The Edmonton Oilers sit dead last in the league with six wins in 25 games. A 10-game losing streak has decimated any hope of meaningful hockey this season and once again turned the conversation towards the draft lottery. All this before the tarp has been pulled off Santas sleigh. Conventional hockey logic suggests it is time for Craig Mactavish to fire Dallas Eakins. In most other markets, it probably would have happened already. Im here to tell you, its not going to happen. At least not in the near future. MacTavish still believes in Dallas Eakins message and he believes the players do, too. In recent days a number of them, including Taylor Hall, Andrew Ference and David Perron, have gone public with their support of the head coach. Hall went out of his way to make sure MacTavish knew that Eakins wasnt the problem in his eyes. This sense of support from within the room has resonated strongly with the GM. MacTavish must also know he hasnt iced a competitive lineup for a second straight season and making Eakins the fall guy for some of his miscalculations and mis-fires likely doesnt sit well with him. Last year it was a ragtag blue line - Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Belov, and Philip Larsen are now out of the league - and inadequate goaltending that sunk them. Sure, the rookie head coach made his share of mistakes, but so, too, did the rookie GM. This season MacTavishs inability to address a glaring lack of depth at centre and reliance on career backups in net have hamstrung his head coach. Eakins also doesnt have anything close to a true top defence pair and is nightly being asked to make lemonade out of lemons. This head coach is failing, the standings make that indisputable…but not with a quality team. Hes failing with a significantly flawed lineup. MacTavish is less than two years into his tenure as GM, too early to say he is the problem. He needs to be given time to untangle the numerous knots he inherited, and those he has tightened. Soon, MacTavish is going to have to clearly demonstrate he has some creative solutions that extend beyond high first round picks. Whether it costs him his job or not, Eakins bares a lot of responsibility for what is taking place. He is at the helm of this titanically sinking ship and regardless of weaknesses in his lineup, he shouldnt be clumsily smashing into every iceberg in his path. Surely a coach should be able to light the right fires at least once in a 10-game stretch of futility. Shouldnt he be able to find the critical buttons to push and snap his team out of its funk? Yet lines have remained mostly the same. Outside of painfully overdue healthy scratches, there have been no dramatic measures taken, no cold buckets of water dumped on anyones head, no slap across the face to shock a dressing room out its slumber. Instead, theres talking... and lots of it. A stale power play, poor starts and lack of accountability for repeat offenders of the mind-numbing mistakes are all failures laying squarely at Eakins feet. So too is the length of this losing streak. In 2013, Ralph Krueger had his Oiler team positioned for a run at the playoffs. The Oilers were ninth in the Western Conference, one point out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline and had just trounced the Calgary Flames 8-2. Kruegers Oilers then went on to lose nine of their next 10 games and were finished. During that skid, lines stayed the same, systems remained in place, there was no cold bucket of water back then either. It revealed a lack of creativity and problem-solving under pressure from the first-year head coach. That stretch cost Ralph Krueger his job. Dallas Eakins has yet to prove that he is any more creative or any more capable of problem solving than Krueger was. But hes going to get more time to figure it out than the last guy did. Hydro Flask Clearance Sale . The Pope greeted Klose at his general audience Wednesday and the pair had a long chat. Klose is German like the pope, although he was born in Poland. In Sundays derby, Lazio took the lead in the seventh minute after Maarten Stekelenburg brought down Klose, resulting in the Roma goalkeeper being sent off and a penalty that Hernanes converted. Cheap Hydro Flask Water Bottle . Kamloops, B.C., the host city of this years Tim Hortons Brier, is where he won his first Canadian mens curling crown in 1996. http://www.clearancehydroflask.com/. Trailing by a goal after 20 minutes of play, Joe Pavelski responded with three goals and an assist as the Sharks snapped a two-game losing skid with a 5-2 victory over the struggling Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Hydro Flask Water Bottle Sale . Top-seeded Djokovic swept to a 6-1, 6-3 win over 51st-ranked Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in just 57 minutes, but fourth-seeded Federer had to see off a serious challenge from 48th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic before coming through 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Hydro Flask Online Sale . -- Jacksonville Jaguars rookie receiver Marqise Lee has agreed to terms on a four-year contract worth more than $5 million.Most diminutive players are forced to take the long road to NHL arenas, if they get there at all. The Habs Brendan Gallagher waited until the fifth round to hear his name called at the 2010 draft. Teammate David Desharnais never heard his name called and needed to ply his trade in the ECHL before the Habs took notice and signed him as a free agent. Mike Weaver was similarly undrafted. Brian Gionta and Tomas Plekanec went in the third round of their respective drafts. St. Louis was passed over by midget teams, ironically, ignored by the QMJHL, undrafted, signed by the Flames but later bought out after being exposed and unselected during the 2000 expansion draft, signed by Tampa Bay, and then became a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer, Stanley Cup winner, and Olympic gold medalist. But too small to play in this mans NHL, for sure.(h/tNational Post)If smaller skaters are in tough against the closed-mindedness of hockeys front offices, then life is near impossible for wee goalies. If the hockey community had its way, Dustin Tokarski would be working the take-out window at a Tim Hortons in Saskatchewan. At 511, he is everything the scouts are not looking for in a goalie. He is not the prototype. He is not Carey Price. Tampa Bay scout Charlie Hodge (himself a small, 56, NHL goaltender who accomplished nothing in the league with his limited stature other than six Stanley Cups and two Vezinas) had to beg the Lightning to draft Tokarski in the fifth round. And while, despite Montreal folklores contention, the legend of Tokarski is still being written, his play in the Eastern Conference Final is argument for a less structured approach to the game in both drafting and roster building.In a league that clings desperately to intangibles like "grit", "sandpaper", and "hockey sense", its laughable that they ignore these very qualities in players simply because they couldnt look Chris Pronger in the eye if standding on a barstool.dddddddddddd. And perhaps its the fact that they are ignored that makes them the players they are, products of adversity. More likely its a lack of ambition and creativity in front offices, which denies ambitious and creative players the opportunity to play in the league, and to better the game.The argument in favour of a broader notion of what makes an NHLer is on the ice this postseason, and in particular in the Rangers-Habs series and their respective runs to the Conference Final. Desharnais has been arguably Montreals best forward, if not their most consistent. Gallagher is proving that strength comes from within, and not gigantism. Tokarski has gone from relative obscurity to revelation. Weaver is more adept at blocking shots than Peter Budaj. Sixth-rounder Hagelin is proving to be perhaps the fastest skater in the league. Zucarello, affectionately nicknamed the Hobbit, is a force with his speed and creativity. And the grandfather of them all, St. Louis, is authoring a tale for the ages, the kind of postseason story that makes the playoffs so compelling.(h/t 5 Minutes For Fighting)Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull and son Brett were 510. Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr were measured at 6, but they were wearing their shoes. Guy Lafleur was also listed at 6, but at least two of those inches were hair. At some point during the 90s, when scouting staffs inflated and Eric Lindros arrived, the NHL experienced a sea change in philosophy. They became infatuated with size and believed they could manufacture skill and scoring through systems. The result was lower scoring, issues with concussions, and endless tinkering with rules in order to create the very scoring that they themselves had diluted. In witnessing one of the most entertaining and compelling postseasons in recent memory, one hopes that the NHL can again changes its ways, and value skill no matter what size the package it comes in. 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