Well... not all of the media is eating it up. The Journal (my prefered paper) sports staff is still content but over at the SUN Jones and Robert Tychkowski's articles are getting more venomous by the day. Too bad nobody takes their rantings seriously. They should in this case.
Derek Van Diest had a great piece the other day, too (More of the Same Next Year?):
Thing is it shows even more how big a predicament we are in.
We literally can't find dime a dozen pieces who are going to be useful... how the hell are we going to fill holes with players that actually hold significant value?
-.-
That implies the Oilers have attempted to do much to improve the team, replacing 4th liners and bottom pairing defensemen with slightly better 4th liners and bottom pairing defensemen wasn't going to have much of an impact, and didn't.
The problems are higher up the depth chart, has been for years.
Taxpayers have a right to say no to their money going to an arena that won't benefit them as much as little things like health care, education, stuff like that.
Why not tax every player coming into Edmonton, didn't they use to do that? Why should people trying to make a decent living have to pay for an arena for millionaires. It may sound short-sighted for arena supporters but it's the truth. And FTR I support the arena.
Yeah this game sucked, the reffing sucked and the coaching sucks. But have some f***ing patience. I would sooner delay gratification for another season or two and then dominate for 4+ years then a flash in the pan for two.
The way you guys complain about 4th liners that play maybe 10 minutes a night - you'd think they were making 5.5 million and playing the most minutes of any forward on the team for the season while playing passive, gutless hockey.
Just a small fact that Edmontonians should know about, the new rec center that got finished last year in Terwillegar Towne? final price tag just south of 200 million dollars, every penny of it from the city and yet not one peep about taxpayers money, just a little something I though you might like to chew on. (no taxes for the city, concerts, NHL games, rodeos or other revenue generating events will ever occur there)
The new downtown arena will create jobs, economic activity and the city will own the land and the building with Katz paying for all the upkeep for 35 years, but that's a terrible place to invest some money from the province yeah?
Going to be a bunch of money spent on wages for all kinds of construction workers and tradespeople to build the arena not to mention all the companies that will be contracted for steel, concrete, wiring, glass etc..
500 million dollars spent building downtown is going to be good for the people of Edmonton.
Hey Angelus, Ralph Klein instituted that exact policy back in the 90's
Every professional hockey player that plays in Alberta pays income tax here, not just the guys on the home teams (Flames and Oilers)
Those tax dollars go into general revenue to fund things like education and healthcare.
And those Millionaires you refer too bring huge amounts of economic activity to this city, and FYI they are far from the only people who use the facility that is already in place that is run by a non profit organization (which just so happens to be propped up by taxpayers)
Teflon Shawn Paid 650,000 in provincial income tax last year, how much did you pay?
lets have some fun with math shall we?
60 million dollar player payroll 10% provincial income tax, 6 million a year from the team 35 years of Oilers hockey heading into the future 6 times 35 is 210 million dollars paid in tax to the province just by the players on our team assuming the cap doesnt go up in the next 35 years, looks like those millionaires are actually packing their own freight on this deal.
Last edited by SilverHaireDevil: 04-08-2012 at 03:52 AM.
This team has definetly been fun to watch. Its also been frustrating at times. At some point the rebuild needs to end. Or at least make more progress. Lets hope that happens next year.
So after we draft Ryan Murray or Mat Dumba this year, which Western Canadian boy do we draft in the lottery next year?
Gotta be Curtis Lazar, right?
I'd actually love to have Lazar. If his play next year resembles at all his play over the last 20 or so games, this kid is gonna go high in the draft - probably in the 5-10 range.
But I thought we were supposed to be challenging for the playoffs
I'd actually love to have Lazar. If his play next year resembles at all his play over the last 20 or so games, this kid is gonna go high in the draft - probably in the 5-10 range.
But I thought we were supposed to be challenging for the playoffs
You can challenge and draft 9th. Look at Winnipeg. Heck, Edmonton drafted 10th in 08-09 and they had a 4 point cushion with 10 games left in the season. Okay, now I'm sad again.
