Oilers January '11 Review

Well it's a New Year full of hope and promise for the young Oilers but sadly they started the New Year in much the same form as they ended it.
The first month of the year brought a huge snow fall for the city of edmonton and the Oilers have acting they got buried in it much the city has. It was 8 losses and 3 wins for the Oil in January but mind there is hope as most games were lost by 1 goal except for an embarrassing performance against the Canucks.
Injuries have played a role, Eberle and Hemsky have been out for most of the month but I say the loss of Eberle was much harder on the team than the loss of Hemsky. 
It is a different team with Hemsky in the line up and it is not a good different.  With Hemsky being a veteran and a leader on this team he brings a passiveness to their play, a pass first shoot maybe later attitude. This team needs more of the agressive , willingness to take the game over play by the likes displayed by T. Hall and the other kids of the future, not the pass first-try for the highlite goal instead of a good solid garbage goal that Hemsky brings. Yes he has talent but he is the poster boy of potential unrealized just as Dustin penner's inconsistent play has done for him. Both players need to be traded and the sooner the better. I truely believe most of the fans high opinion of Hemsky is a misplaced desire, dream that he is guy to take us to the promise land, well he isn't and it's time to move on and continue the rebuild, starting with a new, hard to play against, aggressive attitude. Hemsky and Penner do not bring that to the team, they bring passive play.


Here's the Grades for the Oilers January '11;

SPECIAL TEAMS "F" - Well what can you say. 0 - 50 on the PP WTF!? The Oilers PP has been about as effective as the city of Edmonton snow clearing effort, both a complete failures. The Oilers have left as many chances to win a games as the city has left 4 foot snow windrows. Any increase in productivity on special teams would translate into a lot more wins, watch out when it happens


ROOKIES "C+" - Still showing promise and responsible for most of the good play. I really like how Omark follows up his shot to the net and doesn't peel off. Peckham and Petry show promise on defense along with solid play by MPS. A lot to look forward to.

OFFENSE "C-" - Get ugly, crash the net, get aggressive and shoot the puck!!! I have to say they have been doing this more but again it seems to disappear when Hemsky is in the line up. Basics boys! ugly goals count the same as pretty ones.

DEFENSE "C-" - Getting better, getting tougher to play against and this can be seen by a change in us out shooting the opposition.

GOALTENDING "C"   The defence is doing the job by allowing fewer shot but unfortunately Khabbi has been struggling and facing 12 straight losses. many are putting the blame on him alone but that is unrealistic. The defence and lack of offence is just as much to blame. many of the games he lost were close and the only reason they where close was due to his play. But, in saying that Dubnyk is showing he is our future #1. The Oilers need to play him more and give him the experience he needs.

COACHES "C+"  Definite improvement despite the record, we are getting more shots and allowing less. Most of the games were 1 goal losses, the coaching staff needs to get this team to develop that killer instinct and put teams away. Finally as mentioned above the coaching staff needs to split the games evenly between goalies, play Dubnyk more!

OILERS AS WHOLE  "C"  More frustrating nights of watching them play and learn ahead but there are signs of what's to come. Potential, potential we just need it realized.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

A Copper Moon in a dark Navy sky and a Oilers Christmas wish..

Last night in Edmonton we had a once in a multi generation experience, a Lunar Eclipse on the winter solstice! It has been some 373 years since the last and will be 400 years to the next.
When I looked up into that dark midnight sky with a tint of dark navy canvas the full moon slowly became a surreal sight while it disappeared behind the planet. It was covered in a orange-copper glow against the navy canvas of a cold December 20 night on the first day on winter 2010.

Could this be a sign? A first for ever event in the history of NHL were a #1 draft pick leads his team into the playoffs and makes it to the cup final?
Or is it just a dream of a loyal Oiler fan?
I don't know maybe it's a bit of both or the musing from someone who was up to late and had a wee bit too much too much to drink but either way it makes for an exciting bunch of hockey after the Christmas break.

