Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Now What Edmonton?

12/15/2014 at 1:33pm EST

from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

So Eakins is out – he leaves Edmonton with a 36-63-14 record – and MacTavish is in, on an interim basis.

The Oilers have most of four months to play out the string and perhaps most importantly, the goal now is to shed the team’s losing culture and make hockey fun again - if such a thing is possible. The playoffs are not possible and the line the Oilers need to walk is to regain their credibility as an NHL market, but perhaps not win an excessive number of games from here until the end, because it would jeopardize their chances of drafting first overall next June. In the year of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, projected by scouts to be franchise-altering players in the mode of a Sidney Crosby, it isn’t easy. Your heart says one thing – win as much as possible, and let the lottery ping pong balls fall as they may. Your head says, someone’s going to land these two kids; why not us?

Of course, the likelihood is we wouldn’t even be discussing the Oilers in the context of the McDavid sweepstakes if MacTavish had left well-enough alone and just kept Ralph Krueger on as his head coach. Krueger coached the Oilers in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season and they were showing signs of becoming competitive. They were 19-22-7, third in the old Northwest Division, and 12th in the conference, their best showing in six years. But MacTavish was convinced that Eakins was an upgrade; and was a hot commodity that would have gone elsewhere if he hadn’t been offered the head-coaching position. So he made an unnecessary change; handled the fallout badly; and it exploded massively in his face.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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