Former Edmonton Oilers captain Andrew Ference has again ripped into the party atmosphere and lack of work ethic of the 2013-15 Oilers.

This time Ference was speaking to Elliotte Friedman on the excellent 31 Thoughts podcast, where he addressed why things went poorly with the Oilers at that time.

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It was a combination of problems, Ference said, including hardcore pressure from the fans and media. “That aspect of feeling, uh, like more so scared to make a mistake and be the whipping boy rather than being bold and taking your chances and having that confidence to try the play. I think some guys might get into that role of just being scared to be the whipping boys… You take less risks. Your urge to win and be bold is less than your urge to not be the whipping boy or stand out. I think that is one aspect.

“I think that the quickness that radio or newspaper or fans jump and attack their own guys is horrible. I think that the (lack of) quickness to defend players within the organization. I remember Jeff Petry or Schultz getting raked over the coals and nobody coming to defend them and just trading them after they’ve beaten them down for months, then trading them. It’s like, ‘God.’ It’s not just for those guys but it’s for other guys on the team, you’re looking at it and saying, ‘They don’t have his back. Are they going to have mine when it’s my turn to be the whipping boy?'”

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Photo by Andy Devlin / Getty Images

Next Ference got into a second issue, the lack of commitment of some of the younger Oilers players. “I think the most frustrating part for me as a player — I went in there straight from Boston — was that talk is cheap. I went in and Dallas Eakins is a fantastic coach. There’s another whipping boy who got raked over the coals. There’s a fantastic coach that was dealt just a pure crap hand in a team that would actually listen.

“You had a group of players that talked about how they wanted to make the playoffs, and talked about how sick they were of losing, and then by Game Three after losing 6-1, they’re straight out to the bar to three in the morning, lighting up the night life scene in Edmonton. Like, come on, give me a break. It was to the point where it was ridiculous where the lifestyle was way more important than actually playing the game and making the playoffs. Like I said, talk is cheap.

“Even in practice, I came from a group where you’re practising against guys like (Patrice) Bergeron or (Zdeno) Chara, and you’re going at each other, like game intensity — and that is how you get better. That is how you be a playoff contender. That is how you be a champion. And you try to instil some of those values. We had some other guys who had been on the playoff teams and they had the same frustration. They’d come and practice hard and there was a group of guys there that had like, it was too cool to try hard. Derogatory terms for trying too hard in practice. That’s the culture, right.

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“How do you break that? You come in and try to disrupt and so I think that over the years there have been attempts to disrupt, whether it was Eakins or I come in there, or Pronger, or whoever it was, different people come in and disrupt but I know personally it was really hard for me. You come in as an older guy but far from being one of the better players on the team. So you can be a leader with experience but I’m not a game changer. I’m like a #4 or #5 defenceman. So your voice only goes so far with people that only respect how good your toe drag is and whether or not you’re out partying. So your voice doesn’t carry much weight with people that don’t put value on those aspects I was bringing from Boston, or that Dallas was trying to instil in the team. So it was not only frustrating, but it really pissed me off because it’s was a waste of years of your NHL career and you never get those back, and you see a coach like Dallas get really so unfairly treated. Like I said, was he perfect? No. And he’d be the first to admit that. He’d rather do some of those things different. But taking the blame? What are you supposed to do with a culture like that.”

His knock-put parting shot?

“You could have had any kind of defence or any kind of system, if you go on a Western swing and your guys are out every single night until 5 a.m., you’re not going to win too many games.”

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My take

Ference has said similar things in the past. In February 2017, when the Edmonton Oilers were on a strong run of play, he mentioned he sometimes visited the Oilers dressing room. “To see guys smiling, and just kind of that atmosphere of positivity, it’s really good. The atmosphere in the room had to change — beyond just losing. The vibe and just the attitude towards being a professional had to change, and that did. And Peter (Chiarelli) did that in Boston. He moved guys around that didn’t buy into the atmosphere that he wanted to create which he knows as a winner. And he did the same thing here… This year you’re obviously seeing a step in the right direction with the professionalism of the team, the battle, the way they’re playing on the ice, the way they’re acting in the city or down in the room… Just that culture, I can’t empathize it enough, how important it is to come into a room and to know that everybody has bought in and everybody is going to be there for each other.” These comments from Ference will be a bitter pill for many Oilers fans who believe that the young stars of that era on the Oilers were blameless in the poor performance of the team. But it’s worth recalling that after a tough first season in New Jersey, there was talk about how the organization had reached out to Taylor Hall to raise the level of his game and commitment for the 2017-18 season. In February 2018, halfway through Hall’s brilliant MVP season, he talked to the media about how much he listens to New Jersey coach John Hynes as opposed to how much he listened to his Oilers coaches: “He’s probably given me the most accountability that any coach I had in Edmonton. I really think that’s been good for me personally. Just in Edmonton, I really didn’t want to talk to coaches. I didn’t really want to have dialogue with coaches. I just wanted to play. And a lot of guys are like that.” This isn’t a case of Ference being all mouth and no action. He was one of the few Oilers in 2013-15 who would regularly go to war for a teammate. And he also spoke out when he was team captain about the lack of leadership on the squad, blasting the team’s power play aces when they gave up two goals against in a December 2014 game against Arizona. “You come in here, you’re up a goal and I don’t think (Arizona) had a good period,” Ference said to reporters at the time. “Guys are letting their guard down, and we’re in no position to be doing that — to be taking a rest and relaxing. We start the period with a power play and we’re looking for some jump. You’re looking for some momentum and it’s a matter of falling into old habits, floating around and expecting the other team to lie down because you’re so great. It doesn’t happen, we made the same mistakes, it cost us games and it definitely puts you in a hole again. We allow two on the same power play, it’s a joke.” I can accept that young players are going to work hard and play hard. It’s the lack of working hard here that is demoralizing as an Oilers fan. The most disturbing comment is the notion that players who worked hard in practice were mocked. The good news? New Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock has talked of how impressed he is with how hard the Oilers practice. It seems that coach Todd McLellan and GM Peter Chiarelli — as much as they’ve been savaged by criticism — may well have succeeded in changing that part of the Oilers culture. Some will downplay Ference’s characterization but I put a lot of weight in it. There was indeed something wrong with the spirit of those Oilers teams. They had so little fight and so little stick-to-it-iveness in the face of adversity. They never got better. Of course terrible management was to blame, but the young leaders on that team also shared in that failure. Ference’s words on how toxic the environment can be in Edmonton for a player when the fans turn on him are also worth thinking hard about. I’m no stranger to blasting the play of some Oilers. It would do us all well to try to keep our own bias and disgust in check when we comment on the Oilers and to most certainly avoid any personal comments about the players. Criticize the play, not the player. And try to be balanced. If you find you can see no good ever about a player, that’s a signal you’ve lost the plot.

At the Cult of Hockey