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Aristotle called it hamartia and it is most often interpreted using what he described as the law of probability or necessity. See, in the perfect tragedy, our hero will mistakenly bring about his own downfall or demise. He does it not because of some great weakness, but because he simply does not know enough. It is a world of inevitable consequences.
I think this is why I'm an Oilers fan. Not because of some flaw of character, but because I simply do not know any better. Unfortunately, this too bears inevitable consequences.
Non-Hockey fans, feel free to close this blog post right now (put gimme a 5 anyways, right?). Hockey fans, indulge me the favor of an audience while I cry.
I was born in the early/mid 80s. So my allegiance to all things Oilers is not born of watching the greatest modern hockey dynasty devastate the league and win a series of Stanley Cups. I hear tell of the glory days - people say it didn't matter if we gave up 7 goals in a night cause everyone knew we'd still score 8. I don't remember these years. Hell, the only cup I can remember is the 1990 win, and we didn't even have Gretzky at the time. We still had The Moose, but we lost him too. Lost, in typical Oilers fashion.
What I do remember are the horrible years of the 90s and early 2000s, with them the ever-present struggles to keep the team alive and maybe, just maybe, make the playoffs in the process. Make the playoffs only to lose to Dallas, which we did in five consecutive playoffs appearances. The only thing consistent is how much we consistently suck. Sucking in typical Oilers fashion.
Then there were the draft years. If one good thing can come out of laying a turd on your entire regular season, it's a good spot come draft day. In 1993 we had a miserable season and a good chance to pick up some good, young players. But with guys like Saku Koivu and Todd Bertuzzi on the table who do we take? Nick Stajduhar - a guy whose claim to fame are the two whole games he played in the OHL. Fuck me!
It all peaked in 1995. This year the draft was actually in Edmonton. On top of that, we had the number 6 pick and there were a few home-town boys on the docket - the crowd was screaming for them. Chants of "Doan" and "Iginla" echoed through the building as Oilers management took the podium.
"And with the 6th overall pick, the Edmonton Oilers select Steve Kelly"
Stunned. Perennial 30 goal scorer and future team captain Shane Doan? Pass. 40-50 goal man and arguably the best all-around forward in hockey Jarome Iginla? Pass. Why take those two all-stars when Mr.My-Number-Of-NHL-Games-Can-Be-Counted-On-Your-Fingers Steve Kelly is available. Fuck you, Oilers. Did you do that out of spite? Just another pick wasted in typical Oilers fashion.
When the lockout ended, and the new NHL came, my cynicism went the same way as blatant obstruction and ties. I was ready for a new Oilers team and a chance at making the playoffs. Though I wasn't prepared for the idea that we'd actually have a chance at winning the damn thing. Holy crap, this is great!
My brother and I talked long about how this was our run. This was the Oilers run for the new generation of fan. The generation of fan not spoiled by early success, but rather hardened by years of loss and disappointment. This is something we had worked for. This wasn't given to us and this had not been easy. On top of that, as we watched the Oilers enter the Stanley Cup Finals, we knew we had the better team. The 2006 Oilers were the perfect playoff team - strong, fast, impossible special teams and a hot goaltender. We were actually going to win.
But somehow, against all odds, the Oilers found a way to lose. This is what we do, and oh do we do it well.
We did it all for nothing. We payed hundreds of dollars for those playoff tickets. We stayed up all night partying in the streets. We sat down in the pubs at 11:00am, 8 hours before game time, just so we'd have a place to sit. And we did it all for nothing. Like most things associated with the post-80s Edmonton Oilers, we should have known it'd end in heartache.
So why do we do it? Why does any fan root so hard for a team that just lets him down again and again? Like Aristotle said, we just don't really know any better. It's who we are and it's what we do. It's all that makes sense. So we too will see this obsession become our downfall.
It's a new year and another season. Looking at our roster I can't help but foresee another season spent on the couch with a beer intake steadily increasing as the season dives further and further into desperation. Is there hope? Sure. The young players in the Oilers' system reads like a laundry list of potential star talent. But it will be wasted. It will be ruined like all of our young players are ruined by a coaching staff who doesn't know the first thing about how to handle young stars other than to make them scape-goats. Fucked up to the point of obscurity - obviously in typical Oilers fashion.
Sell the team to Mr.Katz, fire the entire front office, hire new coaches. The staff is so keen on calling this a 'Fresh Start'. Bullshit. It's not a fresh start unless the good ol' boys running the team don't also elect to go the way of all the star power that led us to the Finals in '06. But this won't happen. Instead we can only watch as our beloved franchise dies.
And I'll be watching alright. I don't know any better.
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Hahahha, dude your constant posts about the Oilers are so epic they almost make me feel bad for you. But I must admit, I love reading them. And as a life long Blueshirt fan, I share your pain...
Talk about losing years: 1940!?!? But man, the 93-94\' championship was the best goddamn thing that ever happened to me in terms of sports, and that\'s saying a lot. I like the Niners in football (and will root for the G-men too) and I root for the Yanks, so I\'ve seen my fair share of my teams win it all. NOTHING compared to that. I remember exactly where I was when they won it.
