The Kind Of News You Only Get From Oilers Pipeline!

by Jonathan Willis on Apr 6, 2009 9:49 AM MDT

The Edmonton Oilers Pipeline is the organization's official newsletter of the organization, and one of the things it does (more than anything else, in point of fact) is fill me in on all sorts of good things the organization is doing in the community. Because that's what it is really; a PR tool.

In any case, here's the lead from today's memo:

The Globe and Mail announced today the Edmonton Oilers have been chosen as a 2009 Great Place to Work®. The Edmonton Oilers are the first NHL team given this distinction. The Great Places to Work® list and related stories appears in a special national report in today’s Globe and Mail.

"We’ve always known the Edmonton Oilers have a phenomenal group of people supporting our hockey club, but recently our organization has made a concentrated effort to make our workplace one that our employees love coming to each morning," said Edmonton Oilers President and CEO, Patrick LaForge. "This distinction is a great honour for the Oilers."

What a great story. It's funny, but every time I see Patrick Laforge's name, even in text, I detect insincerity. On the list of people who I distrust despite the fact that I've never met them, his name fits in somewhere like this:

1. Patrick Laforge
2. Various politicians

Anyway, from the last paragraph on the release:

This year, 230 organizations submitted nominations and nearly 30,000 employees across Canada participated in the 209 (sic) Best Workplaces in Canada survey. Seventy-five organizations were named a 2009 Great Place to Work®.

In other words, of the 230 businesses to submit applications - the vast majority (all?) of whom aren't NHL hockey teams - the Oilers have the distinction of finishing somewhere between 26th and 75th (only the top-75 businesses get the distinction, and only the ones after 25 don't get a specific ranking). And by way of a final comparison that a lot of Oilers fans should have knowledge of, Devon Canada finished 20th.

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Why such a strong distrust of LaForge? I mean, less trustworthy than politicians? That seems a bit below the belt...

by Andrew Willis on Apr 6, 2009 7:58 PM MDT reply actions

It's funny, but every time I see Patrick Laforge's name, even in text, I detect insincerity.

Ha! Too funny. Alas! Too true.

On the list of people who I distrust despite the fact that I've never met them, his name fits in somewhere like this:

1. Patrick Laforge
2. Various politicians

Ha! again.

From the info you cite, the back of my envelope puts the Oilers somewhere between the 67th and 89th percentile as a 2009 Great Place to Work®.

I guess that's mostly good, but hardly Globe-worthy news.

by Bruce on Apr 6, 2009 8:25 PM MDT reply actions

Andrew: Because he's a snake oil salesman.

It's all based on past record - just like whenever KEvin Prendergast talks about a prospect, I put his evaluation through what I call the "Prendergast adjustment". I'll demonstrate:

Prendergast: "He's a power forward; I could see him scoring 30 goals in the NHL."

Translation: Stockton's about to pick up a goon.

by Jonathan Willis on Apr 6, 2009 11:39 PM MDT reply actions

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Northwest Standings

	GP	W	L	OTL	PT
Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	54	34	15	5	73
Minnesota Hockey Wilderness	54	25	21	8	58
Calgary Matchsticks and Gasoline	55	25	22	8	58
Colorado Mile High Hockey	55	27	25	3	57
Edmonton The Copper & Blue	54	21	28	5	47

(updated 2.10.2012 at 1:26 AM MST)

21 - 28 - 5

Streak: Lost 2

Oilers Schedule

Next 5 Games

@ Ottawa Silver Seven	Sat 02/11	12:00 PM MST
Toronto Pension Plan Puppets	Wed 02/15	8:00 PM MST
Colorado Mile High Hockey	Fri 02/17	7:30 PM MST
Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	Sun 02/19	7:00 PM MST
@ Calgary Matchsticks and Gasoline	Tue 02/21	7:00 PM MST

Last 5 Games

@ Detroit Winging It In Motown	Wed 02/08	L 2 - 4
@ Toronto Pension Plan Puppets	Mon 02/06	L 3 - 6
Detroit Winging It In Motown	Sat 02/04	SO - W 5 - 4
Chicago Second City Hockey	Thu 02/02	W 8 - 4
Colorado Mile High Hockey	Tue 01/31	W 3 - 2