When you've lost the brightsiders, your time is done

I’ve tried to reserve the worst of the worst, Steve. It’s just that your tenure has been marred by failure. You can preach the rebuild, or you can preach patience, or whatever it is that you want to preach. The fact of the matter is that this team has been missing the playoffs since before you showed up. You signed Khabibulin to that whale of a deal four years ago and spent to the cap in 2009-10. When that didn’t work, you preached the rebuild. We stunk for years. We still stink. We sat through 30th, 30th, and 29th place finishes. Today, we’re in 13th in the West, and by the time I’m done writing this, the team will be in 14th because Colorado will have knocked off Chicago. There’s no plan to get better other than "pick early" and get lucky. How can you justify throwing away Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle‘s entry level deals without one single solitary playoff game?

--Jeff Chapman, Oil On Whyte

Chappy is one of my favorite people in the 'Sphere. He's also a brightsider - he's always looking for the best in any situation, especially when it comes to his favorite team. As we sat and watched the 2011 entry draft unfold over a number of beers, I realized that he was a genuine fan, stuck in the purgatory of rooting for the Oilers. He defended the Travis Ewanyk pick and it made sense. Well, no it didn't, but he was impassioned and I felt bad for him.

But the Oilers have clearly lost the optimists that this point. When a brightsider says it's time, it's time. All but the Stepford fans and Stepford MSM (redunant, I know) realize there is a management problem. Daryl Katz must fix it.

Read the rest of Chappy's impassioned soliloquy to fire Steve Tambellini here.