As many of you know,I am an Edmonton Oilers fan and it’s been yet another frustrating year where the team hasn’t gotten much better and will inevitably miss the playoffs for the ninth consecutive year. Fans have become restless with the team to the point where they’ve not shown up to some games and the games they have shown up to,they’ve booed as the players came off the ice and have tossed their jerseys onto the ice as a message to management that the results have been unacceptable to them. In these recent years it has seemed to fans that the losing has been acceptable to management and ownership.

But hold on, there are starting to be signs of life in this team. After General Manager Craig MacTavish has made trades acquiring Derek Roy from the Nashville Predators and Rob Klinkhammer from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Oilers have won a few games against quality opponents in the Los Angeles Kings, the New York Islanders,and on Friday, the Chicago Blackhawks. Roy has been a big time difference maker and his impact on the team has encouraged players to play well and I for one am glad he is on this current squad to not only produce,but to be a good teammate to a group of guys who have certainly needed it. Oh,and Todd Nelson as interim head coach has been a big improvement as well.

Since coming over from Nashville, Derek Roy has made his impact in Edmonton.

Now,this doesn’t by any means tell me that this team is back and is going to contend for a playoff spot anytime soon,it just tells me that they may not be tanking as bad as I thought earlier this season,I mean after all,they’re still in 30th place.

Since it appears that they’re not tanking the season away, it also tells me that they may be finishing out of the top three worst teams in the league thus hurting their chances to obtain the top overall pick in this year’s entry draft, the top prize being Connor McDavid, a player who is being called the next Sidney Crosby and a guy who is regarded as one who can turn a franchise around. The Buffalo Sabres, who have been just as bad as the Oilers, have openly pined for McDavid, which tells me that they’re tanking,and probably worse than the Oilers are despite having four more wins and two more points as of press time.

So what exactly do I as a long suffering fan want for this team? I just want this team to get better. I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care who’s on the team to make it happen, I just want them to stop sucking. Whether MacTavish does it to make trades or if ownership and management wants to say “Fuck it,let’s tank to try to get the top spot and make Connor McDavid ours.”, this team has to get better in order to keep fans like me interested in this team. Right now,it looks like the former is happening and as much as I would love to have a kid like McDavid on this team who is exciting and fun to watch, I’d also like to see this team perform well now,too. 

These are the feels of being a fan of an NHL bottomfeeder,something fans of successful teams need not to go through,until it happens to their team.