Following last night’s 2-0 loss to the Rangers, the Oilers fired coach Dallas Eakins. His team only registered 16 shots in a shutout defeat at home. In his second year behind the bench, Eakins’ team ranks dead last in the NHL with a miserable 7-19-5 record in 31 games. They are tied with Carolina in points (19) but have played two more games.

Edmonton has lost four in a row and 15 of 16. Their only win came on Dec. 7 when they defeated San Jose 2-1 to stop an 11-game losing streak. Prior to that, their last victory came at MSG when they beat the Rangers 3-1 highlighted by Benoit Pouliot’s goal and assist. He missed his 11th consecutive game yesterday due to a broken foot sustained while blocking a shot.

Eakins was hired by the Oilers in the summer of 2013. He came over from coaching the Maple Leafs AHL affiliate the Toronto Marlies and was expected to restore order. Instead, he finishes 36-63-14 in parts of two seasons. In his first season, the Oilers went 29-44-9 to finish with the third worst record. That earned them the third overall pick where they selected center Leon Draisaitl. He’s played in all 31 games and has two goals and five assists.

Since making a run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, Edmonton has missed the playoffs eight straight years. En route to a ninth consecutive miss, general manager Craig MacTavish felt it was time to make a change. He’ll temporarily take over before Todd Nelson is promoted to interim coach from AHL affiliate Oklahoma City.

”I’m not here to absolve myself of accountability for the situation that we’re in,” MacTavish told reporters.

”I had no real good reason to do this outside of performance,” he said. ”That’s the bottom line that we’re all judged by, is the performance level of the hockey club and certainly the record. I would point to those things solely as the reasons for this change.”

The change comes over a week after MacTavish held a press conference in which he didn’t take responsibility for this mess. He referenced former GM Steve Tambellini. I still can’t get over this gem.

 “I’ve been on the job for 18 months. So you want to lop me in … I coached the team for a long time, but I have nothing to do with management. So don’t lop me into a situation of power and influence in the management level of this organization.”

It’s amazing that MacTavish actually said that when he’s been part of the organization for a long time including as a coach. When you have him and Kevin Lowe still running the operation, it’s no wonder they’re such a laughingstock. What is Mark Messier’s role? We still don’t know. I can only imagine how embarrassed he must feel being part of this mess.

It doesn’t help that former 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov has struggled. After a good rookie year posting 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points in 48 games, he’s 15-17-32 with a minus-46 rating in 94 games since. However, his 63 total points rank second best among the 2012 class trailing Canadiens’ Alex Galchenyuk (3rd overall), who has 76 in 144 games. With other players such as Calder front runner Filip Forsberg, Frederik Andersen, Jacob Trouba, Olli Maatta, Hampus Lindholm, Morgan Reilly, Damon Severson, Tomas Hertl, Zemgus Girgensons and Tanner Pearson showing improvement, it reflects poorly on Yakupov, who has gotten worse under the Oilers.

At least Edmonton boasts studs Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Along with Jordan Eberle, they comprise the top line. The problem is they need more consistency from Yakupov and lots of help defensively and in goal. Justin Schultz has been a disaster defensively. If his offense made up for it, it wouldn’t be that bad. Not unlike Matt Gilroy, Schultz hasn’t distinguished himself. In his third year, he’s totaled 21 goals and 50 assists with a dreadful minus-49 rating.

The Oilers brought in ex-Devil Mark Fayne. On a poor team, he’s only minus-three. Captain Andrew Ference is minus-eight. Jeff Petry is a team worst minus-17. Edmonton also traded for Nikita Nikitin from Columbus and gave him $9 million over two years. He has two goals and three assists with a minus-six in 22 games. Former first round pick Oscar Klefbom has an assist in 10 games. The future centers around 2013 first rounder Darnell Nurse, who was sent back to Sault Ste. Marie where he has 19 points (6-13-19) and 34 penalty minutes in 19 games.

As for goaltending, neither Ben Scrivens or Viktor Fasth have established themselves. Each has a sub-3.00 GAA and are below .900 save percentage. That is a joke. No roster can compete without a legit number one. That falls on management. The operation needs a giant overhaul. It won’t happen. How much will they improve under a new coach? They’ve been rebuilding forever. The only positive is that they’re virtually guaranteed a chance at either Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel.