from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

Thursday the team reported for medicals and that sense of optimism for the big picture under GM Ken Holland was in place to some extent in the community. Not so much for the season at hand.

The city definitely isn’t giddy as the boys are back in town to face the prospects of becoming the first team in National Hockey League history to miss the playoffs in 14 of 15 seasons.

Let’s not try to kid anybody here. The fans, who have sold out Oilers games throughout the Decade of Darkness, are somewhere between fatalistic and pessimistic.

It’s difficult to find a preseason prognosticator picking the Oilers in the playoffs and, as they saying goes in the ticket business, good seats are still available.

The thing is, though, that it doesn’t much matter what the mood and the attitude might be outside the dressing room. At this point it’s how the team sees itself.

There are generally 31 optimistic teams heading into training camp but this appears to be a very sober, serious group that new general manager Ken Holland and new head coach Dave Tippett will see gathered on the ice at Rogers Place Friday morning for the first time.

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