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The dumpster fire that is the Edmonton Oilers

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MikeBossy

By MikeBossy
in General Hockey Discussion

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Cat Man Abbotsford Regular

Cat Man

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A Worthy Read:)  

Leon Draisaitl’s flustered interview sums up the Oilers’ season

 

Cathal Kelly

PUBLISHED YESTERDAY
 

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Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl (29) and forward Ryan McLeod (71) react after an empty net goal by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Scotiabank Arena on Jan 5.JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI/USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS

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Two sentences into his answer, Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl decides he’s going to pick a fight.

His NHL team is in a standings free fall. It has just had its doors blown off by Canada’s best Junior A team, the Ottawa Senators. This is an emergency situation requiring that team leaders such as Draisaitl inject some aggressive energy into the situation.

Okay, fine, he’s picking the fight with a reporter. In a best-case scenario he’d be picking it with whatever passes for an enforcer these days. But baby steps.

The impetus is a double-barrelled question the other day from veteran Oilers beat guy Jim Matheson: “What do you think is the No. 1 reason for the losses now?”

It’s a fair question that Draisaitl could have turned in a bunch of shiny, happy ways – “All I can do is be better myself” or “We’re failing as a team and we’re going to win as one, too” or some other crystal-rubbing line of positivity.

Instead, Draisaitl decides to play bored: “We have to get better at everything.”

Matheson: “Would you like to expand on that?”

Draisaitl: “Nope …” – and had he left it there it would have been fine. But this is the moment Draisaitl starts floating backward, drops his rhetorical gloves and stares a hole in Matheson – “ … you can do that. You know everything.”

Okay, fine. It’s a fight now. Good. Except Matheson starts swinging back.

“Why are you so pissy, Leon?”

 

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Draisaitl has been quivering with nervous energy, but stills when he registers the shot. Now he’s confused. Is he actually getting it taken to him by a newspaper guy?

“Hmm?” Draisaitl says. As one-line retorts go, it’s a distant second place to “Sorry?”

“Why are you so pissy?”

“I’m not,” Draisaitl says, his voice climbing, “I’m just answering your …”

Matheson has got Draisaitl off his feet and is deciding if he wants to start whaling on him. He does.

“Yeah, you are. Whenever I ask you a question.”

Draisaitl, starting to visibly shrink: “I gave you an answer.”

Matheson: “Not a very good one.” Draisaitl: “Okay.”

Cut. Aaaaaand print. That’s the Oilers season in one short, sad film.

The internet had the usual predictable takes on who was responsible for the set-to, who won, and who was in the right, but only one thing actually matters. The rule that applies on the ice is just as applicable off it. If you, a card-carrying member of the NHLPA, plan to pick a fight then you had better be prepared to finish it.

Draisaitl started this thing channelling Dirty Harry. By the end, he looked like a kid who’d just got pantsed in gym class. He looked lost out there (presumably, not an unfamiliar feeling at the moment).

Draisaitl’s inbred civility prevented him from going low or flipping the podium. But in the pro-sports context, either of those things would have been a better outcome.

It raises the question – what if the Edmonton Oilers problem isn’t talent, goaltending, defence or depth? What if it’s as simple as joy in the fight? What if, collectively, they just don’t like the conflict inherent in playing pro hockey?

This doesn’t mean flying fists. It means going from 0-to-60 whenever it’s required. Good teams shrug off self-doubt and external criticism. Great teams don’t absorb it in the first place. They are too busy winning, even when they’re losing. That Zen mindset cannot be taught.

Though he’s had cause to do so about a thousand times in his career, when do you remember Sidney Crosby dropping the just-happy-to-be-here mask he wears to all media interactions? Conversely, do you doubt that if someone went at Alex Ovechkin the same way Matheson went at Draisaitl, that it would have turned out differently? I’m guessing not.

Not all great players deal with heat the same way, but they all deal with it in a way that usually ends in their favour. The Oilers don’t have that sort of guy.

That impression starts with the team’s primary Alpha, Connor McDavid. When things are going well, you’d call McDavid’s off-ice presentation sanguine or measured.

