the 4th star

Lost in this TSN article on the Edmonton Oilers and their future salary cap woes is the all-important smoking gun of responsibility. Who let the Oilers payroll — a list full of expensive, above-market value players on the down-swing of their careers — get to this point? Funny, I read and re-read the story. But despite all my fine-tooth combing I could not find one mention of the architect of this financial crisis; the man without a plan.

Kevin Lowe took over the Oilers in 2000, when Glen Sather moved on to the New York Rangers trust fund. His record in that time (not including this season) is 301-252-47-56. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? In fact, a further delve into the numbers shows the Lowe-led Oil earning at least a point in 62 per cent of their games. Even in this watered-down, shoot-out era where every club finishes about .500 at the end of the year, that sounds great. But that isn’t where success is measured, is it?

In his eight Oilers front-office seasons (remember, not counting this winter and there was a lockout in 2005), Lowe’s team made the post season three times — including that run to the Stanley Cup final in 2006. Pull up the calculator on the old iPhone, and you’ll see that Edmonton has finished out of the playoff picture five times under his watch. The last three seasons have ended early, and with a last-place record in the Western Conference (Thank God for Carolina, says northern Alberta), a four-peat as the main supplier to the World Hockey Championship is a lead-pipe cinch.

As TSN’s Dreger and McKenzie point out, the list of Edmonton salary troubles is a painful and costly docket:

D Lubomir Visnovsky: three more years at $5.6 million
D Sheldon Souray: two years at $5.4 million
D Tom Gilbert: $4 million
D Denis Grebeshkov: $3.15 million
D Steve Staios: $2.7 million

That’s over $20.8-million for five defencemen who are less than difference makers. Up front, there’s more. Or less, depending on your point of view. Agreed. It’s definitely less.

C Shawn Horcoff: $5.5 million
LW Dustin Penner: $4.25 million
C Ales Hemsky: $4.1 million
LW Patrick O’Sullivan: $2.925 million

Oilers fans living in the shadow of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier will point out that not all off this falls on Lowe. Steve Tambellini has been the general manager for a couple of seasons now, and he’s shares some of the responsibility for a few of the contracts out there. I say, ‘Habby’ — you say, ‘Boolin!” Habby-Boolin, Habby-Boolin, Habby-Boolin. Try to stomach that chant for 3.75 million seconds. Lowe must be proud of his hand-picked GM replacement.

As strange as it was to read a story about Edmonton and find no mention of how they have to over-pay to get quality talent to play there, I found it equally as odd that TSN didn’t mention Kevin Lowe anywhere in the article. This is his team — there’s no questioning that. If it’s obvious to a stump like me, shouldn’t those guys say where the source of the struggling Oilers economy is?

Wonder no more: The Oilers (16-25-5) are just two points better than Carolina heading into tonight’s action.

That being said, those jerseys are sharp.