Perhaps the root cause of this pondering is all the recent talk from coach Renney and fellow Oilers fans on the prospect of the recent decent Oilers play leading to a play off birth. What would be best? Finish low and get another top draft pick or  squeak  into the playoffs only to be tossed in the first round?
In order for the Oilers to make it into the playoffs they will need a bit of luck and continued hard work with the help of a trade or. The goals for would need to be at an average of 3.72 per game and power play at 20% plus.
My Christmas wish for the team is to continue to grow, learn and win. If they win enough make into the playoffs, then go far or don't make it all and if the later then just miss the playoffs, get in the draft lottery and continue the rebuild.
I just hope the Oilers continue to entertain and show the promise of the future this team has.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!!

The Trouble With Winning

Well there is some sense of panic by some when it comes to the Oilers 2 game skid but then what did you any reasonable Oiler fan expect?
Yes we had a very nice and surprising winning streak going but one has to be honest and understand that was not the way it will be this year. Yes the players and coaching staff want to win, play to win and expect to win every game as they should. If they didn't play that way there would be huge issues but too the fans we expect to see an effort, growth this year sprinkled with some disappointments and surprises along the way. The recent winning streak is just one of the pleasant surprises this but will not be the normal this year.
The problems of this recent winning streak were reflected  in the last win against tampa were the Oilers generated a whopping 1 shot in the third and even more apparent with the next two losses against vancouver and then Toronto.
The team got to too confident, too cocky and fell in that crazy habit of many past Oiler teams of "why shoot when I can pass". It is like they forget what got them the wins, hard work, solid basic play, going to the net and taking the shot! The last couple of games it is like they were more concerned about making the pretty TSN HON play that actually sticking to the basics and just shooting the puck and crashing the net.
The next games will be a real test of the coaching staff and the players themselves. Can they get out of this slump and be competitive again? Will we see solid efforts again? will they get back to the basics of pressure in all zones, shooting the puck and crashing the net? We can only hope that they learn from this past winning streak and shot drought of the past few games.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

Oilers November Review

Yes it is a few days late but here is my Oilers review of November.
It started of good with two home games we should have won against Vancouver and then Detroit but as usual we came out slow, fell behind and just couldn't catch up. Also we were haunted by an ex-oiler situation what with Torres getting a hat trick with 2/3 three goals of the fluky kind. Our defensive play was and still is lacking-to be kind.

Then came our annual November rodeo road trip. It started with a another surprising road win in Chicago but went to crap in a big hurry after that. We got our asses handed to us by Carolina, Detroit. Put in an effort in Jersey only to get completely humiliated by the Rangers and a bonus experience from NHL's lead moron Avery.


 We then came home where the Hawks got some revenge on us from the previous losses. We showed some signs of being a team with decent games against the 'yotes, a win in Duck country only to get schooled in Phoenix and a horrible display by the Oilers as a whole.

This appears to have been a turning point. Coach Renney told it like it was and called out the team which they deserved. What I liked best was how he said there was no respect for the jersey, the history the team they were playing for. Spot on Tom!

We appeared to be a different team after that, a good win against Colorado, solid effort in a loss against the Sharks. The month ended on the road with a win in Ottawa which carried over to two more wins in Montreal and Toronto, the start of our first four game win streak in a very long time.

My grades of the team;

Overall - C+  A tough month but as this year is all about growth, rebuild we seemed to have learned from our losses, mistakes and are playing like we belong. I truly believe we will look back at this month as a key month in the growth of the new Oilers.

Defence - D  Still looking bad and lost at times, hard times getting the puck out of our end. But some good hope there, Peckham is developing nicely, Gilbert is getting his game back and Whitney has become our leading point getter, no goals but lots of assists.

Offense - B   Better and better. My most pleasant surprise is Jones. Love this kid. Playing hard, getting big goals and causing trouble for other teams. Hall has got his confidence and wholly crap this kid is amazing. Eberle and MPS have cooled off but playing a key role in the exciting hockey the Oil are playing now, the future is looking great!

Goal - B-  Solid work by Khabbi who unfortunately got hurt. Management finally made a decision on the goalies, Dubnyk is our back up and I feel is the right choice. Gerber came up in relief of the injured Khabbi and did himself proud.

Coaching & Management - B  Had concerns about Renney but seems to have the team going in the right direction, playing well and learning from mistakes and growing as a team. Management finally made a decision on our goalie treble, finally down to 2 and the right two.

