When we mentioned that Jeff Petry was a healthy scratch earlier today, we included this tidbit from Dallas Eakins
"I highly doubt it would have been (Petry scratched) if he’d had a training camp and wasn’t that little bit behind right now." - Eakins
— Rob Tychkowski (@Sun_Tychkowski) October 14, 2014
And noted this ray of sunshine through the first two games:
we were all a bit perplexed, to put it mildly, as to what Dallas Eakins was thinking. The optimists, and their numbers are dwindling, explained that Eakins needed Brad Hunt's power play presence on the ice and that benching Petry was worth it. Brad Hunt's power play presence led to this incredible display against the Los Angeles Kings tonight*:
Horrendous footwork, terrible balance and an oompa-loompa shuffle at the end capped off Hunt's attempt to stop Tyler Toffoli 's short-handed rush up ice. The results were hilarious.
Not so hilarious, I'd imagine, to first-time Disgruntled Oilers Fan:
The fan stayed optimistic, even in the face of seasons that were lost by the half-way point. Then, Tom Gilbert was traded and the seeds of doubt began to take hold in him. By July of 2013, things were getting pretty bleak. Finally, it became clear during the 2014 off season that Oilers management still hadn't done enough to get out of the basement, or even to compete. It's going to be nine years in a row out of the playoffs, and eleven of the last thirteen seasons played.
Read through for Jake's reaction to Petry's benching.
If you know who made the .gif, please let me know - I was linked directly to it. I'd like to give credit to the creator.