Ah, how one yearns for the good old days. Hero of the World Juniors, a western kid picked in the first round by a Canadian franchise. A highly touted prospect with tons of potential...Such was the life of Jordan Eberle.
He burst onto the national scene with a bang. A clutch perform for his country. Scoring a big goal against the Russian is essentially the Canadian version of being knighted. His much anticipated arrival in Oil country started off with a highlight reel goal against the arch rival Calgary Flames. Life was good. He was going to be part of the rebuild. A cornerstone of an impressive young core that would bring respectability and success back to the 'City of Champions'. I mean technically that's still true but...
As the years have gone by that potential hasn't manifested itself. That success? Only now coming about because of a generational talent and roster overhaul. The glimpses, the flashes in the pan only made the inconsistency that much more frustrating. Kept die hard fans mutter 'if he could just...'
And lets face it. It can't be easy. His name's been floated in trade rumours for years, every deadline day, every off season. The Oilers needed blueline help and he was the one that was thought to be shipped off to get it. He seems to be the poster boy for all their failures, the reason why the team hadn't taken that net step, and now that they have the reason they may not go further. This is reminiscent of Jason Spezza being run out of town in Ottawa. Though to be fair Spezza put up much better numbers. The Oilers were deemed all season to be a one man team, the Connor McDavid show. Given the special talent he is, it's not exactly unfair to hype him up, but other guy needed to step up if this team was going to have success and be taken seriously. Their depth was questioned by many and a lot of that had to do with the lack of production from Eberle.
Eberle has found himself demoted of late, many suggesting he be scratched outright, publicly called out by his coach, demanded more of by fans and the organisation. Part of playing the NHL? Definitely. Does knowing that make it any easier? If I knew I'd actually have to be in the league, so, I can only guess no and we'll go from there.
This is where the Catch 22 comes in. It's not as if he forgot how to play hockey overnight, or stopped caring. The skills that got him to this level didn't suddenly abandon him. He showed flashes of them here and there but consistency eluded him. The age old dilemma to wondering, to quote Blue Rodeo, I want to know where my confidence went. This is the issue. He needs playing time to get going, and get his confidence back but his play hasn't exactly warranted that trust. The fact that he has several years left on this contract and a cap of 6 million per don't exactly make his deal all that palatable if he can't start producing. IN the end the fact is it's got to be up to him to snap out of this, as teams aren't exactly going to be throwing prospects of value at them. They may be stuck and so all you can do is let him play his way out of it. Or wait out the next two years and remember those fleeting glimpses of magic fondly...
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