from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

With 15 losses in 19 games to start a season that was supposed to be one in which things finally started getting better, it’s really hard to fathom it can get any worse than this for the Edmonton Oilers.

Losing 5-4 on Sunday night to the reigning Stanley Cup champions, a Blackhawks team that’s really starting to hit its stride and score goals in bunches, wasn’t, in itself, any reason for despair....

The entire organization seems to have that shellshocked look. Well, not GM Craig MacTavish, maybe. Having battled serious health issues and gone through the living death of coaching in the NHL, he knows there’s worse than this, and he knows this time, at least, he’s in charge of his own fate.

Rookie head coach Dallas Eakins is hanging in there pretty well, worried as much about the impact this difficult start is having on his family in their new hometown, wondering every day how to get his message across to his players while maintaining a positive public posture with the media....

Eakins has got veterans making rookie mistakes, young forwards with talent but little defensive savvy, a blue line that isn’t very good and saw one of its more experienced components traded away last week and goaltending that lets the team down pretty much every night.

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