Originally Posted by slapshot™

What's up with the Oilers? Seems since the Heritage game the wheels have fallen off:

Oil 3 - Canadiens 4
Oil 3 - BJs 3
Oil 1 - Wings 7
Oil 1 - Avs 4
Oil 1 - Sharks 2

That's brutal and totally unacceptable. The last 2 games they have increased their shots on net but nothing has come of it (77 for Oil, 48 for opposition).

I think Conks has been solid in net relieving Tommy. However, I think it's probably time to put Salo back between the pipes and give him a rest (if Salo is healthy). The special teams have been brutal and there is ALOT of improvement in those areas. Apart from that what else do you think the Oil need to do to get back on course?

Originally Posted by Edmonton Sun

A mini Mike megadeal?

It may come to that because no one wants just Comrie
By ROBIN BROWNLEE -- Edmonton Sun

From no deal to big deal?

With the Edmonton Oilers in the throes of a five-game winless streak and GM Kevin Lowe without even one offer for holdout centre Mike Comrie to contemplate, that's exactly the way things could unfold in days to come.

The first part we know. The Oilers are winless in five. A 2-1 loss to San Jose on Sunday was their third straight defeat. They can't score. They can't win. We get it already.

At the same time, interest in Comrie, 24 games and 81 days since Lowe locked the sulking hometown hero out of training camp Sept. 12, has flatlined worse than the Oilers special teams.

To hear vice-president of hockey operations Kevin Prendergast tell it, there is next to none. As it stands today, there's not a single offer on the table for Comrie. Not one deal to be had.

Framed in that context, with no action on Comrie and the Oilers fading fast in the Western Conference, Lowe, Prendergast and assistant GM Scott Howson intend to meet this morning to weigh their options.

One of those options, perhaps the likeliest, is to attempt to drum up business on Comrie by adding a veteran to the mix as part of a multi-player trade. Sweetening the pot might get Comrie gone and shake up a roster that could use a dose of that right about now.

Sounds like a plan.

"We have to look at our team and our situation," Prendergast said yesterday. "We have to take a look at it. We have to consider if there's some players we can put on the table along with Mike. We'd have to get back exactly what we'd want, to do something like that, and that's not a given, but we have players other teams are interested in."

NAMING SOME NAMES

Would making Eric Brewer available with Comrie help consummate a deal? How about Jason Smith, Brad Isbister, Ryan Smyth or Georges Laraque? It couldn't hurt.

"We've got a 20-year-old (Ales Hemsky) who has five goals for us and a 22-year-old (Raffi Torres) who has eight goals," said Prendergast. "Where are our stars? Where are these guys?

"When you're 27th on the power play and 30th in penalty killing, your front-end guys and your back end guys who you're paying a lot of money to aren't doing the job.

"Maybe it's time to take a look and say, 'Maybe we can make a two-for-two deal or a three-for-three deal.' I don't know, but I think it's something we have to go over."

When the Oilers were rolling along, relatively speaking, in early November - they were 10-7-2-0 on Nov. 20 - Lowe was portrayed by some as holding all the cards. He was being patient.

CONFIDENCE WANING

Now, with confidence waning, the special teams a joke and too many hopes heaped on the 41-year-old shoulders of Adam Oates, Lowe's inability to make a deal is being interpreted as foot-dragging by others, with Comrie and agent Ritch Winter being at the front of that line.

"We're not going to give the guy away for the sake of making a trade," Prendergast said. "We know the kid wants to be traded, but we don't have anybody saying, 'We're interested.'

"Kevin's got to make the right deal ... we could turn around and say, 'Sure, we'll just take this or that.' What are the fans going to say? What are you (media) guys going to say?"

Prendergast says Lowe's had discussions with about 20 teams about Comrie. There's been lots of tire-kickers, as he calls them, but no offers made. Nothing in the context of, "We'll give you this guy and that guy for Comrie, what do you say?"

Atlanta has inquired, but GM Don Waddell, who met with Lowe during a game in Buffalo, has refused to put top prospect Braydon Coburn on the table. No Coburn, no deal.

Michal Handzus came up in talks with Philadelphia GM Bobby Clarke, and that's not speculation, it's fact. Joffrey Lupul was discussed with Anaheim GM Bryan Murray. Believe it. The problem is name-dropping is one thing and making the leap to a handshake is another, as Lowe is finding out.

"You've got to have a partner to dance with and we're not even close to that," Prendergast said. "We're like the ugly guy at the dance. Nobody wants any part of us. We're on the phone every day talking, but we're not getting any takers on anything. This is like a chess match and sometimes you have to sit and wait."

Which brings us to today, when Lowe, Prendergast and Howson sit down to compare notes. If there's no market for Comrie, does another name in the mix change the market? Brewer? Isbister? I'd love to be a fly on the wall today.

"We have to evaluate our hockey club," Prendergast said. "We thought coming out of training camp we were going to be a much better hockey club than we were. I honestly thought so. Right now, we're not. Why is that? Maybe we're over-valuing our personnel. Maybe it's time to look around."