EDMONTON — The press conference was held on the occasion of newly hired general manager Craig MacTavish, and to a lesser extent, fired GM Steve Tambellini.
The toughest questions, however, were reserved for president of hockey operations and longtime face of the Edmonton Oilers’ front office Kevin Lowe, the one common management thread in a long run of hockey futility here in Edmonton.
Joined at the head table by the former Oilers head coach MacTavish and deposed Columbus GM Scott Howson (now re-hired as vice president of hockey operations in Edmonton), Lowe was asked how the same group of men who dug this hole in Edmonton could possibly be expected to solve the problem?
“I think it’s safe to say that half the general managers in the National Hockey League would trade their roster for our roster right now,” said Lowe in defence.
It was one of those quotes that could dog a guy for a while if things don’t go well.
“As far as the group that messed things up,” he continued. “You’re talking about the group that had the team one win away from winning the Stanley Cup (in 2006).
“We’re poised for greatness, and I think our fans understand that,” said Lowe. “We’re finishing year three of (the Oilers rebuilding) plan. Are you saying to me you’re getting impatient after three years?”
And then, just in case you are wondering if Lowe was running hot, he spat:
“And lastly I’ll say, there’s one other guy, I believe, in hockey today that’s still working in the game that has won more Stanley Cups than me.
“So I think I know a little bit about winning, if there’s ever a concern.”
That guy, as far as we could guess would be Scotty Bowman.
When you’ve won six Stanley Cups as a player, as Lowe has, you have the right to go all Patrick Roy when the critics arrive.
But as Year 13 of his time in the Oilers’ front office morphs into Year 14 — and that Stanley Cup count stays at six while Edmonton’s playoff misses since his arrival reach No. 9 — you’d better start winning some as a manager, lest they forget about what you accomplished as a player.
As for MacTavish being part of any Old Boys Club, “I don’t know that I’ve failed this team in any of my previous roles here,” he said. “I’m going to help turn this team around, that’s all I’m going to tell you.”
The discussion today in Edmonton, as the Oilers fired Tambellini with seven games left on the schedule and after an embarrassing home loss to a Calgary roster full of AHL call-ups on Saturday, centres around the question, “Why so fast?”
Why did Lowe not interview a guy like accomplished Nashville assistant GM Paul Fenton, Tampa’s senior advisor to the GM Tom Kurvers, or wait for GM Don Maloney’s deal to expire after this season in Phoenix?
Why? Because that’s not the Oilers way, that’s why.
Here in Edmonton, the Eskimos were roundly criticized with going outside the organization when they hired Danny Maciocia and Eric Tillman. With head coach Kavis Reed and GM Ed Hervey now in charge — two former Edmonton players — a city awaits the return of “The Eskimo Way.”
But, while “Once an Eskimo, Always an Eskimo” is an accepted football credo here in The Big E, an Oilers braintrust that includes assistant coaches Steve Smith and Kelly Buchberger, Lowe, MacTavish, Howson, scout Dave Semenko etc., is under fire today for being too inbred.
To MacTavish’s credit, he brought his own bullets to the party Monday, and for us journalists, proved himself a better quote in 30 minutes than Tambellini was over four years.
“We’re going to have to make some changes,” MacTavish said, “but we are at the (point in the rebuilding) cycle where we can expose ourselves to risk. We needed to take this (three-year) step back to add some elements to our team, to put ourselves in this position.
“Now, quite clearly, we know that we have to add depth to the organization.”
Perhaps never has a new GM taken over a team so ripe for success — with a more than just a few tweaks, to be sure.
The core of sub-22-year-old talent is phenomenal, and there exists a sheath of tradable side assets (Magnus Paajarvi, Sam Gagner, young Swedish defenceman Oscar Klefbom, a pretty good first-round pick in June) to help fill in around the edges.
MacTavish promised he’d get to work, tout suite.
“I’m an impatient guy, and I bring that impatience to this situation,” promised MacTavish, who turns 55 this summer. “We’re at the stage, in terms of the cycle of our hockey club right now, that we have to do some bold things. We have to expose ourselves to some semblance of risk, to try and move the team forward in a rapid fashion.”
A rapid fashion? Move the Oilers forward?
If MacTavish can pull that daily double off, Oilers fans won’t care where his roots are.