Article content

It has been a long ten years.

My 15-year old saw his first NHL game during the Detroit-Edmonton 2006 Stanley Cup Playoff series. And he has not seen an Oilers post-season game since. He knows he is lucky because even at his tender age, a whole generation of Oilers fans has not yet experienced what he has. And after that long of a drought, a fan base is bound to get cynical. Some nights, he is, too.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Let's talk some Thanksgiving turkey about Peter Chiarelli and the Edmonton Oilers Back to video

After all, we have been promised over and over rebuilds, rewards and results. Each Fall our General Manager promises us what we deserve. Each Spring, he promises us the 1st Round draft pick that will eventually help deliver it. And in between, there is Norris-worthy, know a little about winning, visually better, chop wood, carry water and bold. Ah, bold, we barely knew ‘ya.

Yes, it has been a long, hard road…and for both types of Oilers fans. Sorry, had to fit that one in there somewhere!

But I would suggest that, as lousy as this bill of goods sold to us over and over again has surely been, good fans (and there are a lot of you) need to temper their feelings over what has come before, and take a good, hard, objective look at this year’s roster, that has been assembled by the new guys in charge. And yes, make no mistake about it, Peter Chiarelli is in charge.