Just a small fact that Edmontonians should know about, the new rec center that got finished last year in Terwillegar Towne? final price tag just south of 200 million dollars, every penny of it from the city and yet not one peep about taxpayers money, just a little something I though you might like to chew on. (no taxes for the city, concerts, NHL games, rodeos or other revenue generating events will ever occur there)
The new downtown arena will create jobs, economic activity and the city will own the land and the building with Katz paying for all the upkeep for 35 years, but that's a terrible place to invest some money from the province yeah?
Going to be a bunch of money spent on wages for all kinds of construction workers and tradespeople to build the arena not to mention all the companies that will be contracted for steel, concrete, wiring, glass etc..
500 million dollars spent building downtown is going to be good for the people of Edmonton.
There will be no new arena. WRP is going to win the election.
Taxpayers have a right to say no to their money going to an arena that won't benefit them as much as little things like health care, education, stuff like that.
Why not tax every player coming into Edmonton, didn't they use to do that? Why should people trying to make a decent living have to pay for an arena for millionaires. It may sound short-sighted for arena supporters but it's the truth. And FTR I support the arena.
Well I agree we should have the choice (well i'm not a Nazi). But I think people hear "100 MILLION DOLLARS" <-- That's a pretty big number. But in a province with ~2 million tax paying residents, the one time chip in will go unnoticed by most but for the next 20 years we'll be able to have something nice to look at downtown. Have you seen that area they want to redo? Seriously. THEY HAVE SIGNS ON BAR WINDOWS SAYING "NO KNIVES"... Oilers desperately need a new arena, and that area desperately needs to be nuked and redone. The proposal looks very promising for long term economic growth in the city, I mean, a downtown supercomplex. It's gonna be like nothing we've ever had in this city before, very very progressive and "american-like"--the good kind of America.
Also with the people saying Katz should pay more....? I mean. He's giving up 5% (and will likely be negotiated for more) of his total wealth and assets into the arena. That's not as insulting as the hockey haters make it out to be, imho.
I know you're an arena supporter, but i'm just paranoid that it's not gonna happen, or at least it doesn't happen soon enough (begin digging by next spring).
What's most upsetting to me, beyond coaching and management issues, is that I feel the rebuild went backwards despite the points increase.
How do you justify less effort than last year... say what you will about the organization, but these players took a lot of nights off this season.
I feel severely down right now. Even the post-game interviews had the players talking about how the shot clock wasn't indicative of the game's actual competition. Still take the fans for fools, sugar-coating what has to be the worst low since '06.
Happy golfing you non-saluting, sad sack, underachieving ****s. See you next year for the same ride
What's most upsetting to me, beyond coaching and management issues, is that I feel the rebuild went backwards despite the points increase.
How do you justify less effort than last year... say what you will about the organization, but these players took a lot of nights off this season.
I feel severely down right now. Even the post-game interviews had the players talking about how the shot clock wasn't indicative of the game's actual competition. Still take the fans for fools, sugar-coating what has to be the worst low since '06.
Happy golfing you non-saluting, sad sack, underachieving ****s. See you next year for the same ride
Yeah, what a horrible season that was... Typo? Or are you referring to an emotion low after losing game 7 of the SCF?
I've pretty much come to terms that this might be Gagner' last season with the Oilers if we draft Grigerenko. But my opinion remains the same. I, in my honest opinion, think that he should have at least another year with the Oilers. Hopefully a one year deal and see where we go from there. If not, I'm sure we can get something decent (a top 4 defenseman or a forward with size and grit....there will be teams vying for a 2nd line centre in Gagner).
Other than that, what a wimper of a way for the team to not show up on their last game of the season. We lose and give the Casucks the presidents trophy grrrrr
I hope Renney is fired and Tambellini does everything he can to turn this team into a playoff team by 2013. Us loyal fans deserve a winning team, no more of this stupid teasing anymore. We've finished in teh lottery for 3 straight years, time to see the fruits blossom next season.
Claptrap, actually. Not very astute if he thinks ANY team would go with 4 centers under the age of 23...with just one veteran in Horcoff. That's a regression. I fully expect Belanger to have a bounce back year next season and have an increased role. He didn't go from a premier two-way forward on good teams to a 4th line center on the second worst team at the snap of a finger. Both a product of an off-year and chronic misuse.
don't hold your breath on this one.