Oiler Fans - D  Have been very disappointed with this new group of bandwagon jumping, know it all so called Oiler fans. Some of the comments I have read in various media have been just disgusting, ripping apart everything Oiler. What the hell did these clowns expect? The Oilers to be a contender this year? If that is the case your as dumb as a puck! fuck off and go be a Canuck fan as we don't need your type! This and next year is all about re-building, it is going to be frustrating, hard to watch at times but will also have signs of hope for the future. If building a a contender was as easy as some of your clowns suggest why aren't you running a team in the NHL? Tape up your broken bandwagon  broken ankles
and put on the fish jersey from the west coast!

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

Oilers October Review

Well the first month of the new Edmonton Oilers is complete and it has been quite a first month of the new look Oilers. Was it good, bad, ugly? well in my view is has been two out of the three.
The 2010-11 NHL season got off with a bang for the Oilers with an incredible 4-0 opening night win over provincial rivals Calgary Flames. They then followed that up with a 3-2 win over Florida.
The fans were happy, some way too happy and thus started the unrealistic expectations of a playoff season. So wrong that was on many levels. They forgot the meaning of season of rebuild that the Oilers are presently in and started to sound like Canuck fans, completely out of touch. On que the Oilers appeared to sense this raising voice of unrealistic expectations and promptly went on a 6 game losing streak which was far more of a realistic result for the young team.
The low point of this skid was the home game against the Sharks, to say it bluntly we got our asses handed to us, got pushed around like boys playing against men with very little push back by the Oilers. That game was probably the best thing to happen to this team, a good ass kicking appeared to have woke them up as it was a different team the next two games. In the next game against the Flames the Oil were down 4-1 late in the second, then a big goal by Eberle late in the 2nd. The oilers came out with determination in the third, tied the but failed to close the deal in OT or the SO but gained a lot of confidence in the process. Two nights later in Columbus a much better effort throughout the game but with the same result, a SO loss. The highlite of the game was Hall finally getting his first goal, a great hard working, go to the net defection goal. Not highlite reel goal material but the monkey was lifted from his back.
But in saying that there was much for the Oiler faithful to be happy about in those 6 loses, the last two losses being in shot outs. There was many signs of great things to come from the new kids, such promise, such hope for the future. This year is a learning process for the young Oilers and as with life the Oilers learnt more from those losses than they did from those first two wins.
Then came the last game of October against the Stanley Cup champs, the Chicago Blackhawks on the second night of back to back road games. What a start for the Oilers, they came out with speed and confidence which lead to Hall getting his second goal to start the scoring. At the end of the game the came away with a 7-4 win with all 4 lines contributing, key players getting thier first goal of the year and others having multiple point night. What a great way to end the month, 3 games in a week where they showed heart, determination and played hard.
The month of October and the first 9 games also showed a few problems with the Oilers that will have to be addressed soon. Mainly the issue seems to be on defence where many times they appeared very disorganized, out of position and just a lot of bad give aways. I see this improving as they get used to the new system of Coach Renney and to each other.
Below is my review of some different parts of the Oiler machine;

Oiler Management

• PLUS - no humiliating bad PR episodes like we had with Souray in September. re: training camp and whom they send down to the AHL to play on the Caps farm team in Hersey, PA. Another PLUS for management was at the time of this post they put JDD on waivers, which he promptly cleared and s was assigned to OKC. Finally the Oilers have only 2 goalies which opens a spot on the rooster for an defenseman or forward. I also agree that they kept the guy as back up, Dubnyk shows great promise as the Oiler goalie of the future.

Coaching Staff

• EVEN - Showing great patience with the kids and giving them the opportunity to learn in the real world of the NHL. The special team coaching needs a lot of work and has been the biggest issue facing this team so far. Perhaps it is the new systems, the lack of skill on defence or both but it clearly reflects on the coaching staff.

