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The game winning shot by Casey Cizikas #53 of the New York Islanders eludes Viktor Fasth #35 of the Edmonton Oilers at 15:23 of the third period at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on February 10, 2015 in Uniondale, New York.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Tanking – the act of deliberately losing games to enhance one's draft position – has been much discussed in the NHL this season, especially as it relates to the Edmonton Oilers and the Buffalo Sabres, two teams out of playoff contention early.

Teams have known for a long time that not one, but two potential generational talents – Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel – are available in the 2015 NHL entry draft, which raises the stakes considerably. But rarely does a discussion of tanking follow up with an explanation of how you might actually do it.

How do you persuade a group of 20 highly motivated athletes and a coaching staff fighting for job security to lose games?

As a theoretical possibility, it's an enticing and seductive idea.

But as a practical matter, it's a far more difficult strategy to implement than you might think. Realistically, the two most reliable ways of tanking a season are both passive rather than active strategies.

One is for a team not to fire a coach, when it's clear his message is not getting through. The other is for a team to not make a change in goal, when it's clear the position players have lost confidence in their netminder and it's affecting their play.

Goaltending is to hockey what starting pitching is to baseball. But in hockey, if you have the equivalent of a Cy Young Award winner, you can start him up to 75 per cent of the time. The opposite is also true: If you have a leak in goal and don't fix it, you're guaranteeing you'll lose more than your share of games.

As for the man behind the bench, at different times in a team's evolution, it becomes clear the players just stop playing for a coach. When that happens, they're just waiting for the other shoe to drop – and during that period of breathless anticipation, the losses tend to mount.

When the Oilers finally fired Dallas Eakins, they they'd won just one out of 16 games – and even though general manager Craig MacTavish didn't want to make a change behind the bench, his hand was effectively forced.

If the Oilers had done nothing – if they had clearly identified a disconnection between the players and the coaching staff and didn't move to remedy it – then they could clearly be accused of tanking. But they made the change and under Todd Nelson, with largely the same personnel, they are playing better.

Even the step that some teams take in the second half of a lost season – promoting young players so they can gain valuable experience – can actually backfire as a tanking strategy. Young, hungry players, even if they're out of their depth, can find ways of winning against all odds because they have their foot in the door and intend to make the most of the opportunity.

In some ways, it's easier to lose going the other way – assemble a collection of satisfied veterans, on guaranteed long-term contracts.

The Buffalo Sabres, on the heels of two trades this week that saw them strip the franchise of goaltender Jhonas Enroth, defenceman Tyler Myers and forward Drew Stafford, seem to be following the tanking strategy to a well-conceived T.

Just before Christmas, when the Sabres unexpectedly won a bunch of games, they did so largely because of Enroth. His exile to Dallas, for a goaltender who is statistically one of the worst in the NHL this season, guarantees that accident won't happen again. And what better way to prepare for the arrival of McDavid or Eichel than having his future linemate, Evander Kane, in the organization, but unable to play until next season, as he recovers from major shoulder surgery?

The Oilers, Buffalo's main competition, at the bottom of the NHL standings, are taking a far different approach, and showing actual integrity about the competition. The nerve!

They've changed coaches and goaltenders repeatedly – maybe too often. It must frustrate Oilers management that one of their discards, Devan Dubnyk, a goalie in whom they invested eight years of patience and development, is one of the reigning players of the week and the main reason the Minnesota Wild have played themselves back into playoff contention.

Dubnyk got his career back on the rails earlier this season, working with goaltender coach Sean Burke of the Arizona Coyotes. The fact that Arizona was prepared to trade Dubnyk to Minnesota when he was clearly outplaying starter Mike Smith could be seen as the Coyotes' attempt to improve their odds to draft McDavid.

Like Buffalo, the Coyotes plan to strip themselves of their most marketable warm bodies between now and the March 2 trade deadline.

The most interesting development to monitor on the tanking front is just how brazen teams might get to sink further and faster to the bottom in the weeks ahead. The NHL tweaked the draft lottery this year to discourage tanking and will amend it further next year. But by then, it will too late. This year's prizes, McDavid and Eichel, will already be on their merry way down the path of their respective pro careers.

Normally, the loss of a player such as the Oilers' Taylor Hall for four to six weeks because of an ankle injury would be catastrophic in the midst of a playoff battle. With the Oilers' season beyond salvage, it can now be quietly viewed as a blessing in disguise. Taylor, take all the time you need. Just get healthy by fall.

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