The Springfield Falcons were one of the worst teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) last year. It cost the team the goodwill of the Falcons President, GM and owner Bruce Langdon as well as a fair amount of the fans.

In the off season it came out in Edmonton that the Oilers were looking for a new place to have a team next season. Rumours of the Oilers affiliation being move to Oklahoma as the Oilers exercised their right to renew the former Roadrunners franchise.

As the new season began the Falcons received an influx of a few veteran AHL players to try and help the team. The lose of Ryan Stone and Rob Schremp probably hurt the team. Yet with new coaching and some better players it was hoped that the Falcons would at least be competitive.

So far the more things change the more they remain the same. The Falcons started the season with a home win but on the road they have since lost three straight.

The Oilers young prospects appear to still be struggling, in part because they have lost some of their scoring touch.

As injuries and loses piled up many of the more promising younger players like Tom Gilbert, Ryan Stone, Robert Nilsson, Gilbert Brule, Rob Schremp and JF Jacques have been sent to the NHL, most never returned.   With no one to replace them the Oilers prospects have been thrown rather roughly in the deep end.

Another player who might be struggling is goalie Devan Dubnyk.  In four games he has given up 18 goals.

Because of the injury to Sheldon Souray the Falcons are deprived of their top point man as Taylor Chorney has been called up this weekend.

With the team struggling to find itself the Falcons will need their defence to play better if they are going to compete.

It certainly must be difficult for fans of the Falcons to watch their team abandoned by two straight affiliates, as the Tampa Bay Lightning had to also raid their club leaving it without the strength to compete long term.

Also if the Oilers are seeking to move the affiliation they should at least make an attempt in Springfield to help their potential new community get excited about their arrival.

Of course the Springfield affiliation coming after a couple of years of spread affiliates may have left the Oilers ill prepared to manage the team properly.   It has been almost a decade since an Oilers AHL affiliate was competitive in the playoffs.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.