With the Flames and Oilers under-achieving again both teams could have new head coaches by the season's mid-way point.

EDMONTON – They are both in a province that continues to produce economically, despite the struggling times the rest of the world lives in. And in the National Hockey League economy, the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers have every opportunity to compete for a Stanley Cup.

But neither Mike Keenan nor Craig MacTavish are producing nor competing to be a Stanley Cup threat again this season.

So with both the under-achieving Flames and the disappointing Oilers set to reach the season’s quarter pole this week, the question needs to be asked: Which of Keenan and/or MacTavish will still be behind their team’s bench in January when the season hits the halfway mark?

Who gets fired first?

Keenan’s and MacTavish’s situations are far from similar, yet strangely, you could argue they are also exactly the same in a lot of areas.

Keenan is in only his second season behind the Calgary bench. MacTavish is in Year 8 in the Big E.

But Keenan took over a team that was considered to simply need the right button-pusher to take it over the top. Calgary was a good team that was missing something when Keenan arrived, and his resume describes him as a hockey coach who could always find that certain element; a guy who always got the most out of his roster.

Well, he is nearly 20 games into Season 2 and Keenan has had zero impact in Calgary. Simply put, Calgary has never recaptured its pre-lockout defensive dominance under the new rules adopted by the NHL, and for the second year under Keenan it continues to search for an identity.

Worse yet, there is not a single area where you look at this Flames team and say, "That’s the mark of a Mike Keenan team." In short, the difference maker has not made a difference in Calgary, a job that marks his sixth NHL team in the past 12 seasons.

So Keenan is a two-year guy. This is his second year and the Flames are spinning their wheels.

We all know how the scenario always ends for Keenan, who cancelled a two-day break in northern California for his club this past weekend after a 6-1 loss in San Jose. It was the third game in five that Calgary has allowed six goals against, a trait that his team is definitely un-Flame like.

"I don't think anyone would argue with you that we’ve played very poorly defensively," Flames defenceman Robyn Regehr said. "We have to be more disciplined. As players we have to demand it from one another. As a coaching staff they have to demand it from the players. We need everyone on the same page in order to do it."

In Edmonton, MacTavish has far more history with his Oilers, including having played for them in the 1980s and 1990s.

As a coach he has missed the playoffs in four of seven seasons thus far, and only won playoff rounds in 2006 when an eighth-place team ran all the way to the final.

MacTavish had a legitimate excuse pre-lockout, in that the economics of the NHL made it nearly impossible for Edmonton. More recently, Edmonton set and then re-set its injury record the past two seasons – both playoff misses - a situation that is impossible for a coach to overcome.

But MacTavish is out of excuses now. Many picked Edmonton to win the Northwest Division this season; their depth at forward – on paper - is near the top of the NHL.

On the ice however, the Oilers are inconsistent, with veteran players seriously under-performing. That feeds the old theory that you can’t fire 20 players, nor would you when the consensus is that you have a pretty strong roster. But the team is still scuffling along at .500.

MacTavish went on the offensive this weekend after making Dustin Penner a healthy scratch. No one is saying he is wrong here, but words like these always seem to precede some alterations of fortune – either wins or changes:

"He’s not competitive enough or fit enough to help us. He’s never been fit enough to help us," MacTavish said of the pork-pie winger, who has three goals and four points in another pathetic season in Edmonton. "We signed him to be a top-two line player and that’s kind of where it ended. The difference was we thought the contract was a starting point, and he’s viewed it as a finish line.

"I can’t watch it, certainly not another two and-a-half years." Actually, the five-year, $21.25 US million deal has THREE-and-a-half years to run. And MacT had better hope that his boss, Kevin Lowe, is on side with his rip job on Penner. Kevin Lowe’s Group II signing of Penner was a high-profile signing. As MacT’s comments filter through the NHL today and this week, Lowe will be the one who bears the brunt of criticism for what could yet turn out to be one of modern day hockey’s truly gruesome signings.

Edmonton gets Detroit twice this week while Calgary starts a home-and-home on Tuesday with Colorado, a team they usually handle.

Stay tuned.