Four years after reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, the Oilers are coming off yet another losing season. Good news is they have won the #1 overall pick in the upcoming draft. Bad news is they have to wade through dozens of dynamic prospects to find the right player to build the team around.
In episode one, "Changes", we join Oilers' scouts and management in Los Angeles for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft on June 25th. The documentary takes viewers deep inside the Oilers organization as the team's amateur scouts, along with General Manager Steve Tambellini and President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe, make their final deliberations on the first overall pick in the draft. With eventual pick Taylor Hall and other carefully chosen players from later rounds of the draft now theirs, the Oilers return to Edmonton. There they launch the bold, wholesale rebuild promised by Tambellini and Lowe, with the full backing of billionaire owner Daryl Katz, in the Oil Change pilot that aired on TSN on June 24th, the night before the draft. Various players from last season's 30th place team (including captain Ethan Moreau) are waived, traded, bought-out or simply not re-signed to make cap room and roster space for the influx of talented newcomers expected in 2010-11. In another move, the cerebral and articulate Tom Renney is tapped to replace legend Pat Quinn behind the bench. The saga of malcontent defenseman Sheldon Souray is also chronicled. The documentary then goes on to show the Oilers' pro scouts and brass in their 'war room' on July 1st, so-called 'Free Agency Day', as they endeavour to trade Souray, find a big defenseman to replace his shot on the blueline, and secure a heavyweight enforcer to protect Taylor Hall and the other youngsters on the team. Other highlights of the hour include a look at the team's prospect development camp in July, where excited fans in Edmonton packed a north end community arena for a chance to see Hall and other highly-touted first-rounders Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi together on the ice for the first time. The last part of the hour takes viewers into training camp and through the exhibition season with the team. Thanks to remarkable access on the part of the Aquila production crew, we see players getting cut in the coach'
Episode two of Oil Change picks up the Oilers on the first big road trip of the year.
As the NHL season chugs towards Christmas, the Oilers continue to provide fans with an emotional roller-coaster ride. This is a team that wins unlikely games and loses others that should be an automatic two points. Through it all, head coach Renney and his assistants remain patient and stick to their game plan, sometimes reinforcing their lessons with a soft touch and other times with toughness. The players take a memorable road trip to Anaheim and Phoenix with their fathers, sharing a round of golf in the desert between games. Back in Edmonton and preparing for a tilt against the Sharks, they get a surprise dressing room visit and pep talk from Prime Minister Harper, in town for the 2010 Grey Cup. Heading east, they sweep the Sen, Habs and Leafs, only to come back to Edmonton and play inconsistent hockey during a lengthy, pre-Christmas home stand. With the New Year looming, injured captain Shawn Horcoff assesses the progress of Oil Change on the eve of another Battle of Alberta against the Flames.
January finds the Oilers’ playoff chances in growing jeopardy. Some fans advocate throwing in the towel right now, arguing that a freefall in the standings will secure them another valuable first or second overall draft pick in June. But the coaches and players are proud professionals and refuse to give up. As the team grinds their way through a long prairie winter, the true character of the squad reveals itself. The rookies gain valuable seasoning; the vets show their leadership qualities. Some players fulfill expectations, while others slip back on the depth chart as the team moves forward. Meanwhile, Oiler brass and scouts are busy looking at the progress of their AHL farm hands down in Oklahoma City, at possible draft picks in June, and at previous draft picks back playing in the juniors. This will be a very intense time for the new Oilers. If the team does well over the next month and a half and exceeds expectations, it could be back in playoff contention when the February 28th trade deadline approaches.
By the time this episode airs, a little over two weeks after the NHL trade deadline, the Oilers will have declared their intentions for the rest of the season. They will either stand pat with the team they have, bolstered as needed by call-ups from the AHL, or they will have moved players , and possibly very important players, either in preparation for a serious push for the playoffs in the spring or to make roster space for the next stage of their ongoing rebuild.
One of two scenarios will play itself out in the final episode of Oil Change. The team will either be in the hunt, with everyone’s focus firmly fixed on the prize – making the playoffs – or the Oilers will know they are once again destined to finish the season on the outside looking in. In that case, management and coaches will be looking to make some tough calls over the final weeks on the futures of their players. For non-playoff teams, this is the time when players, and particularly those on the bubble, must take advantage of the remaining games on the schedule to make their case for a new contract. In both scenarios, the future remains to be written.
The Edmonton Oilers make their move from the bottom of the league by selecting the 1st overall draft pick in Minnesota. The first episode of Oil Change looks at the Edmonton Oilers as they make their move from the bottom of the league by selecting the 1st overall draft pick in Minnesota. We go inside the boardroom with the management team as they sign new free agents . Then we go to training Camp to see who will crack the regular season roster. The episode ends with the season opener against Pittsburgh.
Episode two of Oil Change picks up the Oilers on the first big road trip of the year. They will barely be a dozen games into the season then, too soon to know how good (or bad) they might be, but this first long road trip of the year could deliver a critical bonding experience for an emerging young team.Will this be the trip that bonds this band of brothers? Only time will tell.
