Of all the teams going to miss the playoffs, the Oilers are the only ones with incentive to keep winning.
The Edmonton Oilers today are on record saying they will never give up in their quest to make the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.
It's understandable. The post-season is what most every player save a Maple Leaf with a no-trade contract plays for. Having won six of their past seven games as of March 10 and playing valiantly even after I wrote them off as playoff contenders back in early February, the Oilers are clearly showing that never-say-die spirit, a trait that runs strikingly parallel to the up-yours-Kelley school of player thought.
Still, today is the day the standings show the Oilers are nine points out of a playoff spot with 13 games remaining. That to me just reinforces the inevitability I discussed way back on Feb. 7. It also begs the question: isn't it time to tank it?
Look, I understand the concept of tanking a game or especially the remainder of the season goes against everything we (that's me and you) believe in. Both fans and the majority of media people believe that sports is all about trying, about overcoming, about triumph in the face of adversity (cue soundtrack of Man of La Mancha) and all that good stuff. The players hear that when they are still in the womb and most of them answer the call, which is good.
But then there are people who see sports, especially pro sports, as a business. They are called owners and the majority of them see things a tad differently. They see lost causes as opportunities for renewal; that if the riches that come with a post-season appearance seem out of their reach, they want to grab a high draft pick and perhaps a good, young prospect.
Now for the record, that can be a failed plan as well -- see aforementioned Maple Leafs circa 1968 to the present -- and though few owners will admit to the value of tanking a season, well, it happens.
It happened when the Pittsburgh Penguins went to a bartender in goal to finish the season prior to Mario Lemieux turning pro: A decision that aced the New Jersey Devils out of the bottom spot in the standings and truly did save hockey in Pittsburgh
It happened when the Ottawa Senators arguably tanked the final 20 games of a season to draft Alexandre Daigle (a questionable move in its own right).
I swear I saw it in person when the Buffalo Sabres, needing a loss or a tie to finish last overall and earn the right to draft consensus No. 1 Pierre Turgeon, played the New York Islanders to a season-ending 4-4 tie, a game that the Sabres led until their goaltender mysteriously dropped the puck into his own net late in the game. (The fact the Sabres drafted Turgeon over Brendan Shannahan is another issue worthy of debate).
Which brings us back to the Oilers and the foolishly competitive Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers and a handful of others yearning to be a part of the post-season scene: Stop it, it's over.
Now I can understand that there are extenuating circumstances in the case of the Oilers. General manager Kevin Lowe certainly will be loathe to surrender a lottery pick to conference rival Anaheim as a result of the Dustin Penner signing.
Lowe might be an idiot in Brian Burke's eyes, but he did get the player and he did play by the rules and he's not going to give up a lottery pick without a fight right down to the end of the final minute of the final game on the final day of the regular season.
But what's the Leafs' excuse? Perhaps if they had a general manager beyond the interim Cliff Fletcher they might not be trying so hard. Surely Mats Sundin and the others who refused to remove a contractual right from their contract have something to prove. The same can be said for head coach Paul Maurice, who is coaching for his future and for the integrity we all admire in people who try to do their best.
But if the Leafs ownership truly knew how to run a franchise they would be running this one into the ground. OK, they've done that, but they should also be trying for a lottery pick. A strong GM with a long-term contract and the assurances of ownership would know how to do that, ordering Maurice to do everything in his power to lose while making it look like he's still trying to win.
It's easy enough, put Andrew Raycroft in goal or even call up Justin Pogge from the minors. Experiment with some new defensive combinations like playing Bryan McCabe with a call-up from the East Coast league. Work on pull-the-goalie plays in the final two minutes of games in which you lead by a goal.
OK, that's maybe a bit too obvious, but you get the picture.
At this point in any other season it would be what the Oilers might do, what the Panthers should be doing and what the Coyotes, Blue Jackets, Blackhawks and Thrashers might well be doing. (The Kings and Lightning, we should point out, don't need to pretend.)
It may not be right, but not everything in sports goes that way.
That's just one of the reasons why we suffer owners.
