Full disclosure: I was absolutely wrong with my effort 48 hours ago, predicting that, since the Edmonton Oilers and the rest of us hearty Albertans had an extra hour of sleep thanks to daylight time, they would beat the Vancouver Canucks Monday night.
It turns out I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Sleep? The Oilers had quite the nap against the Canucks, Game No. 11, with the Oilers still searching for their — cover your eyes there, Grandpa — third W of the season.
We’re teetering on a skate blade of disaster. And if the Oilers find a way to lose to the San Jose Sharks Thursday … well, just imagine.
Perhaps, then, the default reaction would be to throw them under their charter aircraft.
Get mad. Surrender your tickets. Bring back comedian Ken Valgardson’s bit from the iconic infamous decade of darkness.
“Someone broke into my car last night,” Valgardson would say. “I had two Oilers tickets on my sun visor. The person who broke in left me two more.”
There have been many callers into sports radio shows making some points. One caller said Connor McDavid and Leon Draistal have tuned out coaches after two years.
And what year is Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft in right now?
Hark!
The negativity, griping and finger-pointing stops right now.
Word number 231 of this journalistic journey.
I absolutely recognize fans are paying customers and have every right, as they should, to demand better, and can choose not to support them.
Sports writers and broadcasters, too, scribble and talk about holding the team accountable. The National Hockey League is a results-driven business.
I get that.
Yet, I like to think of the Stanley Cup as half full of bubbly.
We know the firepower the Oilers have — statistics from last year are the proof in the puck.
The players are accountable. They know time is ticking and it’s only themselves who can push, drag and shove this mess into the right direction.
Against the Sharks, who have only won one game this season, the ducks are on the pond for the Oilers Thursday.
If they don’t, there may be changes, which only makes sense.
But the power of hope is something that, no matter how dire the situation, shouldn’t be denied to anyone.
I’ve experienced and seen it.
And that’s why I’m going to keep believing. I’ll pass on the Kool-Aid, thanks, until the end of December.
That’s when I will draw the line in the snow.
Statistics.
They can be used, misused, misconstrued, and any other way you toss it around.
So I present the following to back up my argument.
In the 2018-19 season, the St. Louis Blues had won a paltry 11 games by Dec. 29, and had 26 points.
They ended that regular season with 99 points. including a 10-game unbeaten streak in February.
No problem.
St. Louis then won the Stanley Cup in Game 7.
So there’s still hope.
It’s when we don’t have hope we worry.
Somehow, I don’t think I have that wrong.
TAIT: Now's not the time to give up on the Oilers
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09.11.2023
Full disclosure: I was absolutely wrong with my effort 48 hours ago, predicting that, since the Edmonton Oilers and the rest of us hearty Albertans had an extra hour of sleep thanks to daylight time, they would beat the Vancouver Canucks Monday night.
It turns out I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Sleep? The Oilers had quite the nap against the Canucks, Game No. 11, with the Oilers still searching for their — cover your eyes there, Grandpa — third W of the season.
We’re teetering on a skate blade of disaster. And if the Oilers find a way to lose to the San Jose Sharks Thursday … well, just imagine.
Perhaps, then, the default reaction would be to throw them under their charter aircraft.
Get mad. Surrender your tickets.........
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