NHL, scapegoats and personal responsibility.

The term "Scapegoat " is a Hebrew word, found in Leviticus, that was introduced into English via the old testament. It literally means a Goat that has been randomly chosen by the tribe to be sent out into the desert and fed to a Demon (Azazel). This goat's completely innocent and random sacrifice provides forgiveness to the other members of the tribe, an act that will sound very familiar to Christians world wide.

I have never been comfortable with randomly choosing innocents to blame for the actions of larger groups. There are very well known historical incidents that show that scapegoating is not an effective way to resolve a problem, and, lets be frank, it is not very good for the scapegoat. 

But I have been watching Oiler fans do this for years. We pick someone that we feel is not working as hard as they should be or is having a down streak, or was silly enough to say what they really felt, or he is just a nice guy so he is an easy target or, or, or... 

And to make matters worse, we live in a society where no one is ever responsible for their own actions. Any incident no mater how small is always blamed on a third party. Responsibility is rarely accepted by those responsible. 

So, historically, Edmontonians pick our scapegoat and run them out of town. We have done this to so many players that we are renown around the NHL for it. 

But contrary to what we think might happen, when we pick a scapegoat and feed it to the Demons, the Hockey Gods don't forgive us our sins and send us great players in honour of the sacrifice. In fact, the actual Hockey gods, the ones paid millions of dollars to win games, spread the word about the local fans and, the next thing you know, Hockey gods simply will not play here.  

So we have to build the team through the draft and by trading third and forth line players for other third and forth line players or by picking up players at the ends of their careers and hoping for miracles. So talented men like Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish, who have been at times brilliant and at times fallible are forced to play with half a deck. Other teams build by the draft or by trades. We build by the draft. 

And building by the draft takes a long time. Thank God we are in last place. Building from the draft at the top would be a nightmare. 

What is happening right now isn't one hundred percent Kevin Lowe's fault - on ice or off. Part of it is our history, part of it is distractions, but much of the blame is ours, for the pressure placed on kids, their fear of retribution and our history of turning on players. And personal responsibility is difficult. 

And I don't have an answer, just a question. When you feed Kevin Lowe to Azazel, what environment are you leaving for the next guy....