Back to the Minors!

In my mind, this is the Oilers first cut.

OILERS REDUCE ROSTER TO 35

The Edmonton Oilers have reduced their training camp roster to 35 players with the assignment of nine players to the Springfield Falcons.Assigned to the Oilers’ American Hockey League affiliate are defencemen Sebastien Bisaillon, Danny Syvret and Bryan Young and forwards Troy Bodie (LW), Fredrik Johansson (C), Ryan O’Marra (RW), Liam Reddox (LW), Rob Schremp (C) and Viacheslav Trukhno (LW).

I'm a little surprised they cut Trukhno (and Schremp to a lesser degree) without giving them more playing time. So the centre position is being fought between Cogliano and Gagner. I think Cogs pulls this out, but we'll see how he plays tonight with Hemmer and Penner. I don't think both of them make it. Schremp, another step backwards for him. But everyone needs to remember he had an injury and surgery so of course he's fallen behind. We'll see what he's made of now.

Note: Gagner draws into tonight's game as a last minute addition (instead of Frederik Johansson). Good call because Freddy is not making this team. So Cogs and Gagne play tonight, very interesting! Other things to note in the lineup tonight: Souray and Greene playing together again.

UPDATE: Oilers win Battle of Alberta with Cogliano and Souray scoring and playing very good. Four more players were shipped to the AHL after the game as goalie Devan Dubnyk and forwards Jonas Almtorp, Ben Simon and Tim Sestito were sent down.

How did you cross the border into Canada?

This is floating around, I nabbed this from Always on the Road. Raffi on the Daily Show! Hilarious!!!

The Russians are Coming!!

OILERS WIN 3-2 in OT!!

2 goals from Russians. Yes, the Russians have arrived. Okay, maybe not arrived but they are scoping out the building. Trukhno scored a great goal and Grebeshkov gets the OT winner. I'm just happy to have some Russians back on this team!

One day after putting in a truly horrible performance, Matt Greene does it again. Bad penalties, out of position and on and on and on. Can I just say one last time: GET RID OF HIM!!! But on a better note, one day after a horrible performance, Grebeshkov bounces back and has a good game. He still made some mistakes but he cut down on them at least, and scored the OT winner. More on the winning goal later!

Some musings about tonight's game:

-apparently Carter received a concussion. I did not see the hit but noticed he was absent for 2/3rds of the game
-Pouliot took a nasty high stick in the first but came back for the third period. He was stitched up like those old hockey masks. Well, he wasn't much to look at before. Now he has character. He even played pretty good in the third.
-Horcoff, Stoll and Torres looked okay. I don't want to get on him but Torres seemed like his old self: good chances, but cocks up the shot. Horcoff was best man on the ice. Period!
-Nilsson had great speed and some chances. I was slightly impressed.
-Trukhno has got some skill. I like him a lot! He was even on the point for the powerplay and doing pretty good. Probably doesn't make this team quite yet but he has a future!
-Guess who impressed me too (second most): Sanderson. Yeah that dude who used to play for the Whalers. I kept noticing #8 all over the ice: speed, passes, good hockey sense. I forgot he was on the team and then I was voila, oh my god, it's him.
-Man of the night: Cogliano. This kid is ffffffffast. Great speed, passing, everything BUT the finish. He set up the overtime winner.....flying into the zone. Wow what speed. He just needs his hands to catch up to the rest of him!

One final note: I hate Leaves' fans. Way too freakin' many at this game. My hatred of them is only eclipsed by my hatred of Flamers fans!

One final final note: NHL is finally smarting up somewhat and getting rid of this rediculous and unbalanced schedule next year! What is not decided is whether everyone plays each other home and away or just once a year. I'm hoping for home/away series because I want to see every team each year especially the Canadian teams.

He's not just a pretty face anymore...

Welcome Kyle Brodziak to the Edmonton Oilers. After the performance he gave last night, I'd be shocked if this kid doesn't make the team. The line of Moreau-Reasoner-Brodziak was on fire last night. Brodziak with 2 goals and 1 assist, Marty with 3 assists and Moreau with one sweeeeet goal.

