getting a shitty draft pick while still missing the playoffs.

Well this should cheer you up a little more: the Flames don't have a first round pick this year, that went to Phoenix in the Jokinen trade.

bassguy252 wrote:

that and Burke screwed them big time!! although he did unload most of his crap onto Calgary lol but trading away your 1st overall pick in a year like this Razz

lol

I don't think the Leafs are as "screwed" as some people think, if whoever is picked with the 2nd overall pick starts producing more than Kessel next year or the year after and we still aren't in the playoffs, then we'll be screwed. I like the Phaneuf trade and getting rid of Blake was great. I don't see the playoffs next year but it's not impossible, I like our odds in 2 years better though. I still prefer having Burke as a GM to having MLSE basically running the team, it might not look great right now but at least there is a plan. I don't like trading picks, but we've been doing it for years and at least this time we got a young player with a lot of talent instead of the past-his-prime star who plays for a year or two and retires. I like the pieces we have in place going forward but I think Burke's got a lot of holes to fill in the off-season, if do as bad as we did this year, it's going to be an incredibly long season.

I don't think people are paying enough attention to the Flames, going forward I would argue they could be screwed worse than the Leafs. They unloaded a couple guys that weren't working out but they paid a lot for(Phaneuf was a 1st in 03, one of the deepest in history and Jokinen cost Lombardi, a 1st rounder and something else). Their franchise players in Iginla and Kipper are getting older and they have a very shallow prospect pool. They could turn it around next year, it just seems like they downgraded on talent and don't have much in the system to replace it with.

The Oilers hopes rest in the hands of prospects, they had great prospects in the mid-late 90's that didn't pan out, they should be spending a little extra on player development in the minors. If they do it right they should be a really good young team in a few years. I still see next year as being a long one for the Oilers though.

Posted: Jun 12 2010 05:58 am

The flames are on there way down

the leafs will do as they always have done and continue to build for mediocrity

the oilers are on there way up Very Happy

!!

and the oilers prospects from the 90's DID pan out... unfortunately it wasnt in Edmonton that they had success... we ended up trading them away Sad

but now we have an owner who wants to win, who is willing to let Tambellini do his thing and I see a bright future for Edmonton

Posted: Jun 12 2010 01:57 pm

Bonsignore a 4th overall pick and Dopita a highly rated euro did not pan out. Those two and another highly touted pick didn't pan out for the Oilers, I'm talkin' about those guys. Of course some of them turned out, but they had a number of really good prospects bust. Bonsignore now runs and owns a Go-Kart track. The Oilers future looks bright, but it's far from a sure thing.

The Leafs might end up being mediocre, but to suggest they are building specifically for that is pretty laughable.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 12:44 pm

well its different this time, the oilers took Taylor Hall, a proven winner, a natural leader and a champion, hes only 18 and the guy is alreadt an impact player. He is going to be the face of the franchise and the best part about this is, he wants to be, he wanted to come to Edmonton.

next up is Jordan Eberle, the WHL player of the year, the guy had over 100 points in 50 games and carried team canada to the world junior finals, we won silver but probably wouldnt of won anything at all if it wasnt for Eberle

from there its guys like Svenson, Lander, Omark

not to mention the guys we do have

Cogliano, Gagne, Hemsky, Penner

the oilers have loads of talent this time, not just three or four hopeful prospects and some aging veterans... the Oilers will be a cup contender in a few years, just one more bad season and then we can finally celebrate!!