By Avi Goldberg, Featured Writer,  All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — Early this past Monday evening, hours before Commissioner Lars Eller relegated them to the Canadian Hockey League, Edmonton Oilers players, coaches, management, a documentary crew, and even members of the team’s social media staff began to converge on their downtown Montreal hotel after completing their team dinner. Facing the Canadiens at the Bell Centre Tuesday night, and sporting a 1-3-1 record from the first four games of their Eastern road trip, the mood in the hotel lobby was business-like as everyone made their way to their rooms.

From the outside looking in, and despite their number one draft picks and multiple coaching and managerial changes, the Oilers appear to be no better than they were when they started their painful rebuild. A 2-6-1 record prior to Tuesday’s game, an invisible Nail Yakupov, and the anointment of Andrew Ference as team captain all seemed to support this view. Yet, while Habs fans can be quick to laugh at a franchise that seems to be perpetually operating in blunder mode, the story from up close runs in an entirely different direction.

To gain an insider’s perspective on the state of the Oilers, I took the opportunity to meet up with an old friend from Edmonton, Bob Stauffer. Stauffer, Oilers radio analyst and host of Oilers Now on 630 CHED, was clearly excited for Tuesday’s match-up when we spoke. Just like how it was in old times, Stauffer was passionate as we talked about a group of players, coaches, and managers that, he says, is confident that they’re on track to becoming better than just respectable on the ice.

Stauffer first got into sports media in the early 1990s, when he was Sports Director at the University of Alberta’s radio station, CJSR, and Sports Editor of the campus newspaper, The Gateway. Through the 1990s, Stauffer did stats analysis for out-of-town NHL broadcast crews and he also called play-by-play for U. of A. Golden Bear hockey and football. In 2003, Stauffer jumped at an opportunity to do sports talk radio on what is now Team 1260, and, after Daryl Katz bought the Oilers in 2008, he was hired as the new colour man for the team’s radio broadcast. Stauffer worked his first two years alongside Edmonton Oilers radio legend, Rod Philips, and he’s been partnered with Jack Michaels since the latter was hired as Philips’ replacement in 2010.

The seeds of Stauffer’s assessment of today’s Oilers can be traced to a position he held as early as 2000. Believing then that the only way the team would be able to recapture the glory of the championship years would be by building through the draft, Stauffer opposed the strategy of trying to lure expensive free agents. Stauffer was open about his view, and he says he drew a lot of attention on his radio show when he expressed it via criticism of the team’s coach.

“I wasn’t afraid to challenge the Oilers, I felt that they were fundamentally flawed in their approach,” Stauffer said. “Craig MacTavish was a pretty good coach [in those days], but I was on him about one thing. I didn’t think he had a lot of patience for kids. I never once said he should be fired, I just said he should be more patient with the kids.”

Stauffer believed the Oilers’ problems went beyond MacTavish’s philosophy of favouring veterans over prospects. He felt they were caused by the inability of the team’s ownership at the time, the Edmonton Investors Group (EIG), to stomach the idea of gutting the team, having it bottom out in the standings, and starting over again.

When Stauffer had the chance to get to know Daryl Katz in the years before he bought the Oilers, he started to sense that the change he desired would finally come. Based on their conversations, Stauffer was convinced that the new owner was the right man to push the team in a radically new direction.

In playing hardball with the city of Edmonton in his effort to land the team’s new arena deal, Katz has ushered in change on the business side. But, in keeping Kevin Lowe as team President, and by bringing back Craig MacTavish and Scott Howson, he’s also been criticized for leaving the club’s old boys network untouched. Stauffer hears the criticism, but he rejects any suggestion that hockey operations are in bad hands.

“Kevin Lowe had about six different sets of directions during the years of the EIG,” Stauffer said. “He went from, ‘you can’t spend money,’ to ‘ok, spend a little,’ to ‘ok, [free agents] don’t want to be here, what do you want to do?’ Then, Katz started chasing and EIG said, ‘well, you got to spend because this guy’s threatening to spend to the cap.’ So, he had different sets of directions, but now, Kevin and MacT will be there as long as they want.”

Stauffer insists there’s stability and quality in management, but how could someone who previously rejected young players possibly preside over a rebuild? Is there any reason to believe MacTavish will do better as GM than he did behind the bench?

If choosing someone to coach the kids is any indication of the manager’s potential, then Stauffer thinks MacTavish is off to a hot start.

“The coach is a very confident man,” Stauffer said. “He’s coming to the right place at the right time, and the thing is, they haven’t been successful, so they want to be led. He’s an alpha dog, and he has the chance to knock it out of the park.”

So, ownership’s solid, management is competent, and the coach is a great fit. How then can Stauffer explain the team’s slow start on the ice? What does he say to Oilers fans who’ve grown frustrated waiting for signs of improvement and who are not getting what they want so far this season?

A few key player acquisitions are needed, and a final judgment will need to be made on Devan Dubnyk in goal. But, Stauffer loves the Oilers’ current young roster players, as well as prospects like Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom whom he sees as certain to make the big club in the next couple of years.

As Eakins continues to implement and refine his system, and as the team’s youth matures and grows stronger physically, Stauffer envisions players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins developing into the next Jonathan Toews, and, based on the way he scored in his first 48 games, can even see Nail Yakupov coming to rival the output of snipers like Steven Stamkos.

With a majority of the Oilers’ early games on the road, and with a new coach applying a new system, a slow start to the season is not unexpected. Stauffer acknowledges fan aggravation, but he also says that the stats show the team to be improving in key areas of play. Stauffer is bullish in preaching patience.

“I feel for the fans, but you either believe in it or you don’t,” Stauffer said. “It’s a very short sample size at the start of the year, and [if you’re not patient], it’s just like Canadiens fans shitting all over Carey Price because of the playoffs. So, he had a bad series, that happens to good goaltenders over a short sample size. But, he also helped you get second overall in the Eastern conference. You have to believe in the process.”

On Tuesday night, with both teams dealing with significant injuries, the Oilers came out on top against the Habs. And, while it’s not clear whether Commissioner Eller’s musings actually helped spur the visitors to victory, the postgame chatter was sufficiently intense to push the young man to offer his regrets.

Today, back out west, the Edmonton Oilers are debriefing after their recent 4-1 loss to the Capitals. And, even though the team’s young players were singled out once again for their egregious defensive play, Bob Stauffer is likely taking it all in stride.

“This team will inevitably get better, and it might happen sooner than people think,” Stauffer said. “They might only win 15 of their first 40 games, but they could win 30 of their final 40. It takes time.”

Hockey fans outside of Edmonton will probably continue to laugh about the Oilers and their rebuild for a while yet. Still, it’s hard not to admire Stauffer’s optimism just the same.

Follow me on Twitter @AviGoldberg