Oilers Fat and Happy - Pat Quinn Quote

The Oilers won the game 4-0. It was an important game for the team to win considering what's facing them in their schedule over the next two weeks.

Edmonton played almost two good periods of hockey and honestly played well enough to win, but chose to let their goalie Jeff Deslauriers bail them out in the third period forcing him to "earn" his shut-out. As Pat Quinn put it, the Oilers got "fat and happy". I'm not sure there is a better way to describe the shape of the Oilers franchise (no pun intended).

Since the Oilers made that magical run to the Stanley Cup in 06', they've been living off the residuals. The city fell back in love with a team that gave them hope for a winner and from that moment on, it's been almost impossible to fully understand the continued and loyal foolish optimism.

Management tries to reel in the big fish. When it doesn't work, the Oilers grab a player like Erik Cole or Nikolai Khabibulin and amazingly, it's like an entire city forgot that the team is still a group of underachievers living off of the success of an almost five year old run that can't possibly be repeated if the team continues to play the way Pat Quinn has noticed it's playing. No Erik Cole or Khabibulin will change that. Frankly neither would have Dany Heatley or Marian Hossa.

Yet, it's enough to sell out the arena, enough to make the team one of the most profitable in the NHL, and enough to result in price increases for an inferior product.

Even in a 4-0 nothing victory over a team with a much better record than the Oilers, Edmonton left holes in the storyline that concerns those who want to see this team actually make a successful turn towards a winning franchise. Instead of choosing to continue to out-work and out-play the Coyotes, they figured a 4-0 lead was safe. Forunately they were right. Unfortunately, they won't always be.

At what point does this team realize that all 60-minutes need to be played as if it's their last 60-minutes? That victories shouldn't be truly relished if a team can't say they put in the effort 100% of the time? Is this Oilers team that group of players?

I'm not wanting to come off as unhappy that the team got a much needed win. I'm proud of the fact that for two periods, the Oilers took their closed-door meeting to heart. That players like Hemsky played in both ends and that others chipped in for a solid and safe win.

That said, the Phoenix Coyotes are the Phoenix Coyotes and not the Penguins, Sharks, Blackhawks, Flames, Capitals, or a host of other teams that can put their opposition away in less than 10 minutes if you let your play slip like the Oilers did on Monday night. Sure, the Oilers won't play every game 100%, but I've yet to see one game in which they significantly out-played the opposition like they did the first game of the season against Calgary; a game in which the Oilers lost with literally seconds left to play.

Quinn and co. can only hope the first two periods of Mondays game gave the Oilers a taste of what it feels like to be the better team. Perhaps they got the message that to clearly defeat your opposition, you have to out-play your opposition, you have to out-work your opposition, and you have to out-chance your opposition from defence to offence.

Quinn and co. really hope that the Oilers don't revert back to the last period of Mondays game, in which they floated off the residuals of the first thirty-some minutes. As Quinn suggested, that's a "fat and happy team that hasn't won squat."

Mondays game was big. Wednesday will be even bigger against an LA team that is ripe to be out-played. Friday, Edmonton will have to be 100% for 60 minutes.

Comments (4) Add Comment

...
written by RyanB, November 24, 2009

When I saw the fat and happy comment this morning I thought pretty much the same thing. I can't recall a team that so frequently seems to disappear completely after a good 20 or 30 minutes of play. Sometimes it costs them the game, sometimes it doesn't. Regardless of the outcome it happens too often and its unacceptable. Until that stops happening this team will stay in the bottom tier of the NHL.