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.

Dreams Do Come True!!

Everyone's favorite powerplay coach is apparently leaving the Oilers, according to the Globe and Mail. Let the drinking begin! With Bob Cole and Harry Neale starting to cut back on their workload, CBC was desperate to find some young talent. Okay, 40 is not young but sitting next to Cole and Neale, hell Simpson is a teenager.

While Craig sucked royally as a coach, I always enjoyed his commentary during his Sportsnet years or as I call it the glorious pre-Oilers coaching years. I like this move for many reason, especially getting him out of the Oilers powerplay! Enjoy getting back into broadcasting Craig....I wish you nothing but success (of course so you can't come back as an Oilers coach, lol).

Three cheers for CBC!!!!!! Hooray....Hooray....Hooray!!!

All Hail our Fearless Leader....

I go away to Ireland for three weeks and when I get back, look what our boy Kevin has been up to: offer sheet to Dustin Penner of the Mighty Ducks. So after checking all the blogs, reading all the articles I could find, I am all info'd up and ready to offer my extremely educated opinion!

5 years at $4.25 mill per year is the offer. He scored 29 goals last year with 45 points. That was his first year in the NHL. He is 24 years old.

My first thought of the offer sheet: please match it. I do not like this at all. His point production is decent for his first NHL season (he played 19 games the year before but in essence, this was his rookie year) but he's 24. He's a late bloomer and this could be a one hit wonder. Second, some of the reviews mention that he is a poor skater. So putting him on a line with Hemsky and Horcoff could crash and burn. On the other hand, apparently he scored more points than anyone else with his limited ice time average of 13 mins. That's a plus, as is his size (6'4 and 245 pds). However, to throw this much money at a rookie is dangerous. I liked the Vanek offer sheet better simply because I thought he was a better player and had a good chance of having a long NHL career. This is such a gamble. Also, this is not the winger I had in mind to play with Hemsky. I can't see this being a success.

Obviously the Ducks didn't match. It was a no brainer: take the three draft picks (1st, 2nd and 3rd rounder) and let Penner go. Brian Burke had a hissy-fit. These are some of the quotes from the past week:

"I thought Kevin would have told me this was coming. I thought that was gutless"

"An act of desperation by a general manager fighting to keep his job"

"My issue here is that this is the second time Edmonton has offered a player a grossly inflated salary for a player and it impacts all 30 teams"

"We're going to take the three draft picks and given Kevin's recent performance, I expect them to be excellent picks"

Burkie, quit your whining. That last quote hits us all: low blow. Yes one bad year that of course was Kevin Lowe's fault entirely. Really bad recent performances. Stanley Cup final one year and missing the playoffs the next year. Sure Burkie, really bad! If you didn't want an offer sheet to be tended, you would have locked up your player or at least took him to arbitration. You left it wide open for someone to make an offer. Yes I feel the amount is too much, but you knew there was a chance for offers. GM's overpay all the time (I'm looking at your Bertuzzi signing of $4 mill a few weeks ago Burkie) so this is not new. This is a business and Lowe had no reason to call and let you know. I thought you were also going to match all offers?? You would have told Lowe that I'm sure if he had warned you but you didn't match. Take your draft picks and shut up.

Now Kevin....what are you doing? I keep defending you, deal after deal, believing that you know what you are doing, that you are improving this team but you're pushing it. I know the options out there are limited for you, but the deals of Souray and Penner are panic-inducing. I was prepared to wait while you rebuilt this team, but you're abandoning the plan. You can't switch back and forth. You need to stay the path, if it was indeed a rebuilding plan. The team has been improved since April, yes that is true. There has been so many changes in the past year, this team could take some time coming together. The season could be over by the time that occurs.

New players: Pitkanen, Souray, Tarnstrom, Penner, Garon, Sanderson, Nilsson
Gone players: Lupul, Smyth, Smith, Sykora, Markkanen, Tjarnvist, Peterson, Winchester, Hedja

One last thing: Katz made another offer to the Oilers. I keep hoping this gets the approval from the EIG. Please accept this offer. I think it would be beneficial to the Oilers to have a change in ownership. 30 owners or 1 owner? 30 local business or 1 billionaire? It's a no-brainer folks. Now Katz has been saying all the right things lately, but I truly believe he means them. Why else buy a team? Of course you want to make money but he does that anyways. He wants to bring the glory days back to the team. He's committed to possibly financing a new arena (which I've been on board since the beginning. I sit in those seats for all home games and damn right I want a new arena. It's needed). Here is a snip from Katz (basically what I've been saying for some time....time to move on):

"I have a lot of respect for Cal Nichols and the Edmonton Investor Group," Katz said in his statement. "They did a great thing when they came together to buy the team and keep it in Edmonton."As an Edmontonian and as a fan, I'm grateful for everything they've done. As an owner, should that come to pass, I intend to ensure their contribution is recognized and remembered. At the same time, I know there are a number of people within the ownership group who would like to exit their investment and pass the torch to a new generation of leadership. I want to provide that leadership while preserving the great Oiler traditions and maintaining a strong sense of community."

So the vote takes place Tuesday, August 7th. The offer is $170 million. It's over 20 million higher than his original offer months ago to the board. This time it's to the shareholders. This would be a great move. The EIG is no longer effective. They seem to interfer in day-to-day operations. We can't be sure the extent of this interference but they obviously handicap Lowe last year at times, refusing to spend money. Katz seems like a guy who would spend but not spend like crazy (hello NYI).

Even if the EIG turns him down, it probably is not his final offer according to Barnes. I'm hoping when he says, "Katz will eventually offer enough to earn the necessary two-thirds majority and EIG will take a well-deserved bow, and then a vacation" that he knows what he's talking about. We'll find out soon.

UPDATE: EIG are stupid.

UPDATE: EIG are still stupid and Bettman has his hands all over this too. He told Nichols that it was not good to have one owner and it would be problematic. When is Bettman going to start doing what's good for the league? He's an idiot, along with the EIG!!