Make Room for the Moose!

The Moose is in the Hall of Fame. No surprise there. Surprising is who will be joining him this year as far as I'm concerned. All first year selections as well (Scott Stevens, Ron Francis and Al MacInnis). I was hoping Glenn Anderson would finally make his way into the Hall after being snubbed the past couple years, but once again, he is snubbed. Al MacInnis gets into the Hall? On his first attempt even? Hell, I'd pick Larionov ahead of him. Actually, I'd pick Anderson and Larionov ahead of Stevens.

Anyways, I'll bash the selection committee another time. Let's all celebrate Mark Messier's selection into the Hall of Fame. As my favorite player, I couldn't be happier to see him in the Hall. Keep those elbows up Mess!!!

With the salary cap being projected between $48 - 50 million, I can't help but question the point of the strike. In two short years, the cap will rise about ten million. Yeah, revenue is going up because teams are increasing ticket prices by 20% (hello Oilers last year. It's going up about 7% this upcoming season) so you get a inflated sense of real revenue. More people are not going to games, more people are not spending money on hockey.....you have the same or maybe fewer spending more person than before. You have empty arenas in many of the American teams. You have the Canadian teams carrying this league yet they are shit on by the NHL at every opportunity. It's all about this so-called American market.

Free agency starts on Sunday and we'll see once again players being paid way too much. Teams like Edmonton are once again back to struggling to compete. We have a team who will never spend the cap, and this has been argued many times. Whether they won't or can't, I don't know. I do know they made money last year during the Cup run, but once again, people forget they didn't get to keep all of it. It's this wonderful thing called revenue-sharing. Our Cup run, let's estimate it at $10 million, did not go all to the Oilers. A portion went to support the shit teams in Nashville, Atlanta and Columbus.

So bring on the greedy players and the stupid owners who will shell out money to every Tom, Dick and Harry (hello Rangers, hello Philly, hello basically all American teams.....).

T minus 4 days until free agency.....4 days until the Oilers come up short again and again. I can't see them making a splash. Part of me does not want them overpaying, and other part wants them to get in there. I guess it depends who they're throwing money at? We'll see.

Pull the Trigger

Okay Kevin, now is the time to pull the trigger. Make a deal, do something...anything. The draft is few hours away, and deals are already floating around. The Maple Leaves, yes them, actually made a fantastic deal. They snagged Toskala from SJ for three draft picks...hello, don't we have draft picks? Not that I don't love Roli, but he's going to be useless within two years so why not grab a youngster?? Anyways, here's hoping the Oilers manage to pull something off!!! And if you're not going to pull the trigger on a trade, then turn the gun on yourself KLowe!

UPDATE: No big deals from draft day for our Oilers. The only news: passing on Cherepanov and Esposito not once, but twice. They ended up with the Rangers and Penquins respectively at picks 17 and 20. Yes, the two best prospects in this draft were passed repeatedly....and ended up in two big markets. I'm shocked the Oilers would pass on them....I don't care what the risks were but with the talent of these players, in particularly Cherepanov, how can you pass??

Blow it out your ear Donald

Well it's over, the Ducks won. I personally hate all ducks, Donald included. What went wrong? The Senators did not play all that great. Simple. They didn't choke. They just didn't play the way they did in the first three rounds. Was that in reaction to the magical play of the Ducks? NO! This was a series that was not won by the Ducks, but lost by the Sens. They just didn't seem to have anything left in the tank (it was a long season for them, moreso than the Ducks considering the mountain they had to climb earlier in the season).

So screw you Chrissy, screw you Niedermeyer, and yup, screw you Selanne. I hope you all get a good case of herpes. The gift that keeps on giving!!!

Let's get back to our beloved Oilers. The draft is several weeks away, free agency is right after that and the next month will be huge for our team. Who will they sign (if anyone) and who will they trade for? How much will the EIG put up for the payroll (hell, what will the cap be this fall)? Lots of questions.

Memo to Kevin Lowe: last chance buddy. Get things done please. That means one offensive stud on defense and a huge talent up front. Minimum requirements.....plus probably another defenseman (defensive) and possible second line forward.