OilFans.com :: Fan Forum: Oilers => Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers

Guest

This day on June 16
Acquired: Josef Beranek (1998)
Departed: Petr Klima (1993) Bobby Dollas (1998) Tony Hrkac (1998)

Happy Birthday To: oilers-all-the-way, anoilgirl, The Fog

OILERS INFO OILFANS
Sunday, Jun 16, 2024 4:21 PM MT

F.A.Q.

Members

Home

Oilers » Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers

Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers [message #724531 is a reply to message #724508 ]	Tue, 11 December 2018 08:36

Jay
Messages: 453
Registered: January 2007
Location: Edmonton

No Cups

Adam wrote on Mon, 10 December 2018 21:51

I spent a lot of time on the highway today and listened to this podcast as I drove.

Some fascinating things with it, but it all points to management. I do think that Ference had an impossible job, being brought in to teach the young guys to be a professional as a former Stanley Cup winner. He's a lot like Ethan Moreau as captain. You have a guy at the bottom of your roster who doesn't have much of a relationship with the guys who management is tagging as the next great stars of the team. He's preaching that they have to buy in and work hard, but they're accomplishing a hell of a lot more on the ice while partying than he is while busting his ass. It makes it really hard to send the message, especially if there's the feeling that management doesn't have your back.

It was interesting to hear Ference say specifically that players here do not feel like management DOES have their backs. They watch the media and then the fans tear players apart, and they see NOTHING from the GM, the POHO or even the coach protecting them. In fact, they see the opposite sometimes. They see McLellan feeding the fire with Schultz, or MacTavish with Dubnyk or Penner. They see anonymous sources telling stories to the media about players and whispers about attitude as soon as anyone leaves.

It's certainly possible that the Hall/Eberle/Schultz/Nuge group was completely wild and out of hand and that no one could rein them in. It's also quite possible that before that, the Gagner/Cogliano/Nilsson/Gilbert group was also unstoppable forces of partying who cared only about having fun and not about winning. But it seems like an incredible run of bad luck, and if those things are true, then maybe talking about all those players at various points as the untouchable core of the team - while raking hard-working veterans over the coals for not "accepting their secondary roles" was maybe a poor decision.

I think the 80s Oilers did party, but A) it was a different era where it wasn't as hard to win, and B) they still had Sather who laid down the law and wasn't afraid to send serious messages to young players - the most obvious being the demotion of Mark Messier to the AHL after he missed a flight. The management for the last several iterations of the rebuild seemed petrified that to put players in their place would make them ask for a trade. Lowe and Company seemed to think that the kids partying was just boys being boys, and that they couldn't dare to set expectations on them. That had really negative ramifications, just as anointing them the "CORE" and talking about them as a subset different from the rest of the players also killed the team culture.

And the team's management has been MUCH more concerned about their own self-preservation than it is about winning. They may want to win, but they aren't willing to put themselves on the line for it. They're fine with player criticism, because if you believe the players they have are all a bunch of losers, then maybe you are okay with them getting traded, rather than calling for the heads of the guys who've orchestrated the last 18 years of almost constant failure.

I still think it's interesting that you have a writer crucify one of your top players that HE ALMOST CERTAINLY KNOWS IS PLAYING INJURED, and there is not a peep from the organization. Nothing. And then the exact same writer, 18 months later writes a piece critical of management and he's barred from the TV telecast for a game as punishment.

There's of course the easy retort about Ference that he was a bit player who is just sour about the way his career ended, but it's not just Ference. We've had Comrie, Marchant, Chimera, Thoresen, Souray, Gilbert, Belanger, Nick Schultz, O'Sullivan, Smid, Hemsky, Whitney, Bryzgalov, Auvitu, Pakarinen, etc. etc. say unflattering things about this team after they leave it. Some of those guys no doubt contributed to their own issues here, some of their comments were little more than parting shots - but considering how seldom hockey players say anything that's controversial, that's a staggering list.

Anyone who doesn't realize by now that the organization culture is a major issue just has their head in the sand. Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish and company have always been in over their heads running a hockey team. They did not have the tools to do it well, and their attempts to protect themselves over the players has been absolutely toxic. The media in this town has enabled them - some out of fear of losing access, some out of friendship to these old players that has made them constantly excuse their inadequacies in management.

The worst part? Nothing has changed. At the end of last year, the management again focused the blame on the players. Chiarelli went out of his way to blame the "94s" on the team for not taking the next step - which only draws extra negative attention on those players. In scrums, McLellan constantly pointed out who was to blame on individual scoring plays night after night.

And when there were questions about management's role in the failure, we had Bob Nicholson come out and defend him - saying that they believed in his plan. Chiarelli said he would make all the same trades over again and he knows they were the right moves for the team!?

