Oh Ye, of Silvered Tongue...

Patrick LaForge weighs in on Chris Pronger....again.

"It was a black bruise on the soul of the city," says Oilers president Patrick LaForge. "Everybody was into the win - or the near-win. So excited about it, so happy about it. That's nirvana, orgasmic, whatever you could think of, at its best.

"Canada's team, Canada's city ... everybody sharing in all that glory and recognition, only to have it taken away - to have it scurried out from under them - by a hockey player. How do you deal with it?

"It was mournful. It was anger. It was the Oilers' fault. It was the city's fault. It was the potholes. Everything became a finger-point. Maybe it was Chris Pronger's fault. But he couldn't be rounded up and put in the stockade, with rancid vegetables to throw at him.

"We didn't get our pound of flesh out of him."

Our pound of flesh? Forget about the fact that Merchant of Venice is one of the most politically incorrect plays ever written by Shakespeare, casting the villain as a greedy Jew, but what is this pound that Pronger supposedly owes us?

Sure, we got screwed over, but I do believe Lowe brokered a deal that would not only handicap us for 06-07, but right into this season as well.

The gist of the article that spawned the above quote is that Edmonton has a bad reputation around the league as a place to live and play hockey. Apparently the Oiler's organization are a bunch of vampires, unable to see their own reflections in the mirror. Ask any employer around town these days: treat your employees like crap and you'll find that the good workers will seek employment somewhere else. You'll be left with the inexperienced and the loyal (almost to a fault) who will stay because they believe in each other more than you.

Wake up, EIG. Wake up Lowe. If players are your most valuable resource, then stop frickin bad-mouthing them on their way out the door or you'll find yourselves at the bottom of the league.

Oh, wait...too late.