I was in the 2nd grade at the time and that entire series was watched at my best friends place (huge Rangers fans as well, him and his two little bros. Only one game we watched at his relative\'s for a BBQ. We stayed inside all night and watched it haha). Game 7, we\'re all gettin ready. His mom made us all munchies and we all had our Ranger\'s jerseys on and were in his basement getting ready.
His basement was the spot to be. After the end of the prior season, we decided we wanted to make a hockey rink down there. We got plywood for our boards and put flexiglass at the top. His dad, who worked at MSG at the time, got us mini-sticks, real decals from the Garden, the works. He even helped us make a penalty box under the stairs, complete with a door haha. We plays countless 2v2\'s down there, but today, our Garden would see its first Stanley Cup—our homemade version!
When the Rangers finally beat them after the final face off, we went apeshit and ran downstairs and put the ceremony on. We all pretended to be our favorite players—I got to be the Messaih—and paraded around with out Cup that was taller than all of us. But then after that, it all went to hell.
Saw the team let amazing talent walk or get traded: Zubov, one half of one of the best blue line pairings on the powerplay I\'ve ever seen; Messier when he went to Canucks; Tony Amonte; Kovalov, when he wasn\'t pissing me off, was pretty good most nights, etc etc.
Saw some of the most ridiculous signings and trades, seemingly forgetting of the concept of CHEMISTRY: Lindros, Holik, etc etc. You can\'t buy a fucking team, arghhhhhhh!!!!
For something around 7 years (it escapes my mind now), my team didn\'t even sniff the playoffs. Even worse, the hated Devils—who most of my friends follow—were on a rampage this entire time. At one point, the Rangers had not beat them in 23 consecutive fucking games. Talk about futility?
Every year for the last 15-odd years, my grandmother gives me and my brother tickets to a Ranger-Devil game, usually at Continental (now I\'ll be going to Newark. If I could only put into words what a shithole that city is, you would see why it\'s retarded), so I have to brave the fans solo + my brother. Ill take the verbal abuse, beers and hotdogs thrown at me and fights, but to take all that and watch my team get curbstomped 5-0, 5-1, for fucking four years in a row takes its toll. It wasn\'t til my sophomore in HS that they won again.
trust me, your pain is felt!
/end rant, procrastinating on deadline = no good
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Detroit lions. Enough said. I can't hold a candle to your pain and frustration though, as i gave up on them long ago. I really felt for you in your post. At least my hockey team is good  gogo Red Wings
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Well, on the bright-side Hawk, the Rangers are looking particularly deadly this year =]
Epic response though.
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Yeah, i was getting sick of any single hockey post of mine on here or your site getting destroyed by your posts ><. Plus, every time i see hockey, i get real antsy waiting for the season to start. Soccer is barely broadcast here, baseball bores me, so my life has no meaning until football/hockey start =[
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Every team goes through depressions and disappointments. There isn't really anything we can do about it unless we happen to be NHL players. The canadiens have been mediocre for several seasons, sometimes getting our hopes up, like at the beginning of the 2006-2007 season, but overall they suck more then they get sucked.
Really though, it doesn't bother me. I just really like watching hockey, even when my team gets pruned. I always hope for a comeback, and when they actually win well then it's an added bonus.
Argh, reminds me of this year's draft. Everyone thought we were going to take Angelo Esposito (myself I was hoping for Cherepanov cuz he kicks ass :D) but then what do we get? A bunch of defensemen from american highschools. My friends tried to make me understand, we have few defensive prospects, it'll be good for us in the long run, bla bla. But I didn't care for that, the team always sucks and disappoints in the end, so why not take an awesome player that can entertain us every few nights? sigh
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Valhalla18444 Posts
this about sums it up yeah
i really wish the coaches would go. the oilers i loved in the last few seasons are gone, traded away or injured. i'll love the oilers no matter what they look like, but there's no success coming with the current guys up top
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Wah, I'm sad cause I like the oilers.
Tell your GM to keep his idiocy contained to fucking your team over not mine.
Also, dont cry about being boned when you grew up in a dynasty and a history of recent cup wins.
My Sabres constantly get boned and never have won any cups. We are the best team to never have won a cup.
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Tusk. Don't be so sensitive. That wasnt the point of the post.
Flaccid: You can always cheer for calgary :D
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Valhalla18444 Posts
On July 30 2007 17:15 Tusk wrote:
Wah, I'm sad cause I like the oilers.
Tell your GM to keep his idiocy contained to fucking your team over not mine.
Also, dont cry about being boned when you grew up in a dynasty and a history of recent cup wins.
My Sabres constantly get boned and never have won any cups. We are the best team to never have won a cup.
sabres are my second favourite team yo
broke my heart watchin em lose to ottawa
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Replace a few names and you're talking about the Bruins there ^_^
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The Oil still sucks. Bump!
This entire blog is how I feel about the Niners in football.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://gfhl.net/Images/oilers.gif)
![[image loading]](http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2005/writers/darren_eliot/09/12/messier.retires/p1_messier-oilers.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/topstory/sports/iginla_jarome060123_cp.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/WorldCup/2004/09/15/doan250.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/3/3c/250px-Oiler_fans_2006.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060605/060605_roloson_hmed_9p.h2.jpg)
