Blue Monday is definitely a thing for the Edmonton Oilers

At this point, the most hopelessly optimistic fan of the Edmonton Oilers has to be having a difficult time maintaining any semblance of belief that the team can stop this season from torpedoing into oblivion.

Yes, the wild-card spots in the Western Conference are still very much within reach. But it seems the longer the window stays open (solely due to the fact that other teams are also failing to take advantage as well), the more susceptible the Oilers have been to failure.

With five wins in their last 16 games (two of which required a shootout), the Oilers have squandered their chance to rise above the mediocrity in the Western Conference and instead helped enable those deemed inferior after stumbling to even slower starts.

Well before suffering a disastrous weekend which saw them lose twice by a combined score of 12-6, management came out on the record to suggest that their valuable futures are in play in order to obtain help in the present. This is in an effort to avoid a wasting a second straight season with the best hockey player in the world.

While Peter Chiarelli and Co. have not been able to swing a deal involving either their first-round pick or once-prized prospect Jesse Puljujarvi, they have since admitted to two pretty significant mistakes.

Before sending defender Caleb Jones back to the American Hockey League (having him probably a mistake in itself), Ryan Spooner and Ty Rattie were placed on waivers. That’s the net return for Jordan Eberle, and a winger that started the season on the Oilers’ top line, offered up for free to any of the 30 other teams looking for a warm body.

Not a quality look.

Naturally, Connor McDavid was summoned to talk about everything that ails the Oilers shortly after the forgettable transaction.

While it’s possible that he’s never had to bite his tongue more, the captain spoke a less ambiguously in his opportunity to vent, suggesting that the only people that seem to believe in the Oilers are those in the room.

Asked if one of the problems with Edmonton is that not everyone on the team has the same faith as he does with what’s inside, McDavid nearly took the colourful route.

“Well if there’s guys that believe that then they should get the — you know, they should get out of the room,” McDavid said, via TSN. “If you don’t believe in this group and you’re in the locker room, then you need to leave.”

That might be about as close as we’re going to get to a McDavid mic drop.

Coincidently, McDavid’s sober session with the media comes on the gloomiest day of the calendar season — for those who decide such things.

But while “Blue Monday” will soon be over for those feeling down during this mid-January freeze, is there anything to suggest the Oilers will soon see better days?

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