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The Edmonton Oilers sit dead last in the league with six wins in 25 games. A 10-game losing streak has decimated any hope of meaningful hockey this season and once again turned the conversation towards the draft lottery. All this before the tarp has been pulled off Santas sleigh. Conventional hockey logic suggests it is time for Craig Mactavish to fire Dallas Eakins. In most other markets, it probably would have happened already. Im here to tell you, its not going to happen. At least not in the near future. MacTavish still believes in Dallas Eakins message and he believes the players do, too. In recent days a number of them, including Taylor Hall, Andrew Ference and David Perron, have gone public with their support of the head coach. Hall went out of his way to make sure MacTavish knew that Eakins wasnt the problem in his eyes. This sense of support from within the room has resonated strongly with the GM. MacTavish must also know he hasnt iced a competitive lineup for a second straight season and making Eakins the fall guy for some of his miscalculations and mis-fires likely doesnt sit well with him. Last year it was a ragtag blue line - Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Belov, and Philip Larsen are now out of the league - and inadequate goaltending that sunk them. Sure, the rookie head coach made his share of mistakes, but so, too, did the rookie GM. This season MacTavishs inability to address a glaring lack of depth at centre and reliance on career backups in net have hamstrung his head coach. Eakins also doesnt have anything close to a true top defence pair and is nightly being asked to make lemonade out of lemons. This head coach is failing, the standings make that indisputable…but not with a quality team. Hes failing with a significantly flawed lineup. MacTavish is less than two years into his tenure as GM, too early to say he is the problem. He needs to be given time to untangle the numerous knots he inherited, and those he has tightened. Soon, MacTavish is going to have to clearly demonstrate he has some creative solutions that extend beyond high first round picks. Whether it costs him his job or not, Eakins bares a lot of responsibility for what is taking place. He is at the helm of this titanically sinking ship and regardless of weaknesses in his lineup, he shouldnt be clumsily smashing into every iceberg in his path. Surely a coach should be able to light the right fires at least once in a 10-game stretch of futility. Shouldnt he be able to find the critical buttons to push and snap his team out of its funk? Yet lines have remained mostly the same. Outside of painfully overdue healthy scratches, there have been no dramatic measures taken, no cold buckets of water dumped on anyones head, no slap across the face to shock a dressing room out its slumber. Instead, theres talking... and lots of it. A stale power play, poor starts and lack of accountability for repeat offenders of the mind-numbing mistakes are all failures laying squarely at Eakins feet. So too is the length of this losing streak. In 2013, Ralph Krueger had his Oiler team positioned for a run at the playoffs. The Oilers were ninth in the Western Conference, one point out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline and had just trounced the Calgary Flames 8-2. Kruegers Oilers then went on to lose nine of their next 10 games and were finished. During that skid, lines stayed the same, systems remained in place, there was no cold bucket of water back then either. It revealed a lack of creativity and problem-solving under pressure from the first-year head coach. That stretch cost Ralph Krueger his job. Dallas Eakins has yet to prove that he is any more creative or any more capable of problem solving than Krueger was. But hes going to get more time to figure it out than the last guy did. Ryan Anderson Jersey . Rob Klinkhammer and Mikkel Boedker scored 63 seconds apart in the first period for the Coyotes, who handed the Kings their third straight loss and took over sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference. Mike Smith made 36 saves. Tyler Ennis Rockets Jersey .com) - The Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies have finalized their agreed-upon trade that sends former National League MVP Jimmy Rollins to the West Coast for a pair of minor league pitching prospects. https://www.rocketsrookiesshop.com/Customized/ . - Bryan Price sat down in the cushy chair. Russell Westbrook Jersey . Here at TSN.ca we will take a look back at the season by bringing together a panel of experts to help pick the best 50 players of the season. James Harden Rockets Jersey . As the schedule flipped from November to December, they would go on to drop five straight, falling six games below the .500 mark before a franchise-altering trade turned them into an unrecognizable team.The Canadian mens Olympic hockey team practiced once again on Tuesday ahead of their tournament opening matchup with Norway on Thursday. It was the teams second practice since arriving in Sochi and the line combinations used were the same as when the team took the ice for the first time on Monday. Here are Tuesdays practice lines with extra players in parenthesis: FORWARDS Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Jeff&nnbsp;CarterPatrick Sharp - Jonathan Toews - Rick NashPatrick Marleau - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey PerryJamie Benn - John Tavares - Patrice Bergeron(Martin St.dddddddddddd Louis, Matt Duchene) DEFENCE Duncan Keith - Shea WeberJay Bouwmeester - Alex PietrangeloMarc-Edouard Vlasic - Drew Doughty(P.K. Subban, Dan Hamhuis) ' ' '