So you may have noticed that I’ve yet to comment on the Memorial Cup, a week after the Hitmen’s ouster at the hands of the hated Brandon Wheat Kings. This is very much intentional. If you stalk me on the Internet, you may have caught wind of some rather bitter sentiments regarding the way the Hitmen went out, and I wanted some distance to see if I still felt the same way before saying anything long-form. The answer? Kinda, but not entirely.
Posts Tagged ‘pain suffering and woe’
Oilers Fire Some Guys
Accountability, motherfuckers!
I’m glad the Oilers fired two guys who schlepped bags and the one guy Souray said had nothing to do with his injuries or guys coming back early from injuries, instead of the people who constructed or coached the team to its worst position ever, and who apparently can’t even manage to tell prospects what the hell their plans are or what they’re supposed to be working on.
I wonder if Tambo will give another speech next summer about how things are going to change around here, Goddammit, and bang his shoe on the podium, and then fire the Zamboni driver and the Northlands Coliseum janitors. That’ll be fun.
Update: I’ve just been informed by Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini that my services will no longer be required as intermittent updater of this here blog. He thanked me for my years of service, and told me that while this was a move that had to be made for the future of the franchise, in his heart, I’ll be an Oilers fan forever.
For anyone who's keeping score
A look back at the great goaltending debate of 2009
The Oilers had a lot of things go wrong this year and as much as people like to bring up the cap I’m not convinced that it limited them this year and given that they’re planning to rebuild I’m not sure it limits them next year. However, at the beginning of the season a list was published of the best goalies of the last 3 seasons who were free agents, and what they were signed at. Let’s take a look again.
- Martin Biron: 77 wins, .914 SV% (10th) – 1 year, 1.4 million per season
- Ty Conklin: 46 wins, .911 SV% (18th) – 2 years, 1.3 million per season
- Nikolai Khabibulin: 73 wins, .909 SV% (23rd) – 4 years, 3.75 million per season
- Dwayne Roloson: 70 wins, .909 SV% (25th) – 2 years, 2.5 million per season
- Mathieu Garon: 47 wins, .908 SV% (26th) – 2 years, 1.2 million per season
- Manny Fernandez: 40 wins, .907 SV% (27th) – unsigned
- Martin Gerber: 55 wins, .907 SV% (28th) – signed in the KHL
- Jason Labarbera: 25 wins, .907 SV% (29th) – 2 years, 1.0 million per season
- Manny Legace: 63 wins, .905 SV% (32nd) - 1 year, 0.5 million per season
- Olaf Kolzig: 49 wins, .902 SV% (36th) – unsigned
- Antero Niittymaki: 36 wins, .902 SV% (37th) – 1 year, .6 million per season
- Brent Johnson: 25 wins, .900 SV% (39th) – 1 year, .525 million per season
- Joey MacDonald: 17 wins, .900 SV% (40th) – unsigned
- Fredrik Norrena: 35 wins, .899 SV% (43rd) – signed in the SEL
- Curtis Sanford: 19 wins, .896 SV% (46th) – 1 year, .6 million per season
- Andrew Raycroft: 51 wins, .891 SV% (48th) – 1 year, .5 million per season
- Curtis Joseph: 26 wins, .889 SV% (49th) – unsigned
(Courtesy Copper ‘N Blue)
Useless Historical Statistic of the Day: Playoff Futility
A few months back, when it first looked like the Coyotes were a legit team, I became curious about their current active playoff futility streak — no playoff series wins since 1987, when the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Calgary Flames in a six-game Smythe Division Semi-Final — and how it compared to other historical paragons of failure.
Turns out, it compares pretty favourably, in exactly the wrong way. More specifically, I’m pretty sure they currently hold the NHL record for most seasons played without a playoff series victory. These are the longest streaks I could find:
- Winnipeg Jets-Phoenix Coyotes: 1987-88 to 2003-04; 2005-06 to 2008-09 (21 seasons)
- Quebec Bulldogs-Hamilton Tigers-New York Americans: 1913-14 to 1916-17; 1919-20 to 1934-35 (20 seasons)
- New York Rangers: 1950-51 to 1969-70 (20 seasons)
Note that the Bulldogs-Tigers-Americans franchise streak includes their final four seasons in the NHL’s predecessor league, the National Hockey Association. Note also that all these years are inclusive, and that seasons in which a team did not play — 2004-05 for the Coyotes; 1917-18 and 1918-19 for the Bulldogs — are excluded for obvious reasons. This also means that while the Ottawa Senators did not win a playoff series between the old franchise’s last Stanley Cup in 1927 and the new franchise’s first series victory in 1998, only twelve seasons were completed during that stretch — six as the old Senators, one as the St. Louis Eagles, and five as the new Senators — which puts them down the list a bit.
This list should also give us Oilers fans a bit of perspective, for however bad things seem to be now, we’ve only missed the playoffs four seasons in a row: we have a long, long way to go before we’re as historically bad as these guys.
Dear Oilers,
I’m a pretty big fan. I’ve even supported the idea that you could be a great team with some minor personnel changes and playing as a team. This is not the time to start doing that.
I’ll admit, even in the middle of January I was hoping for a repeat of Quinn’s undefeated streak (35 games) which could have propelled you into the playoff picture. However, doing the math today shows that even if you win every game between now and the end of the season you’d be lucky to get 8th spot (with 96 points). This is not the time to win.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should actively try to lose. At this stage of the game if you break .500 for the rest of the season you’re still only likely to drop down to 3rd pick. And while, yes, Toronto getting first pick would entertain me bitterly (I believe you’re aware that their pick goes to Boston this year) and I realize that there’s no real clearance between the first and second prospects this season it should be up to you to pick between Daigle and Pronger. You don’t want to obsess over what might have been.