Oiler Veterans

• EVEN - Some veterans have been good, some have not. Hemsky, Horcoff, Smid, Whitney and now old timer  Gagne have been solid. Horcoff has shown good leadership as the new Oiler captain but I would to see him be a bit more aggressive in leading this team on and off the ice. Smid and Whitney have been good on defence, playing a bit mean and hard but still suffering from some bad give aways and poor positional play, primarily on the PK. Hemsky has been quietly scoring and Gagne as well setting up some great scoring chances. Cogs, Burle deserve an honourable mention, they have been playing hard, coming close on many occasions while playing with Hall and MPS. On the minus side is Penner, Gilbert and Stortini as well as a couple of the new guys in town (Jones, Foster, Fraser, Vandemeer) I give a pass to the new guys, new city, new system and seem to be coming around but Penner on most nights seems to be skating in sand, slow, not aggressive and now where near to how he was playing last year. Gilbert has been guilty of many bad give aways and bad positional play which have led to goals. Zack has also not been playing with his solid style that we saw the past couple of years but does appear to be coming around.

Oiler Rookies - "The Kids"

• PLUS PLUS - Well what can you say about the kids but holy crap are they good! First you have Eberle with that amazing first goal in the first game and then ending up as the NHL rookie point leader for October. He plays hard every night, gets a chance our two every game, plays smart without the puck as well. MPS has been solid as well with 2goals and 4 assists. On defence we have Peckham who has been playing very hard, shows no fear and will be a feared defenceman as he learns the game. Them we have our #1 pick, Taylor Hall. Much has been writing and said about him, much of it to me was completely unrealistic expectations and completely out of touch comments like sending him back to Windsor, insane, crazy thoughts. He finally shut up his critics by scoring in Columbus and then again in Chicago. But more important to me is and was his play before he scored. In the 4-2 loss at home to the Wild he blew many people away. He had many great rushes, going around Wild veterans like they were standing still. Hall has been aggressive on the puck, creating many chances for his linemates and has played well without the puck. There has been much made by some media types of Horcoff so called calling out Hall for taking long shifts. Just garbage to me and if that is all you got then shut up as it is nothing. What I see there is exactly what this team desperately needed, a player that wants to win every night, every shift and is willing to do what it takes. You can see as he gets older and better he will become one of those rare players that will grab the team by the short hairs and lead them by just going out and getting the job done, he will be the face and leader of the Oilers soon and keeping him up with the team is the only logical thing to do. The only thing left I can say about the Oilers rookies is, watch out NHL! we are going to blow you away before you know it!

Oiler Goaltending

• PLUS - 8 of the first 9 games have been played by a healthy and determined Khabibulan and he was key to our first two wins and despite the 6 losses was solid in net. In those losses he didn't get much help from the defence or rest of the team. he faced way too many shots every night and didn't get much assistance in tight from the defence. I get a sense he wants to show the Oiler faithful he is better than what happened in Phoenix and so far he has. He has been playing so well I would like to buy him a beer! Dubnyk has played one game and that was in Columbus. In that game he showed why he was picked by Oiler management as the main back up and it is the right choice. He has potential and I am confident he will soon be our #1 goalie.

Team Oilers

• PLUS - I give the team a whole a plus ranking. We once again see the effort that is the trade mark of Oiler hockey and we now see the promise of the future with the "kids" and the new attitude. As I said before it will be more down than up this year but it will be one of the most exciting and entertaining years of Oiler hockey in a long time as we have the hope and promise of a very exciting future.

NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!

Hockey Night In Oman

As some of you may know I work over in Oman on a rotation basis which makes keeping up with Oiler news a bit tough. Oman is a wonderful place, the people, the scenery and the nice, very hot sun but as you would expect hockey is not very big there. Thankfully we have satellite TV in our camp and to my surprise they broadcast hockey, well sometimes they do. I describe Oman to my friends as the Canada of the gulf as the people are Canada nice  and once I saw hockey on TV the name stuck. Mostly they are US based teams as the networks are fox sports(versus) and ESPN America but it is hockey! The times are tough though, live games are on around 1 or 2 in the morning but sometimes they repeat the game in the evening so I do get my Hockey Night in Oman.
I may watch the games alone in my room and at weird hours but I do get the opportunity to discuss game results with my new hockey pals who I get to see a few times a week when I am out in the field. Meet my new hockey pal : Maggie! Yes Maggie, don't ask me why Maggie but first time I saw her she just looked like a Maggie and the rest as they say is history. Now don't tell Mrs Oil, wouldn't her to get the wrong idea and same goes for you guys! She visits me regularly, is friendly and yes agrees that Hall needs to stay in the bigs and the oilers are a team to watch, she just gets it, that's more than I can say about some so called hockey experts, media and bloggers alike that think otherwise.