Here are my other musings on the night:

-Brodziak played great with Moreau and Reasoner.

-Gagner was not bad. Got pushed off the puck quite often early, but bounced back later in the game

-Penner is one big guy. I shall refer to him as the lumberjack from now on.

-Hemmer was his old self: beautiful moves but then passes

-Roli rocked the net. He was rocked in the first period and held off the troops! 1 goal out of 18 shots....nice work Roli !!

-Defense was horrible: Grebeshkov couldn't check to save his life. He gives up a 2 on 1 within ten seconds into the second period, right off the faceoff. How did that happen? He was out of position all night.

-Greene continued his sucking

-Gilbert played solid as did Pitkanen. Nothing spectacular from either.
-powerplay was same as usual: pass, pass, pass and shot that misses the net

-O'Marra was trying too hard

-Jacques was invisible for first part of game, and then had some solid hits and chances

-Thoresen throwing the body too.

Obviously this is only one pre-season game, but Brodziak looks like the real deal. On one goal he scored, he out-muscled three guys and went top shelf. It was a beauty! I'm looking forward to the next game tonight and see what the rest of the rookies look like, and our other vets!!

Coming Home?

Well, look who's been invited to the Oilers' training camp as an NHL pro try-out? Yes, former Oiler Anson Carter. A bit shocking is it not? Basically, he is a guy without a team. A man wandering in the desert, please sign me....someone sign me. Well Anson, let's see how you stack up against our endless stream of rookies and prospects. Good luck!

Update: Oilers officially unveil new jersey today. Yeah not good at all. Good point by Weaz....it could be a lot of worse. Hello Vancouver! But seriously, does the NHL not give a damn what fans like? You're alienating people and just pissing off the rest of us.

On the upside, the Joey Moss Cup went today and the Hemsky-Penner-Gagner line was clicking. Hemmer had a 5 pt game with a hat trick while the others also had four points. Nice to see. I still think Gagner does not make this team. I think he should (if he plays like today) but the Oilers have always been tentative and not aggressive when it comes to pushing their rookies. That can be good but can also be bad. I'll be at the pre-season game tomorrow so we'll see who plays and how much. It'll be nice to see the boys again! It was a long summer!

Update: I am soooooooooooooooo excited. Less than 5 hours until the pre-season starts. Is it sad that we're all going orgasmic over the pre-season? Hey, over 4 months of no hockey....we deserve some good orgasmic moments and hopefully this lasts longer than a commercial break! :)

Disturbing Content Warning!

BEWARE FOLKS......GRAPHIC AND HORRIFYING MATERIAL IS BELOW.

Yes it's the new Oilers jersey. One word: UGLY!!!

This link came from the Covered in Oil people and if this is truly legit, holy hell they are ugly. I mean, where is the rest of the jersey. I swear this looks like some 12 yr old kid made these up. Yeah he's jerking off in his basement, has nothing else to do so he decides to re-create the Oilers jersey. So this pimply-faced masturbator cocks this up and voila, we get this mess. It's nice to see a bit of orange back on the jersey but what's with the rest of it??? Maybe this isn't the new jersey.....can this be possibly wrong? Anyone?? Please!!!

I apologize for the disturbing photo below. You've been warned!

It's Starting Already.....

Well well well, check out the bad news concerning Pisani. He's out indefinitely with ulcerative colitis. This is not good, for Pisani or the Oilers. I hope he's not out too long!!

Those hockey gods are sure mad at the Oilers. Seriously, what did they do?????

Delirious in Edmonton

Something to keep your spirits up as training camp opens later this month. Remember back in September 2005, no one expected the Oilers to either make the playoffs nor make it all the way to the final. Obviously, the 2007 team is not as talented as 2005 BUT if they can come together like that again, anything is possible. I mean, Pisani was a scoring machine in those playoffs so seriously, anything can happen! I'll do up my preview of the season soon and my prediction won't have the Oilers finishing 13th like most sports magazines are predicting.