Although the Oilers’ game to game play and win-loss record remain paramount, this episode, airing when it does near the start of the festive season, also gives us a chance to get to know some of the players a little bit better away from the rink – perhaps decorating a Christmas tree, shopping for their kids or making community appearances. Oil Change, Aquila Productions’ popular and critically-acclaimed documentary series about the Oilers’ quest to go from bottom feeder to championship contender comes to Citytv this year. Using state-of-the -art, high-definition video cameras and audio-recording equipment, the Aquila follow the team closely on the ice at practice and during the heat of games, in the dressing room, training rooms and coaches’ offices before and after games, away from the rink at home, out in the local community and on the road around the league. We will see and hear the Oilers with their game faces on, with their hearts on their sleeves, and with their guards down during good times and bad alike.
The fourth episode of Oil Change is about a long, cold winter’s stretch of tough games. There is a very good chance that those games after Christmas through January will make or break the Oilers’ chances of getting into the playoffs. And they will also certainly help inform management’s decisions about what to do, or not do, with the NHL’s trade deadline fast approaching.Although the Oilers’ game to game play and win-loss record remain paramount, this episode, airing when it does near the start of the festive season, also gives us a chance to get to know some of the players a little bit better away from the rink – perhaps decorating a Christmas tree, shopping for their kids or making community appearances. ****Oil Change, Aquila Productions’ popular and critically-acclaimed documentary series about the Oilers’ quest to go from bottom feeder to championship contender comes to Citytv this year. Using state-of-the -art, high-definition video cameras and audio-recording equipment, the Aquila follow the team closely on the ice at practice and during the heat of games, in the dressing room, training rooms and coaches’ offices before and after games, away from the rink at home, out in the local community and on the road around the league. We will see and hear the Oilers with their game faces on, with their hearts on their sleeves, and with their guards down during good times and bad alike.
This episode of Oil Change will follow the Oilers through the 2012 NHL trade deadline. Oil Change is right there with Tambellini and his management team as the deals go down in the Oilers war room with cameras rolling when intense, last-minute negotiations between Tambellini and the brass of other teams go down. We'll also follow the fall out of those trades on the team. ****Oil Change, Aquila Productions’ popular and critically-acclaimed documentary series about the Oilers’ quest to go from bottom feeder to championship contender comes to Citytv this year. Using state-of-the -art, high-definition video cameras and audio-recording equipment, the Aquila follow the team closely on the ice at practice and during the heat of games, in the dressing room, training rooms and coaches’ offices before and after games, away from the rink at home, out in the local community and on the road around the league. We will see and hear the Oilers with their game faces on, with their hearts on their sleeves, and with their guards down during good times and bad alike.
The final episode of Oil Change follows the Edmonton Oilers through the last month of the 2011-12 NHL season. The young Oilers know they will not make the playoffs, but with head coach Tom Renney cracking the whip they’re determined to finish strong, earn respect around the league for their talent and work ethic, and lay important groundwork on the road to becoming a playoff team next season. Highlights of this episode include the Oilers’ second straight victory over Calgary, a raucous Battle of Alberta at Rexall Place that hurts the Flames’ own flickering chances of securing a spot in the playoffs. From there the Oilers take to the road, capturing seven of eight possible points against Nashville, Tampa Bay, Florida and Columbus in an impressive swing through the American southeast. A victory over Nashville is highlighted by veteran Ales Hemsky’s very first NHL hat trick. In a tough shoot-out loss against the Lightning we see Nikolai Khabibulin play his first game in Tampa Bay since he led that team to the Stanley Cup in 2004. Late season injuries to star Taylor Hall and other Oiler players force another round of call-ups from the team’s AHL-leading farm club in Oklahoma City. This time it’s centre Chris Vandevelde and power forward Teemu Hartikainen. Both young Barons impress with the big club -- Vandevelde scoring his first NHL goal in a victory over Columbus and Hartikainen netting a pair in a win against Anaheim. A much different injury-related feel-good story documents the long, painstaking but ultimately successful rehab of promising rookie defenseman Taylor Fedun. Fedun returns to full contact practice with the Oilers six months after the devastating broken leg he suffered on an icing call race in a pre-season game last fall. Viewers will also get head amateur scout Stu MacGregor’s assessment of first-round prospects on the Oilers’ radar for the NHL Entry Draft in June, veteran defenseman Andy Sutton’s take on the impressive progress
The first episode in season four of Oil Change: All In opens in the spring of 2013. The Edmonton Oilers new general manager Craig MacTavish assesses what went wrong last season. On April 3, 2013, a dominating 8-2 win over Calgary propelled the Oilers into the final playoff spot in the NHL’s Western Conference. But twelve days and five straight losses later, they had dropped right out of contention and never got close again.
Episode two of Oil Change follows the Oilers through the first month of the 2013-14 season. Most of their games are played on the road and it’s a pretty bumpy ride. But while fans might beg to differ, rookie head coach Dallas Eakins believes his team is better than their disappointing record indicates.
