December Oiler Review or Too Much Skill is a Bad Thing or Trade Hemsky?

Well December is has come and gone along with Christmas and New Years Eve. Apparently, that is not all that has left town, as the Oilers have appeared to let go of how to shoot a puck at the net.
A very basic principle of the game of hockey but no the young Oilers would rather flatter Mr. Hemsky by imitating him and the "why take a shot at the net when I can try a near impossible pass and just maybe get on the TSN highlite of the night!"
Too many Oiler fans Hemsky is our best player and perhaps he has been but I think it is time to trade him. A lot of the strong supporters of Hemsky are misplacing their desire to return to the days of Anderson, da Moose, Kuri and even Simpson but lets face the fact Hemsky is no where at that level. In fact, at this time I feel he is deterrent to this team of young stars getting better. They are young, they don't want to come across as selfish so being impressionable as they are they try to fit in with the team and thus follow Hemsky's lead of pass first and who gives a shit about shooting.
What this team needs is for hall to grow his damn the torpedoes and get a bit more selfish, take the shot as does Ebs and MPS. There is rarely a time when the saying "nice guys finish last" has not been more true. We need some greedy assholes to take this team by the balls, get aggressive and yes selfish, and take some shots! The biggest issue with this team is the flirting of breaking an NHL record for fewest shots by a team that is just unacceptable!
GRADES:

ROOKIES "C" - they have gotten into the learning rut and have plateaued but should just be temporary. Omark gave us a sign of WOW with a brief appearance and SO goal that pissed of the NHL, that was good, his play not so much-back to the minors for learning.

OFFENSE "C-" - shoot the puck!!! Need I say more?

DEFENSE "C-" - as with the offense - shot the puck! and get it out of our zone! The defense is struggling on many levels and injuries haven't helped. Peckham and Smid are bright spots.

GOALTENDING "B" Khabbi has proved himself facing way too many shots and saving the Oilers ass on more than one occasion even with the odd win. Dubnyk has shown he is solid and deserves more playing time, great future,

COACHES "C-" again, get the team to shot the puck, get ugly and teach the defense how to get the puck out in 1 or 2 passes, not the 4-5 we now see. And play Dubnyk more!

OILERS AS WHOLE  "C" A lot more pain and growth ahead.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

The Trouble With Winning

Well there is some sense of panic by some when it comes to the Oilers 2 game skid but then what did you any reasonable Oiler fan expect?
Yes we had a very nice and surprising winning streak going but one has to be honest and understand that was not the way it will be this year. Yes the players and coaching staff want to win, play to win and expect to win every game as they should. If they didn't play that way there would be huge issues but too the fans we expect to see an effort, growth this year sprinkled with some disappointments and surprises along the way. The recent winning streak is just one of the pleasant surprises this but will not be the normal this year.
The problems of this recent winning streak were reflected  in the last win against tampa were the Oilers generated a whopping 1 shot in the third and even more apparent with the next two losses against vancouver and then Toronto.
The team got to too confident, too cocky and fell in that crazy habit of many past Oiler teams of "why shoot when I can pass". It is like they forget what got them the wins, hard work, solid basic play, going to the net and taking the shot! The last couple of games it is like they were more concerned about making the pretty TSN HON play that actually sticking to the basics and just shooting the puck and crashing the net.
The next games will be a real test of the coaching staff and the players themselves. Can they get out of this slump and be competitive again? Will we see solid efforts again? will they get back to the basics of pressure in all zones, shooting the puck and crashing the net? We can only hope that they learn from this past winning streak and shot drought of the past few games.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!