Dose: Eakins takes the fall

Look, it’s probably fair to say that Dallas Eakins only deserved one of two grades as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers: either an F or an Incomplete. At some point, when you seemingly lose every game you coach, you’re going to find yourself on the street (maybe humming a catchy Taylor Swift song along the way).

Anyway, it’s plausible that Eakins isn’t a great coach, but to lay the blame on him is especially ridiculous when the problems only get bigger as you climb the Oilers’ organizational ladder.

If it’s fair to fire Eakins this quickly, why should Craig MacTavish be safe? He’s been worthy of mixed results, at best, and the team needed more dramatic improvements than he seems capable of providing.

Of course, the guilt only rises as you go higher up the food chain.

I don’t know how much sway Kevin Lowe has in his far-from-merit-based position as an executive (I believe his title is president of hockey operations, but they should really just carve “guy with too much power” into his office door), but how much longer can this go on before Oilers fans almost revolt at the charade of rinse, repeat?

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Jonathan Willis does a nice job summarizing Lowe’s Reign of Error in Edmonton for Oilers Nation:

Since the Pronger trade, the Oilers have missed the playoffs eight times and will almost certainly increase that count to nine this spring. In that span, the team has employed 143 players. It has burned through five head coaches and canned multiple executives, including two assistant general managers. One of those departed AGM’s was the team’s former amateur scouting director; it’s likely his successor will be following him out of the organization shortly.

I suspect I have a lot more respect for Craig MacTavish and Kevin Lowe as hockey men than a lot of people reading this do. But any organizational review that starts lower than Lowe isn’t worthy of the name.

Again, it’s tough to lay too much of the blame at Eakins’ feet. The Oilers perform in many ways as a merely bad team rather than an atrociously bad team, but that’s not exactly a review that screams “just change a few things at the coaching and scouting levels.” Then again, this Oilers organization seems only willing to make obvious and easy choices, whether it comes to firings or drafting or really anything. Poor Oilers fans.

(Seriously, poor Oilers fans.)

Let me say this much before we move on to the recaps, though: if the Oilers trade Taylor Hall, then everyone involved should be fired on the spot.

PENGUINS 4, LIGHTNING 2

-- Ben Bishop left this game early on with a lower-body injury, making way for Evgeni Nabokov, who absorbed the L. I'm not sure how severe Bishop's injury is, but Nabokov hasn't been very effective; he's 3-4-1 with an ugly .891 save percentage so far in 2014-15. It seems like any goalie not named Bishop flops in Tampa Bay nets.

-- Even with a -2 rating, Ryan Callahan's peripherals were nice: two PIM, two SOG and seven hits. He's been better than I expected fantasy-wise, even if he's slumping lately.

-- Jonathan Drouin update: he scored his second goal of the season, giving him 12 points in 23 games. I know he's more of a passer, but I'd like to see him shoot more (just 24 SOG).

-- It sounds like Beau Bennett may have mumps, too. Pittsburgh could end up with a lot of pie on its face for this situation.

-- Exemplary game by Steve Downie: one goal, one assist, two PIM, two SOG and six hits. No-brainer for the short-term if you're hurting for PIM, in my opinion.

-- Considering the run Nikita Kucherov is on (two points last night, five in three games), you'd think he'd get a little more ice time.

-- Patric Hornqvist got an assist for his first point since coming back from what might have been a concussion (he's been back for three games). You think he misses Sidney Crosby?

SABRES 5, SENATORS 4 (SO)

-- The Buffalo Sabres have now won four games in a row and nine of 12 games. While I almost want to scream "Why?" reflexively, outright tanking has to be pretty tough on the soul. After all, life is short, and you never know when an injury might ruin what looks like a long career.

Besides, if the Oilers show us anything, it's that losing into high draft picks isn't a cure-all. You also have to employ people who can turn things around, so having your players occasionally exposed to that "winning" thing seems like a good choice.

-- Look, I'm really impressed with Jhonas Enroth, I'm just not so sure that he can keep this up. It's not as if Buffalo has been devouring behemoth competition lately. Their four-game winning streak is against "meh" teams (Florida and Ottawa), a mystery that might just go sour (Calgary) and a team that seems to go into hibernation until April (Los Angeles).

Short-term-centric managers would be fine to get him, but quite frankly, I just don't know how much longer that tightrope act can last.

Sometimes these things work out for the bold, as Brock Nelson seems like he's still doing quite well.

-- Maybe Matt Moulson has it together again? He has three goals and one assist in his last four games. Moulson also has 11 SOG in his past three contests. Promising signs all around.

-- Chris Stewart got an assist, but how about we end the misery and put him on a better team where he can be kind of disappointing but potentially lucrative for fantasy?

-- Things just seem to be going well for the Foligno family lately.

-- Tyler Myers being ridden like an elite, workhorse defenseman is really odd, unless Buffalo's trying to trick Detroit or some other team into taking on his egregious contract. To be fair to him, it's hard to put up impressive numbers when you're only starting about a third of your shifts in the offensive zone.

ISLANDERS 3, DEVILS 2 (SO)

-- Scott Gomez now has slightly more than a point-per-game, as he has two goals and four assists for six points in his last five contests. In December 2015. Pretty sure he didn't step out of a time machine, either.

It's pretty much impossible not to be a little skeptical about this situation, although perhaps he simply works well with Jaromir Jagr, which is a necessity as New Jersey deals with some injuries. He's been around 20 minutes of ice time in three of four games. Six of his eight SOG came in the last two contests.

His possession stats are not particularly shiny, but come on. It is refreshing just to see the guy mean something, to some extent, again. Would I add him? No, but I would give him a chance in a FanDuel format or something of that one day nature.

-- I wonder if Jaromir Jagr merely enjoys playing with someone who moves closer to his speed.

All kidding aside, Jagr remains awesome. It stuns me that he can keep this up.

-- The SOG totals seem to match the possession chart, in that the Devils carried the play early before the Isles ran away with it.

Marek Zidlicky is one of the prime examples of the Devils' "oh yeah, that guy still plays"-filled roster. He scored a goal and an assist on Monday, giving him 17 points in 32 games. Perfectly passable, especially with a decent 24 PIM thrown in, but also yawn-inducingly bland.

-- Speaking of Brock Nelson, it seems like he is trying to fight the regression I predicted. He is on a three game pointless streak, yet he has 11 SOG in his past two games.

-- Jaroslav Halak went through a couple bumpy starts against the St. Louis Blues, yet he piled on two more wins to improve to 16-6-0. The Blues represent 11 of his 52 goals allowed in 2014-15.

-- Ryan Strome gets lost in the shuffle a bit after years of people hoping he would make the jump, but it seems like he is doing it. With two assists in as many games, he has a respectable 21 points in 31 contests. The better he gets, the more dangerous an already competitive Isles group will get.

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