Bonsignore Citizens Brigade: Oilers At Blackhawks

Can anyone believe I'm still in the league?? - picture circa 1945

Yeesh, what a day. We lose easily our best defenseman in favor of an underachiever, and we send Steve Staios packing down the highway but somehow end up not taking on 18 horrible contracts. I can't really say that this team got worse per say, because really how much farther can they fall? But they certainly didn't get better outside of the fact they now have money freed up to sign Gagner/Brule/whoever else and hopefully (dear god please) have some left over to sign say, oh, I don't know, a centerman who can win faceoffs and kill penalties and maybe a gritty stay at home defenseman? Although it's not like we've been hurting for these types of players for 3 seasons now.

I hate the fact that we lost Lubo. Absolutely hate it. He was one of the few Oilers who was consistent night in and night out and should have been here to take the Peckham's, Chroney's (ugh) and whichever other young defensemen may come through the revolving door, under his wing and hopefully steer them in the right direction. But instead now we get Ryan Whitney, who by all accounts should be an upgrade (way bigger, younger, cheaper contract) but just taking a gander at his career stats he looks to be more Cheechoo than Pronger. His stats are pretty inflated due to his seasons on some ridiculous Pittsburgh Penguins teams. I'm not J. Willis or anything but by the looks of it I'd say he's starting to peak at about 5 goals/30 points per season. Which isn't horrendous, but considering Lubo already has 30 points this year it definitely looks like a downgrade. Another knock against Whitney is that he doesn't use his massive girth to his advantage. He's 6'4, 220 but apparently doesn't engage in physical play nearly enough as he should. But I don't think we got completely fleeced on this deal, just 3/4 fleeced. Who knows, perhaps another change of scenery is all this kid needs to turn it on and become a legitimate number 1 or 2 defender. Dustin Penner finally started using his size to it's full potential so maybe Quinn and Co can squeeze the same thing out of Whitney. I'd have an easier time accepting this trade if Whitney made less money and we got a lot bigger of a return, but my verdict is still out on this one. As of right now it looks like a mediocre trade for the Oilers at best. But who knows what the future will hold. Lubo isn't getting any younger and Whitney is just entering his "prime" years. Not the worst trade in this franchises history that's for sure.

I know we all love Lubo and are going to miss the shit out of him, but I don't think this trade is world ending like a lot of people out there. And besides, it's the Oilers, you have to look for whatever silver lining you can. It's painfully clear that after 2 seasons of evaluation Tambo has just now realized that perhaps it's time to look toward the future and is slowly starting to dismantle this team piece by glorious piece. We now have cap space and rosters spots open for next year to sign those free agent role players we've all been screaming for what seems like forever. And it seems to me like a lot of people out there complaining about the moves figured that with a few trades that all our problems would be solved and we'd be sitting pretty for next year. Well friends, I'll let you in on a little secret; the Edmonton Oilers have barely anything in terms of tradable assets. And the assets that are worth anything are FAR more valuable to us if we keep them instead of shipping them away for a handful of picks and prospects. Seriously would you rather see a 33 year old defenseman get traded for a guy who still has some potential left to be decent or see Sam Gagner traded for 2 or 3 warm bodies, some picks and some prospects? If anyone says Gagner then you can get the fuck out right now because I don't want to have any association with you. We all knew this rebuilding phase was going to be slow and painful. I think today we finally realized just how painful it's going to be. But the endgame is going to be worth it. Trust me.

And now onto a much happier story. WE GOT RID OF STEVE STAIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll let you guys tire yourselves out with celebratory fist pumps before I move on.

And not only did we finally rid ourselves of some serious dead weight, Tambo somehow got rid of him without having to take on one or two just as crappy contracts, and, get this, got a decent return for him! What the fuck is going on here?? Oh, that's right, the Sutters have completely lost their minds. Seriously what is going on down there? They are taking on everyone else's garbage, and jettisoning what little draft picks they had left. They've made it pretty clear they love over paying for their defense corps, hate scoring goals, and loathe draft picks. Do the Sutters have some kind of personal vendetta against the Flames, so they've set out to completely smash the franchise into discernible pieces? I'd never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad we have Tambo as our GM. Well, I mean, rather than Darryl Sutter. But still.

I think we can all agree that at one point or another we all had mad respect for Steve Staios. And then the mid 2000's hit and he got old and shitty and of course that means he got signed to a long term, overpriced contract. If this was 2002 we'd probably all be screaming to the heavens "Why is this happening to us? WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS!" But now I think we can all give each other celebratory high fives. It was nice knowing you Steve. We had some great times. But sometimes you just have to move on. I'm sure you'll have fun in Calgary. See ya!

And now onto an even more depressing topic than the Lubo trade. The Oilers are playing the Chicago Blackhawks tonight! 4 Olympic medals (and almost 6) were brought home to Chi-Town on Monday. The Oilers on the other hand traded their only 2 Olympians. Yeah, this game is going to be awesome. Ugh. I'm not even going to waste anymore of my precious (and expensive) time talking about this game. We are going to lose and we are going to lose bad. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go continue to laugh at how incredibly horrible the Flames trade deadline day was. Toskola! HAHAHAHA!

jeanshorts prediction: Chicago 25 - Edmonton -.03

TylerSeguin

IQWT

-jeanshorts