We nearly had a falling out though, one day when she paid me a visit she decided she wanted to show her Oiler fan dedication by trying to eat the Oiler puck I proudly fly on the antenna of my work truck.   We had a long discussion that eating Oiler gear is not the way to show your loyalty to the team, one wears it proudly - not eat it. We shared some water and fruit then I believe we came to an understanding. We will see when I get back there. I am trying to think of what I could take down for her to wear, to show her Oiler pride as she tracks threw the Oman desert but haven't decided on anything yet, any ideas?

So as the sun sets in Oman 

and I turn on the TV with the hope of watching a hockey game and greater hopes that maybe one day I will see an Oiler game in Oman I want to thank all the fellow Oiler fans who keep their blogs (listed to the right on my page) up to date with all the latest Oiler news, rumours, game notes. It is almost as good as being home - almost! Without the beer, snacks and snow & cold.

Stay tuned for my October Oiler review which I will have posted early November. I have had the opportunity to observe the start of the season from a distance and by being at home for the the last few games of October, saw two at home (Wild & Sharks) and the remaining on TV. So far I have to say Hall just blew me away in that Wild game, wow! things to look forward to or what. For a full recap of my views of month 1 (October Review) of the new Oiler era please remember to come back early November.

"NOW DROP THE PUCK ALREADY!"        

                                                                                                                                                              

Bliss or Bust? Oiler’s 2010/11 Pundication

Well it's that time of year again, its hockey time and excitement is high in Edmonton for the "new" Edmonton Oilers! A very exciting Young Stars tourney is complete, season tickets have been sent out, and training camp has started with many new faces and missing a few others.

I am posting this early as with most of us work gets in the way and I will be out of town for the start of the season and not return until game 3 at home. Mrs. Oil will be enjoying our seats at Rexall for opening night when we start the season tied for first overall. I will have to keep up to date on the Oilers by the internet and following the great blogs listed on my site.

There have been many changes since the end of last year; Souray is paying the price for his selfish play and arrogant whiny rant, looks good on him. Khabibulin is here, sober and apparently with a healthy back and the attitude to get back on track. Some of the problem players are gone and of course what I feel is the most exciting group of rookies, prospects in the NHL. Despite the huge disappointments of the past few years one has to hand it to the Oiler scouting staff as they have assembled an amazing group of kids, the future is bright what with our first ever #1 Taylor Hall, dynamic Jordan Eberle, extremely talented Magnus Paajarvi , Linus Omark and pleasant surprise in Tyler Pitlick. Some the second and third year guys still trying to break into the Oiler fulltime lineup are going some great pressure from these "kids" The same is true with the goalie position. Khabibulin will in all likelihood be the #1 goalie but as for backup it looks like it may well be Gerber but do not count out Jeff Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk with a very impressive Olivier Roy who sent a message at the young stars tourney. Personally I feel Dubnyk is our goalie of the future. He reminds me of the good aspects of the much overrated Loungo of the much hated, over hyped and arrogant team in the NHL, the Canucks.

There have also been some very good pick-ups by Tambellini and company at the trade deadline and during the summer. Ryan Whitney fits into the oiler culture very well and I expect good things from him as well with Kurtis Foster and James Vandermeer who we got in the summer. Then we have the fan favs, Gagne, Cogs, Penner, Hemsky, Gilbert and a personal favorite and under rated Smid.

So what will the 2010/11 Oiler season be? It will be mostly bliss! I fully expect to have one of the most enjoyable, fun seasons in a long time here in Oil Country! The reasons are as follows;

1. The NEW attitude of the team. No more chasing dreams and the "one" magical free agent. I really like this "build the team from within" attitude and if you don't want to play here get lost re: Souray.
   
2. The promise of a new team attitude which I feel is just as important to be a winning club as is talent. If the guys on the ice do not play for each other and put the team first you will go nowhere.
   