When the Oilers start collapsing around him, McDavid’s availabilities become leaden and miserable. You can feel his appetite for this part of stardom – never great to begin with – disappear entirely. He looks like a man in need of a long vacation.

Where McDavid goes, so does the rest of the team. That is both the strength and weakness of the company-man culture that pervades the NHL. No one would ever think of stepping into the boss’s role, even when the boss isn’t feeling it.

Draisaitl’s failed attempt at throwing a proper temper tantrum may have started from a useful place. Maybe in that split second he thought that creating a viral moment was going to give the boys a boost. Or maybe he was just too frustrated to think clearly.

Whatever his rationale, he didn’t have it in him to follow the impulse to its logical end. That’s telling.

The only people who can truly understand what’s turning the Oilers from a pretty good team into a really bad one are the guys in the room. Unfortunately, they are also part of the systemic problem.

Is firing another coach and/or GM going to turn the Oilers’ lambs into lions? No. But that won’t stop anyone. Will putting NHL pariah Evander Kane on the roster improve things? No. It gives you more aggro, but creates a whole new set of issues. This is how desperation works.

Nobody wants to begin confronting the big, obvious question – is the Oilers’ core ill-conceived? Is it time to start from scratch again?

If this is another lost season for Edmonton, that means it is heading into Year 8 of the McDavid experiment.

How many more years will the Oilers flush away before deciding that, through no fault of anyone in particular, they have assembled a group who don’t have the level of fight a contending NHL team needs. There’s no shame in admitting it. But it’s probably easier to keep pretending.

 

 

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Oilers just need one good goalie.  

 

It would totally transform their team and give them all confidence.  Putting all your eggs in a 39 year old basket clearly hasn't worked out.  

 

Having said all that, I hope that Oilers overreact and blow up their team. 

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GB5 Canucks Star

GB5

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5 hours ago, Cat Man said:

Leon Draisaitl’s flustered interview sums up the Oilers’ season

I disagree with the reporter's take on this.

Matheson was setting Draisitl up and Leon knew it. Makes me think there is some history there.

 

The response from Matheson was unprofessional and classless to a superstar hockey player. 

 

Perhaps Draisitl could have handled himself better but I don't really blame him at all. He cares about their losing and then has to face a punk reported trying to ambush him after the game? That would be more than a tipping point for almost anyone.

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Flipper Junior Prospect

Flipper

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On 1/18/2022 at 9:39 AM, MikeBossy said:

Sure am - glad I am not alone :)

You’re not alone, I grew up near Edmonton in the 80’s and had to endure the Gretzky years as a Canucks fan. I still live in Alberta, just a bit further south now. I have very little sympathy for the Oiler fans, more like pity since they actually believed they had a chance for some reason?!!? Lol

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VegasCanuck Canucks Star

VegasCanuck

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1 hour ago, PistolPete13 said:

Fla shutout Soilers 6-0. Fans booing and a Jersey hits the ice.

That was us not so long ago.

 

 

Not sure why this makes me so happy, it just does!

 

Doing my happy dance!

 

You look at their cap space for next year, the Oilers are SOOOOO Screwed!!!!!!!!! 

 

They need a major re-work.

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Just now, McBackup said:

One of the few things I enjoy almost as much as a Canucks win is the Oilers getting blown out. I look forward to the reaction tomorrow.

For me it's the Flames losing....  

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Cat Man Abbotsford Regular

Cat Man

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54 minutes ago, GB5 said:

1. I disagree with the reporter's take on this. 

2. Makes me think there is some history there.

3. The response from Matheson was unprofessional and classless to a superstar hockey player. 

4. Perhaps Draisitl could have handled himself better but I don't really blame him at all. He cares about their losing and then has to face a punk reported trying to ambush him after the game? That would be more than a tipping point for almost anyone.

1. As you please. 

2. Most definitely.

3. Seems fine to me that a superstar hockey player and a HHOF journalist can throw all the muck they want at each other.

4."Punk" I think not. Both could have handled it better for sure.

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