Two Years Max, Proof Enclosed
♦ Mike Sciarpelletti
Thanks, Internet!
These playoffs have been f-ing ridiculous. I have had a wide spectrum of emotions from laughter that made me soil my undergarments to moves so ridiculous that all Oiler fans must be salivating at the thought of Jordan Eberle’s first playoff game.
If you’ve read me for awhile, you know that I try to express my own opinions on hockey while supporting them with some solid backup evidence. When I use terms like Oilers hockey I feel like I can show you exactly what I mean. The internet is kind of wonderful that way.
Now some of the harsher critics of this club (ie. those that root for that mess of an orginization south of Edmonton) claim that the Oilers current developmental path is going to take them nowhere. Well, thanks to the stylings of one NsOilFan on YouTube, I can now defeat you, logically.
Any sensible person talking about the Oilers wanting to build a winner can at least look at the 2006 edition of the Edmonton Oilers and take some notes, but has anyone ever put it to you this simply? They took a bunch of special young players and a couple of unknowns and paired them with the most obvious power-play game-plan of all time: put someone with a really really hard shot on the blue and pair him up with one of the most annoying players to enter your crease of all time.
I’m glad to see Bobby Ryan score a nice goal like the aforelinked (I’m coining it) video, as it also illustrates to me what our secondary (and perhaps even third-ary) scoring will be doing to the opposition game in and game out in exactly two years. Go ahead and look at the FA list that year, and don’t tell me that no one wants to be a part of that.
Chris Pronger and Michael Peca were both in, and they did play integral roles in that run, you can check out the rest of the videos on that NsOilFan pack to see more of what they and the other cogs in that machine contributed. It wouldn’t have been hard to pitch. “We have good young players, we add you guys and then a few more pieces at the deadline and we will surprise everybody”. Pronger knows NHL talent, Peca knows NHL talent… why? Because they are NHL talent (most scouts are former players) I don’t need to illustrate this to you.
Do you think that Pronger thought that his wife would like to live in the frozen tundra of Edmonton? Do you think that Michael Peca’s long commute had anything to do with you butt-holes who verbally rape this current roster? I’m sorry, but the lack of faith in this organization is starting to drive me nuts.
This team is going places, folks, and within two years? That’s a guarantee…
Back in ’06 everybody had a role, and when players like Pisani started doing insane things, teams like the Red Wings started to look like fodder. High powered youth combined with a gritty veteran presence can do wonderful things, and I’m especially happy to see that we have loaded up on the young talent leading in to the next couple of years. Tambellini will have a lot of options, especially with the Souray card to play and the fact that Andrew Cogliano could become expendable with the drafting of one RNH.
In the current (and slightly insane) trade market I won’t even begin to speculate.
With the same confidence that I had when I predicted that the Oilers would beat the President’s Trophy winners (and when asked about the next one stated it would be hilarious if the Oilers shut them out) I can easily say that if the Oilers decided to acquire some pieces this year they would either just barely miss the playoffs or make them and perhaps even make some noise in the process. That second year though, will be the year that the Oiler fan finds the most sweet redemption.
Personally, I doubt that UFA signings will be happening this off-season. At best, it will be additional help on the farm. People talk a lot about grooming talent and I think they always miss one key point. You need to be on a team that is succeeding to truly absorb something from it. The Oilers might have really messed with OKC’s Calder chances with some last season roster fudging, players just don’t really keen on stepping up (the current roster’s “effect”).
Slam me all you will, but if you don’t see the Oilers lining up RPH, Eberle, and Hall, you don’t even belong amongst the fans anymore. Idelogically, this team is showing its cards in spades. Players in the NHL don’t need coaches, for the most part they know what they should be doing. They can play the game as well as anybody because they are in the top league in the world, correct? Getting a guy like Tom Renney is a stroke of brilliance, because while has is a proven youth groomer (WJC), he is an encourager and positive influence (and also one of the nicest bench bosses in the league).
If you don’t think that the Oilers are perhaps going the way of the 2006 model, I understand your view, but secondary scoring from NPH, Eberle, and Hall, backing up a line that could perhaps have a worthy centre for Hemsky along with Paajarvi. Anything is possible for the roster, and that is the truly exciting part.
But when this team is put together, and put together right, I guranttee you they will be the talk of the whole league. Highlight reels will be rife with the blue and orange, and the Oilers will have their heyday.
Just a couple more years, my weary friends, just a couple more years…
Where Did You Guys Go? or I Mention ’06 Again…
Much like the 2010-2011 Oilers most of the Oilverse staff is out with injury (both real and imagined for the sake of having a longer off-season). We take a great deal of pride in this team, and I have always demanded that this blog be as Oilers-centric as possible. If you want to read bad news about the team, you needn’t look far, and I feel redundant telling you what people who claim to be intelligent hockey analysts tell you.
With the draft coming up, you can expect a few more clips. No one can doubt that the Oilers have some huge holes to plug. If fantastical schemes like drafting obscure Swiss netminder Benjamin Conz and somehow succeeding prove to be too stupid for the Oilers to gamble on we may see the Oil leave said holes unplugged as well (the ’06 Oilers had no goalie until the playoffs, none).
So stay faithful, Oil Country, your time is coming soon…
I’m willing to stake my meaningless reputation on it.