3. I also feel with a new positive team first attitude we should much less injuries than the incredible amount we had the past few years. I honestly believe that a major cause of those injuries the crap attitude the team had the past few years and NOT the past training staff. When you are frustrated, not playing for the team being selfish your head is not in the game and you open yourself up to injuries.
   
4. No false and over the top expectations that was very prevalent here after the magical '06 Stanley Cup run by not only the fans and media but also by the Oiler organization itself. Most in Oiler country doesn't have any expectations of us even making the playoffs, which is great!
   
5. The opportunities to watch our young base of Oilers grow and develop and our veterans knowing that there is a group of very talented young very eager to bump our out of the lineup. Internal competition is a great motivator for all concerned! I remember back in the glory years, players from all over wanted to be part of the Oilers, many tried and few were successful of that goal. That is what we are getting back to.
   

So that's it's in my view, it will be a great, fun year to be an Oiler fan! I think we will surprise a lot of people by being better than most think regardless of where we finish but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we do squeak into the playoffs, I doubt it but will not be surprised.

My advice to Oiler fans all other is to sit back and enjoy, don't get too high after a few wins and don't get too low when we are losing. How much you enjoy or get frustrated during this year is entirely up to you and your attitude. If you focus on a false dream that we are a contender you will be disappointed, in a few years maybe but not just yet. Enjoy the development of our new stars, support them when they are down and not only when up. Don't over analyze things, if it was that easy to put together a winning team we would all be doing it for a living. Sit back, relax enjoy the re-birth of the Oilers- the good, bad and ugly of this new Oiler era and enjoy the best game in the land – NHL Hockey; in the best hockey town in the world-Edmonton!

Now, drop the puck already!

Oiler Oops Again

As you read my Oiler blog you will notice I will be writing about the emotion, nuances, the highs and lows of being a Oiler fan. The untangibles, the feeling in your gut when we win, lose and what it means to be an Oiler fan. If you came to this Oiler blog for stats, numbers and technical breakdown of the Oilers, well this is not where you want to be. There are many sites to visit that will give you all the stats you desire, see some of the sites I have listed. If you want a good read on what I believe the average die hard Oiler fan feels and my personal insight into the good, bad and ugly going on of the Oilers I hope this will be your first choice. In my blog history you can read where I have shared my opinion on Hall wearing Kevin Lowe’s # 4 and I hope to post my thoughts on the upcoming season in the next couple of days.
As a fan from the beginning I could write hundreds of pages on Oiler history but that is not what this blog is about, I hope this to be a personal chronicle of a new era in Oiler history and all the hope, promise and disappointment it will surely deliver.
I have been an Oiler fan since they were called the ALBERTA OILER HOCKEY CLUB in the WHA and have an embrodered patch to prove it. I still remember when at a WHA Oiler Playoff game when the fans were chanting “Gretsky, we want Gretsky” and me wondering what the hell are they calling for? I Have seen the very incredible times and the very bad times. On the incredible side I remember Peter Puck on a post game Hockey Night in Canada (the original HNIC hotstove) when the Oilers tied the Leafs and the Toronto media was just disgusted by it. Well Peter Puck said on TV that he guaranteed the cup would be in Edmonton within 5 years, well needless to say he got laughed off the set by the still very arrogant Toronto media – we all know he was right. On the bad side I have been threw the past few years after the ’06 run and the many lean years before but what stands out for me was when we were playing LA in a playoff game back in the “boys on the bus years”. Well we were leading 4-0 going into the 3rd period, someone in the bar yelled I bet $300 the Oilers lose, I took that bet and yes I lost $300 bucks.

Ok, to the present and I just have to chime in on this Souray debacle! It pisses me off to no end. Just when a guy thinks the Oilers have started a new chapter of positive press and energy this garbage comes up! It reeks of Mickey Mouse, bush league bullshit, what? - are the Oiler management that incompetent they could not have gotten this all settled with Souray before so as to not have such an embarrassing situation? After what really appeared to be the start of great things for the Oilers on the winds of change this spring and summer with some excellent signings, prospect of a new arena, fan excitement of the new prospects, a first ever #1 draft pick and some incredibly talented rookies coming to camp we go back to square one on the credibility scale. How in the hell did this happen! That is the questions that Steve Tambellini has to answer.