I welcome frank remarks from former Oilers, because the curtain needs to be thrown back on this. Ference had to know that he's going to invite a whole lot of invective from the worst of the Oilers fans who will no doubt take to twitter and elsewhere to harass him for voicing these things, but I'm appreciative. Every time someone speaks up, I get a little more hope that eventually a lightbulb will come on with Katz, and he'll realize that he can keep his human doll collection in some other capacity, but they can't run his hockey team any more - because they only ever run it in to the ground.

This is an excellent post. Sums up this team almost perfectly. My thoughts on this are pretty similar but you've articulated it really well here.

I love that Ference did this and was honest about the team. Frankly I would be thrilled to hear more thoughts from guys like Souray, Hemsky, Moreau etc etc.

The thing that continues to floor me is the constant outcry when this kind of thing comes up - 'well Ference sucked so who cares what he thinks!'

He may have sucked - well he pretty much did. That doesn't mean he is wrong about the teams culture or the way some of the players were behaving. And yes unprofessional (partying) behavior off the ice is detrimental to performance on the ice. Fact.

"Initiative comes to thems that wait"

Report message to a moderator

Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 12:52
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Oscargasm on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:07
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:22
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Steve on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:22
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:38
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:42
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:45
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:49
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 13:51
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:01
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Oscargasm on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:55
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Jakey on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:46
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:52
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: NetBOG on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:18
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:28
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: RDOilerfan on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:44
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:56
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: RDOilerfan on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:59
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:02
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:09
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Oscargasm on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:14
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: McDavid97 on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:59
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:58
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: RDOilerfan on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:12
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:18
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Oscargasm on Mon, 10 December 2018 14:58
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrudeRemarks on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:18
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Oscargasm on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:21
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: jerekybeef on Tue, 11 December 2018 10:07
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 11:14
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Magnum on Tue, 11 December 2018 11:51
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Tue, 11 December 2018 12:05
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 17:33
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Tue, 11 December 2018 17:43
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: NetBOG on Tue, 11 December 2018 18:38
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Goose on Tue, 11 December 2018 18:59
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: K.McC#24 on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:20
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: WhoreableGuy on Mon, 10 December 2018 15:40
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: JPro on Mon, 10 December 2018 16:40
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: WhoreableGuy on Mon, 10 December 2018 16:47
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Goose on Mon, 10 December 2018 19:10
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 20:24
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Jay on Tue, 11 December 2018 08:22
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 08:44
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Goose on Tue, 11 December 2018 09:12
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Jay on Tue, 11 December 2018 10:00
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: twilson1111 on Mon, 10 December 2018 20:36
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: twilson1111 on Mon, 10 December 2018 20:41
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Mon, 10 December 2018 20:48
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Mon, 10 December 2018 21:58
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Mon, 10 December 2018 21:51
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: stemhovlichski on Mon, 10 December 2018 23:17
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: nullterm on Tue, 11 December 2018 00:37
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Jay on Tue, 11 December 2018 08:36
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: twilson1111 on Mon, 10 December 2018 22:21
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: NZ Oiler Fan on Tue, 11 December 2018 09:40
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 09:54
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: smyth260 on Mon, 10 December 2018 22:29
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: stotto on Tue, 11 December 2018 06:01
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Tue, 11 December 2018 10:06
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Rocksteady on Tue, 11 December 2018 16:19
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: CrusaderPi on Tue, 11 December 2018 16:28
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 17:14
Nuge counters	By: Daftmonk on Tue, 11 December 2018 17:43
Re: Nuge counters	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 17:52
Re: Nuge counters	By: Jay on Wed, 12 December 2018 09:31
Re: Nuge counters	By: CrusaderPi on Wed, 12 December 2018 09:36
Re: Nuge counters	By: K.McC#24 on Tue, 11 December 2018 19:21
Re: Nuge counters	By: NZ Oiler Fan on Tue, 11 December 2018 19:28
Re: Nuge counters	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 20:56
Re: Nuge counters	By: K.McC#24 on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:15
Re: Nuge counters	By: Oscargasm on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:37
Re: Nuge counters	By: CrusaderPi on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:45
Re: Nuge counters	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:47
Re: Nuge counters	By: Oscargasm on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:47
Re: Nuge counters	By: K.McC#24 on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:55
Re: Nuge counters	By: Oscargasm on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:58
Re: Nuge counters	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 21:58
Re: Nuge counters	By: smyth260 on Tue, 11 December 2018 22:20
Re: Nuge counters	By: Adam on Tue, 11 December 2018 22:38
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Adam on Wed, 12 December 2018 11:01
Re: Ference paints ugly picture of time with Oilers	By: Kr55 on Wed, 12 December 2018 11:55

Previous Topic: Review: Edmonton @ Colorado (Game #31)
Next Topic: GDT: Edmonton @ Colorado (Game #31)
Oilers NHL Minors Speculation For Sale

Copyright © OilFans.com 1996-2022.
All content is property of OilFans.com and cannot be used without expressed, written consent from this site.
Questions, comments and suggestions can be directed to oilfans@OilFans.com
Privacy Statement

Hosted by LogicalHosting.ca