They are one of the last NHL teams that play hockey the way it should be played, a team that tries to remain true to its impressive traditions rooted in the last great dynasty the NHL likely will ever see.

	Oilers like Steve Staios, right, and Alexei Semenov stick as close to the team's tradition as they do each other.

The Edmonton Oilers, despite the ravages of market forces and runaway salaries, can still skate, though not fast enough to stay ahead of the economic realities of the NHL in 2003.

"We do have some awful boring games in the NHL these days," said Ottawa Senators general manager John Muckler, who coached the Oilers to their fifth and last Stanley Cup in 1990 and was an assistant coach in the early days of the dynasty which started in 1984.

"When I was coaching, you knew it was going to be entertaining and they are still the same. Win or lose, you know they are going to be entertaining."

The Oilers remain true to the legacy of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe and Grant Fuhr.

Problem is they must try and do it now with Mike Comrie, Todd Marchant, Mike York, Anson Carter, Eric Brewer, Jason Smith and Tommy Salo.

One by one, they were forced to shed all those superstars which once made the NHL's most northern city the center of the hockey universe.

The Oilers' swagger might be long gone, along with its superstars, but there still remains a certain expectation.

"When you step in the Oilers dressing room today," said Lowe, now the Oilers general manager, "I think you get the same sense guys who played for the Montreal Canadiens used to have when they walked into their dressing room in the old Forum. You have to have the right balance of tradition and living in the present."

"I think you could call it 'the Oiler attitude,'" said Senators defenseman Wade Redden, who grew up in rural Saskatchewan, close to the Alberta border, and was an Oilers fan. "Their fans expect a certain type of game. A skating game. They still have the best ice in the league there."

That the Oilers play a game similar in ideology if not form should come as no surprise.

As general manager, Lowe now sets the franchise's course. As coach, Craig MacTavish, who also played with those dynasty teams, puts it into action. Charlie Huddy, a stay-at-home defenseman in the glory years, is an assistant coach.

Lowe has to constantly grapple with a limited payroll (about $30 million) and making the playoffs, rather than winning Stanley Cups, is now the realistic goal for the franchise.

Despite having almost 16,000 season tickets at the SkyReach Centre and a committed stable of 37 owners, the Oilers have to bend to the bottom line.

"It's funny, but when I was around that team (in the '80's), I never heard anybody talk about money," said Muckler. "All they talked about was winning the Stanley Cup. That was the most important part of their lives. I often heard Gretz say, 'You are not a superstar unless you are part of a Stanley Cup winning team.'"

Muckler estimated the payroll of those Stanley Cup winning teams might have been as low as $3 million, "give or take a million," he said.

"You had a guy like Charlie Huddy making maybe $60,000. Now he would be a $3 million player."

Despite the economic struggles, the Oilers remain entertaining and competitive.

	“	It's funny, but when I was around that team, I never heard anybody talk about money. All they talked about was winning the Stanley Cup. ”
		— Senators GM John Muckler, who served on the Oilers coaching staff during their dynasty

"Things have gone really well. I'm a guy who sees the glass half full and not half empty," said Lowe. "We were a little burned last year having 92 points and not making (the playoffs).

"We have a better hockey team this year. I think we can get in there and get a high seed. Fourth would be nice."

The Oilers have to get there first.

They go into tonight's game against the Ottawa Senators in seventh place in the Western Conference with 64 points, just three back of the fourth-place Detroit Red Wings and only five ahead of the ninth-place Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers are young -- the second-youngest team in the league -- and with that youth comes inconsistency.

The Oilers are where they are right now thanks in large part to a 12-game stretch in late November and early December in which they lost just once. They followed that up with a nine-game run in which they won only once. It doesn't get much more inconsistent than that.

"We always get to the threshold of really distancing ourselves and then we step back," said MacTavish. "We're a team that can't play poorly and win. There are some teams in the league that can do that, but we're not one of them. We have to play well if we're going to win. We don't get anything for nothing. We have to work for every point we get. If the work ethic falls off, we very seldom get any points."

It's not going to get any easier over the next little while.

The Oilers, who have had their share of injuries this season, lost Smith and winger Ryan Smyth, both with shoulder injuries, in their 5-4 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Tuesday night. But they also survived losing Comrie and Smyth for long stretches earlier this year thanks to great minutes put in by a callup like forward Fernando Pisani and the ability of a player like center Todd Marchant to elevate his game from defensive forward to front-line center.

The development of defensemen Steve Staios and Alexei Semenov has also been a pleasant bonus and the emergence of Ales Pisa, a callup from their farm team in Hamilton of the American Hockey League, has given them another NHL-calibre player on the blue line. Forwards Jason Chimera and Shawn Horcoff also have stepped up when needed.

The Oilers have proved they can pick up the slack.

"Especially in the short term," said forward Ethan Moreau. "We've proved, when we lost good players with Mike and Smytty out at the same time, we continued to win and to get points. It shouldn't be any different now."

It's all left Lowe feeling good.

"I think we can get in (the playoffs) and get a home seed," he said, "and you know when the Oilers get in the playoffs, good things happen."

That's another Oiler tradition they would like to see continue.

Chris Stevenson covers the NHL for the Ottawa Sun and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.