Bad Losses

It's one thing to beat yourself up to your own benefit.

I doubt that the educated and well-meaning Oiler fan will get too upset over a losing season during an acknowledged rebuild year, a rear right after we drafted first overall.  That's fine, we can live with that.  It's not pretty, and it's not what we want to see, but it's something we can live with because we understand the NHL system and we know this will make us better in the long run.

So when someone argues that we should trade Penner for Chris Phillips, I argue no, because Penner is an asset and could still be useful 3-5 years from now, when this team is competitive.  Chris Phillips is 30 and it's very likely he will not be good at the time when we actually need him to be good.  Inherent in this argument is the knowledge that losing, painful as it may be, is all part of the plan.

This kind of sanguine and generous viewpoint is hard to maintain in light of an 8-2 beatdown by the middling New York Rangers.  Yet when this loss comes on the heels of a 7-1 defeat to the equally mediocre Carolina Hurricanes and a 6-2 thrashing at the hands of the admittedly mighty Red Wings, topped off by a 4-3 defeat by the supposedly-just-as-bad-as-we-are Devils in which the Oilers were outshot 39-24, a sanguine attitude is hard to maintain.

Something must be done!  The feeling builds within our hearts.  Even the happy-to-lose crowd with dreams of a second consecutive first overall pick, think that at least for the sake of the kids, we should make some upgrades.  We allegedly got rid of the cancers in the dressing room over the summer.  For the continued health of the team it would behoove us to not roll around in toxic waste dumps, the kind created by losing by 17 goals in 4 games, if we expect there to be a proper atmosphere in the locker room.  Yes, we can lose, we expect to.  But be competitive.  Score.  Defend.  Make other teams pay to play us.  If need be, get occasionally blown out, after all, we're a bad team.  Just don't lose by 17 goals over 4 games.