The Poster Boy For 2008-09

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 20, 2009 7:00 AM MDT in Analysis

If you were to make a list of the Oilers' weaknesses, what would it include?

A lack of size? Perhaps a need for more grit and passion? Poor penalty-killing? Trouble scoring goals?

Erik Cole was supposed to help shore up all of those areas. He'd put up between 51 and 61 points in the three seasons since the lockout playing for the Carolina Hurricanes. At 6'2", 205lbs, he represented a big body in the Oilers' top-six. He won a Stanley Cup in 2006 after coming back from a broken neck to play in the finals.

He represented the biggest disappointment on the Oilers' roster in 2008-09.

None of this is meant as an attack on Cole, but rather as an explanation for some of what went wrong last season. Kevin Lowe made some mistakes in the summer (mistakes that seem destined to be made again this summer) but also made some solid moves, highlighted by the acquisition of Lubomir Visnovsky.

One of the moves Lowe made was to bring in Cole for enigmatic defenseman Joni Pitkanen (it feels wrong to write about Pitkanen without using the word "enigmatic" - with the exception of "Russian", I'd guess Pitkanen is the most common counterpart ot "enigmatic" in hockey writing). In many ways, the acquisition of Visnovsky and the acquisition of Cole were joined at the hip; Lowe replaced a very good defenseman with a better one, and replaced Jarret Stoll (not nearly the player he once was, probably due to injury) with a sure thing in Cole.

Except Cole turned out not to be a sure thing - and that's something I think Lowe shouldn't be blamed for. Cole had the track record and looked like a logical fit somewhere in the top-six; either on LW with Hemsky and Horcoff or on RW on the second line.

His poor performance in Edmonton isn't easy to explain; he was still scoring goals, but finished with just 27 points over 63 games. He added other things, but not enough to justify his contract or keep him on a scoring line.

In many ways -and better than any other player on the roster - Cole's time in Edmonton reflected the Oilers season: hyped at the start, disappointing by the middle, and over far too soon.

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Agreed that Cole was a massive disappointment. He did bring some of the physical elements lacking on the top 6, but didn’t produce offensively. His lack of flexibility (RW or bust) made him a poor fit with Hemsky, which limited his time with Horcoff as well. He achieved a limited hot run with Gagner as his centre, otherwise found little chemsitry with anyone, truth be told. In the end he was traded for Patrick O’Sullivan, yet another softish skill player of which Oilers already had an abundance, and the team became less balanced than ever. Cole was supposed to be a solution to that problem.

Writer for The Copper & Blue

by Bruce McCurdy on Aug 20, 2009 11:25 AM MDT reply actions

Yeah. IIRC, Cole looked best during that brief spell with Horcoff and Pisani (with Pisani at LW), but even then he wasn’t really scoring.

A posse ad esse.

Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 20, 2009 12:42 PM MDT up reply actions

Cole had another brief spell with Horcoff and Penner in which he looked pretty darn good. (Of course those two guys even make Ales Hemsky look good … kidding!) Seriously, 27-10-26 was a PvP line dreamed up and discussed on the ‘sphere that actually happened for a couple games. Problem wasn’t that line, it was what happened when Hemsky got put with Gagner and Moreau, so the experiment ended quickly. IIRC.

Writer for The Copper & Blue

by Bruce McCurdy on Aug 21, 2009 10:59 AM MDT up reply actions

Damn.

You have a memory on you. In very limited action, that line acquitted itself nicely.

Contributor to The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Aug 23, 2009 3:44 PM MDT up reply actions

Open question. If we somehow brought him back at the start of this season and knew all we did now, how do you think it would go?

Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have that poor of a season and re-sign with the team. But despite last year’s performance I would still have optimism for him here… it just seems like too good a fit on paper that is was peculiar that it didn’t work out (obviously I am ignoring his LW time because his shielding of the puck was obviously very reliant on RW duties).

by till_horcoff_is_coach on Aug 20, 2009 12:46 PM MDT reply actions

RW vs. LW

Bringing a career right wing in to play left wing is an enormous management and coaching blunder. There was nothing in his history that suggested success at LW. Bring him back for RW from the beginning of the season with Cogliano and Gagner and things are much, much better.

Contributor to The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Aug 20, 2009 12:52 PM MDT up reply actions

Yeah, I have to admit that I’d probably still be optimistic about him; he’s a good player at RW. And honestly, I thought he was better at LW than he really got credit for.

The funny thing was that he added a lot: when MacT finally used him on the PK he looked good there, and he drew penalties like nobody’s business. He just couldn’t add enough offense for the money.

A posse ad esse.

Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 20, 2009 2:43 PM MDT up reply actions

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