Oilers Got Wreck'd: A Love Story. 2014-15 Season?

[Thorin]

I can tell you that all the fans stayed in the building until the end of the game and all the fans cheered very loudly in the last ten minutes of the game.  At least, from what we could see and hear on TV.  It was a really good game, and there was only one really really bad mistake, and it was from a rookie, and it turned into a goal against.  But no other monumental mistakes.  There were little mistakes at times, or maybe it was more lost battles than mistakes, but players on the ice would help each other and cover for each other.

You know, I don't think I saw a single 2 on 1 against.  San Jose tried a few times, but by the time it hit Edmonton's blue line someone had skated their ass off to come back and help out.  I saw Hall do it, I saw Ebs do it, I saw Arco do it a couple of times, I saw Klefbom do it after he pinched along the boards - man, he skated about 80 feet in the time it took the San Jose players to skate 40 feet on that play.

I went into it saying I'd be fine if Edmonton lost by three to five goals, knowing how strong San Jose was last year.  I just wanted to see entertaining hockey.  Well, this wasn't high-scoring but that's because both goalies played well in spurts during the game.  After the first period, Edmonton probably should've had two goals but Stalock locked 'em out.  In the second period, instead of hanging their heads, the Oilers as a whole went just as hard as in the first, and finally got a perfect goal (on a powerplay, puck went to the corner, winger and a center went over to battle for it while the other winger, Yakupov, went to the slot, right at the hashmarks, and just waited for the puck to get thrown over, then BAM GOAL).

[Mr. Analog]

I'm glad to hear that

[Thorin]

Since November 9th, the Oilers have had more press conferences than wins (2 vs 1).

And because of that, Dallas Eakins has been fired (err, "relieved of his duties as head coach").

And I don't think it'll make a difference for the season.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm so glad my tax dollars will go toward a Palace for this dumbass organization

[Thorin]

Tonight, the third defensive pairing is Brad Hunt and Justin Schultz.  I don't think we'll actually get to see them on the ice together, but if we do, it will probably be against Arizona's fourth line, and they'll still score a goal on us.

[Melbosa]

Such optimism. ;-)

[Mr. Analog]

Such optimism. ;-)

To quote Slap Shot

"If you hit me I'll piss all over myself"

Basically the Oilers... (taking the piss for yet another season)

[Thorin]

Well we've seen Justin Schultz play all season and all last season, and we've seen Brad Hunt play a bunch of games already this season.  And they ain't defensive powerhouses, yet they keep putting them on defense.

As a defender, always know and tell your teammates who you're covering, and then always stay between them and your net.  Justin Schultz occasionally forgets to do one or both of those, and same with Brad Hunt (from what I saw in the choppy feed in the pre-season and then in the regular season games that they kept him up in the club).

I guess Keith Aulie didn't play that well against New York, but then neither did Justin Schultz.  But Schultz is the "golden child", therefore he doesn't get healthy-scratched when he plays poorly (well, okay, he did once but that was to placate the fans who were walking out of games).

...

Did you know you can buy Oilers tickets on StubHub now?  There's been a few times now that on gameday, the tickets drop below ten bucks a piece.  This is people who have tickets but don't want to use them, trying to sell them for anything.  I just looked now, and it's not gameday for a home game (they're on the road tonight), and you can get two first-row seats for under three hundred dollars.  It used to be more than three hundred for just one such ticket, and then only if you knew someone.

[Darren Dirt]

Did you know you can buy Oilers tickets on StubHub now?  There's been a few times now that on gameday, the tickets drop below ten bucks a piece.  This is people who have tickets but don't want to use them, trying to sell them for anything.  I just looked now, and it's not gameday for a home game (they're on the road tonight), and you can get two first-row seats for under three hundred dollars.  It used to be more than three hundred for just one such ticket, and then only if you knew someone.

How the hell... I mean this is the kind of thing that keeps me from ever going to a game (even if they WERE better than bottom ranked) I had no idea prices had gone up to that kind of level. I mean this is Edmonton not California, can't believe that so many people afford to go on a regular basis... I remember hearing years ago that a seat at a Lakers NBA playoff game was 1k-2k or something, and I thought (sure, makes sense for the location and the quality of play and the significance of it being the PLAYOFFS). But E-town "big league" hockey? 300+ per seat? SRSLY?

[Mr. Analog]

The reality is though is our tickets are still fairly low priced compared to a lot of other clubs around the league. I'm pretty sure not the cheapest but we're down there.

Availability on the other hand has been the challenge as we're one of the smallest venues (currently) in the League. In fact the Coliseum was below NHL capacity in 1979

[Thorin]

Darren: that was for first-row seats, and that was shortly after we went to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, so there was a wee bit of hockey fever in town.  I guess even at the start of this year, tickets were still going on StubHub and the like for 200+, according to TiqIQ: http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/toronto-maple-leafs-most-expensive-ticket-in-nhl-all-teams-listed-1-to-30/.  In fact, for resale tickets, we're in 4th most expensive territory.

Mr. Analog: we're actually in the top-third for ticket prices as of last year: https://www.teammarketing.com/public/uploadedPDFs/NHL%20FCI%2014%20(2).pdf.  This year, it's harder to find proper data as a lot of places are just listing the average cost of tickets, rather than splitting out the premium seats (special deals where you get other things added in) and luxury boxes.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm surprised actually, from what I've heard from others even getting tickets in Florida was more expensive, I never bothered to look it up

[Thorin]

Well recently tickets have been a lot cheaper. Tickets for the new arena will probably be even more expensive than they are at Rexall. And a lot of people buy seasons tickets, which does give you a discount per game. And up until this year you could sell tickets from your season pack for more than you paid for them.

[Thorin]

Mark Spector.  I don't really like the points he tries to drive home about the Oilers, nor how he tries to drive them home.  He seems to focus on things that in my mind are not at all problems.  Nevertheless, he's one of the voices on TV and shares his viewpoint, the open exchange of which is the basis for democracy.

Daryl Katz didn't like something Mark Spector said sometime before December 23rd, and therefore ordered that Mark Spector not be allowed on TV during the Dec 23rd game.  Katz was not able to revoke Spector's press pass - can you imagine if you could lose your press pass for writing or saying something bad about the team you're covering?  So he did the most he could, removing Spector from a broadcast.

Now, do you think that is a good way to manage your image?  Just silence all the critics, rather than actually try to improve your image?  Keep in mind that whatever Spector said to piss off Katz, it wasn't newsworthy enough to be reported in a city where absolutely everything about the Oilers gets reported.

One take-away from this is that Katz does pay attention to his team.  Previously, it was thought that he just wasn't really paying attention and thus didn't notice how badly his team stunk out the arena.  But for him to catch some perceived slight by some reporter between periods means he was watching the games and has no problem with how the team is being run.  In other words, this makes it pretty obvious that he cares about the money, not the hockey.

Worst Sports Team Owner - he's gonna be on that list in the top five.

[Mr. Analog]

I don't even know what to think anymore

It's a train wreck