Yes Steve Tambellini and the Oiler management has the right to sit whomever they want, I do not question that and I support it. I like many other Oiler fans am sick & tired of all the recent Oiler and city of Edmonton bashing by many media types jealous of our previous success and by spoiled princess players who don’t even have the class to honor signed contracts. It is a huge distraction for all concerned and fully support what the mighty Quinn said last year – “if you don’t want to be here then get the hell out” to paraphrase.

It is time to bring back the pride and honor of being an Oiler! One way is by no longer chasing the white whales like the Oiler’s have done in the recent past what with Heatly, Hossa and such.
That just added to the bad press the Oiler’s got, yes some deserved but most was by lazy reporters that can only make a name for themselves by running cheapshot stories. I understand why the white whales were chased, after the ’06 run the pressure was huge to get back there and admit or not we all wanted it so very bad. But times have changed and the attitude of the Oilers has changed thanks mainly to the new ownership of Daryl Katz. He was here in Edmonton from the beginning and remembers what it was like and what it meant to the players to be an Oiler, everyone in the NHL wanted to be an Oiler and many failed at trying to be one.

Anyway back the Souray soap opera. Yes he burnt bridges when he went on his self-serving rant last year and yes I agree with the feeling he should get the hell out if you don’t want to be an Oiler!
Now he is or was skating with the team, good on him but I am sure there is some self serving motivation for his doing besides the requirement of his contract to show up ready for training camp.

What I do not understand is how was allowed to be there in the first place. Steve Tambellini looks like a total fool when his says we told him last week not to show up but then Souray’s agent we were not told until a day or so ago and we asked for it to be in writing before we acted on it which  by the way is what any decent agent would do. Is Tambi stretching the truth? Or are the people under him incompetent and failed to take care of this? Who knows but again Tambi looks very bad just as he did when he “fired” Pat Quinn as coach. First Tambi says he had talked to
Pat about it the week before but when Pat was asked he said he just found out about his “re-assignment” just hours before the press conference. What the hell is up with that and it makes Steve Tambellini look very bad. As GM he should be capable of making sure crap like this doesn’t happen, how can he say it is time for new era for the Oilers when bone-head mistakes like this happen, not once, but twice within a few months.
Is this a reason why Tambi never got the GM job in Vancouver where he was asst. GM for longer than any other asst. GM I know of?
If Steve Tambellini is to stay on as GM and Katz is serious about changing the Oiler mystic back to where it was these types of incredible media blunders cannot continue.
Sure I would love to have Souray in the line-up as I think many Oiler fans would but that is not to be; mainly due to his own arrogance and spoiled brat actions but still is not an excuse for the Oiler management to look so incompetent and generate such bad media optics with the Souray soap opera. I won’t even get into at this how this may or may not effect Tambi’s efforts to
trade Souray, that is a entire new post.

Let’s all just hope that this will be the last time such a preventable media blunder will occur thanks to what appears to be severe error in judgment by Steve Tambellini. If it happens again perhaps
it will be time Tambi has the baseball rule applied to him, three strikes and he’s out!

Hall the new #4?

Recent reports say Kevin Lowe will give his long time not seen in copper & blue #4 to our #1 pick Taylor Hall to wear as he starts his Oiler-NHL career.

I dunno, in a way I like this and in another I don’t.


I understand the synergy of Lowe giving Hall “his” #4.
Lowe being the first ever Oiler pick, scoring the first goal etc there is a lot of Oiler history with that man.
Regardless of what people may think and say of Lowe now there is no denying that he has a very special place in Oiler history and his jersey should be up in the rafters, without any doubt.

And now we have Hall, our first ever #1 pick, a great talent to be sure but he is unproven in the NHL at this time. So does he deserve to take a local legends number and all that it means in the history of the oilers? I just don’t know but it does show the class and unselfishness of Lowe and his love of the team. He is demonstrating a team first attitude as president as he did when he played and I tip my Oilers hat to him.

No one was more excited when we picked Hall, definitely the right pick in my mind I just hope he lives up to the class and love of team and city that the man before him that wore that #4.

Now drop the puck already!