Oil Spill: How the Edmonton Oilers' Past Is Ruining Its Present

Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish said there was "blood" on his hands at a press conference on Monday. He was putting it mildly. MacTavish, who played for Edmonton during the team's dynasty run of four Stanley Cups in the mid-80s, is the architect of the NHL's worst team, but the blood he spoke of wasn't his own. The blood belonged to the person whose firing McTavish was announcing, the person taking the fall for McTavish's failure: head coach Dallas Eakins.

MacTavish looked weary as he stood in front of reporters to announce Eakins' dismissal. It came just 10 days after MacTavish defended Eakins despite the Oilers recent woes. The team had been selling a patient rebuild, and fans have been exercising their own patience, albeit begrudgingly, in the five seasons since the Oilers drafted the highly-touted Taylor Hall with their first of three consecutive no. 1 overall picks. During that span, they have finished no higher than twelfth in their conference, twice finishing in last place. They currently sit in last place in the Western Conference with the worst goal differential in the league.

But so steadfast has the message of patience been that even Eakins was still, somehow, preaching it during his exit press conference. Until the day of the firing, the belief had been that the Oilers were in fact headed in the right direction: while change was desperately needed, it would come in the form of adjustments to their roster full of talented but unproven young forwards.

Instead, the Oilers did as the Oilers do and took a giant leap backwards, firing a progressive-thinking coach who was brought in from a successful stint in the AHL. Such is life in Edmonton, a city that welcomes its visitors with the slogan "City of Champions," an echo of that 80s dynasty, and also the furthest thing from the truth right now.

So, which proven NHL coach did the Oilers choose replace Eakins and lead the team back into the hearts of their disenfranchised fans? Well, former Pittsburgh Penguins coach and Stanley Cup winner Dan Byslma's phone remained silent. Instead, MacTavish, himself a relic of the championship days, will serve as interim head coach.

Eventually the team will bring in Todd Nelson, the coach of the Oilers AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. Nelson has never been a head coach at the NHL level, serving only as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-10.

But it doesn't matter who coaches this particular version of the Oilers, what with a slew of underperforming forwards, a lackluster defense, and a pair of goaltenders who are NHL backups even on their best days. Which is why it's all the more surprising that the architects of this team, three former Oilers players, including President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe and Kelly Buchberger, who works in Player Personnel, are still employed. Meanwhile, owner Daryl Katz, the man who has final on say on all matters regarding his franchise, has been largely absent, or at least unwilling to stir things up.

So, with no coherent management, the burden in Edmonton falls to young forwards Hall and Jordan Eberle. They both are talented and both in the second year of long-term contract extensions, but Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier they are not. That they should even have to approximate those two is a problem.

On Monday, Hall and Eberle looked like stunned, expressionless zombies as they commented on the firing of Eakins to reporters. It's as if losing has created a perpetual fog around Eberle and Hall that is only compounded by the knowledge that they're part of a plan that didn't just fail, but failed spectacularly. The good old days are now little more than a painfully distant memory.

"Fans are, for the most part, done with the glory years," says Matt Henderson, an Oilers blogger at Hockeybuzz and Oilers Nation. "It is disturbing to see Lowe avoid blame for so long, disturbing to see Kelly Buchberger resurface in the organization after every coaching change, disturbing to see MacTavish take control as the GM of the team without any real hiring process. The Oilers are being run like a fraternity in a bad summer comedy."

So where did the Oilers go wrong? Well, for one, the team refuses to change. They cling to a time when they were the most feared team in the NHL, even as they become a laughingstock.

"Accountability is a word that's been tossed around a lot in Edmonton in recent years, and yet nothing at the top changes," says Ryan Batty, a columnist at Oilers SB Nation blog Copper & Blue, "and it gets harder and harder to understand why that's the case unless it's their connection to the past, it's certainly not the on-ice results that have kept them employed."

In other words, the Oilers have hit rock bottom and managed, somehow, to drill even deeper. Ticket sales are falling. Patience is wearing thin. The team sucks. If the Oilers are ever going to return to prominence as a franchise, they need to let go of the past, cut ties with the only dynasty Edmonton has ever had, and start all over again.