Following the loss to Vancouver tonight, the Oilers have sent down Nilsson and Jacques while recalling Schremp and Stortini. I mean, I just got home from the Oilers game and went to check out TSN and voila, there is the info. Hell, it’s already on the Oilers website. That’s a damn quick reaction. I like it. I like giving Schremp a chance and getting Jacques outta here. Seriously, he had sooooo many chances tonight and cocked them up. Open nets, passes to him in the slot and missing the net or missing the puck altogether. I do not like his game at all right now.
What else to say about tonight’s game? Garon was junk. Greene was crap. Torres finally showed up but for brief moments as usual. I have nothing else to say right now. It was a disappointing night. They had great chances early on but no finish!
Four more years folks! Yes Kevin Lowe has been given a contract extension for four more years. Honestly, I’m surprised at this announcement. I thought he might have worked his way out of town. With the contentious deals this summer (Vanek and Penner), I was thinking the Oilers would send him packing or at least wait until later in the season to decide his fate. But they give him a new deal in October. If this team is tanking in March, that would have been the opportunity to get rid of him. But he’s here to stay.
I’ve always been a big supporter of Kevin Lowe but the past year has been hard to defend him. I support the Smyth trade, the other Smith trade, but the deal to bring Penner did not sit right with me. I hope he proves us all wrong. However, I truly believe the Oilers need some fresh blood. Kevin has been GM since 2000 and only made the playoffs three times. We’re getting into Maple Leaf territory. Since when do we reward our employees when they make the playoffs 3 times in 7 years (okay one year was the lockout)?
I think the Oilers are a nice young team right now, and I like their chances this year and in the future. BUT….Lowe might have ruffled too many feathers and this will only hurt the Oil. Who will trade with this man? Who will sign as a free agent here? While I think Lowe is a great GM at times, it’s not enough. Both MacT and Lowe need to move on…but that won’t be happening for several years. So fans, we’re going to have to live with it!
Today also marks the return of our captain, Jason Smith, to Edmonton. Also returning, Joffrey “disaster” Lupul! I hope Torres runs over Lupul…payback for dogging it last year!!!
I’m not expecting the 2007-2008 Oilers to win the Stanley Cup this year. I won’t predict that since the team is not good enough. However, there are elements of the ‘good enough’ already on this team. Obviously, there needs to be more of the ‘good enough’ and we all hope Kevin Lowe evens out the situation. We have obviously too many defensemen and not enough scoring up front. I like the addition of the rookies, giving them the minutes to develop but Kevin Lowe is confusing. Are we rebuilding or going for it all? Gagner in the lineup is a rebuild but the Souray signing is not. Kevin Lowe has confused us and himself. Check out an article in the Edm Journal today where he says, “What happened was, all of a sudden, we got a lot of defencemen…Then, I’m thinking, ‘Holy mackerel, we’ve got a lot of guys here.” I’m hoping you were keeping track of all the deals Kevin and just didn’t forget how many d-men you had.
So even though the team does not have a clear direction, I still like the make-up of this team. The new additions have fit in easily and things are on the up-swing. So here are the newbies and the goners!
New players: Sheldon “Chaos” Souray, Joni Pitkanen, Dick “Tricky” Tarnstrom, Dustin Penner, Geoff Sanderson, Denis Grebeshkov, Mathieu Garon.
Younglings: Sam Gagner, Andrew Coligano, Kyle Brodziak, Marc Pouliot, JF Jacques, Robert Nilsson.
Gone: Joffrey “atrocious” Lupul, Jason Smith, Petr Sykora, Jan Hedja, Ryan Smyth, MA Bergeron, Jussi Markkanen, Brad Winchester, Toby Peterson, Daniel Tjarnqvist.
So we begin the year with a huge turnover of players. They seem to be meshing well during pre-season so that is a good sign. Gagner has made the team, but will probably get his 9 game try-out before being sent back down to the minors. I think he has an outside chance to stay up, but the man to watch on this team is Coligano! If he can continue the momentum from the pre-season, the Oilers may actually have a player in the mix for the Calder. But really, that isn’t important. It’s important to get the rookies and young players in the mix, give them some minutes and let them develop. I can take a development year, if it gives the team a better chance the following year. So I say let the rookies play and play often!!!
Hemsky, will this be your breakout year? Will Penner live up to expectations? Will Greene ever be traded or thrown over the train tracks?? I vote for tracks. Hell, I will help tie him down myself. I despise him with every fiber of my being. The fact that he’s in the lineup instead of Smid or even Grebeshkov is atrocious. Lowe/MacT refuse to admit they’ve made a mistake with this player. He’s not developing, he’s regressing. Time to cut him loose!!!
With several sports publications picking the Oilers to finish 13th, I have to politely disagree and call them retards! This team has solid goaltending, great PK and now a PP but give up defensively 5 on 5. The forwards may not be better than last year (yes we’ll miss Smyth and Sykora’s goals) but the point is, they will be in a year or two. I’d rather have a good Oilers team two years from now with Hemmer, Cogliano and Gagner, than a mediocre team with Smyth on it now.
I pick the Oilers to be their usual self: fighting for the 8th playoff spot up until the last week of the regular season. If Kevin Lowe fixes the unbalance between defense-offense (aka: trading defense for a top 6 forward), this team makes the playoffs. Otherwise, this team is working towards next year which I am okay with! I
TSN has a story up about the Oilers and this was the practice lines according to TSN:
What a freakin’ cry baby! He took my candy. Wah wah wah!! I’m not the prettiest girl on the block. Wah wah wah! He’s still going on and on about the Penner offer sheet. Quit whining you little girl. The rules allow teams to make offer sheets. What’s the problem here? Ooh he offered to much? Ummm GM’s overpay players all the time. Why should an offer sheet be any different? Check out the video!
“If I had run my team into the sewer like that I wouldn’t throw a grenade at the other 29 teams and my own indirectly,” said Burke. “So I have no intention of speaking to him anytime soon.”
Quit your endless blabbering. It’s not like someone shot your dog. Suck it up loser!
UPDATE: Dany Heatley will remain a Senator. I’m happy he stays with the Sens, the only other team I kinda like and more importantly, Canada keeps one of their own superstars! Nice job Ottawa!!!
Sam Gagner signs an entry-level contract today and looks like he’ll be around on opening night. If nothing else, he’ll likely get his 9 game try-out and could still be sent down without burning a year on his contract.
Gagner’s deal is “a three-year entry level contract. His NHL compensation is the maximum $875,000 per year, which includes an annual signing bonus of $87,500. It is, of course, a two-way contract with a minor league salary provision of $65,000.”
Bob Mackenzie also thinks Moreau will be the captain but please, this was a no-brainer decision. I called this weeks ago. It’s a great choice and I like it!
Other news has Patrick Thoresen on waivers apparently. I’m a bit surprised about this but with our other young players coming up and playing incredibly well, someone was bound to get shafted. I liked him but his performance during training camp and the pre-season was not strong. I agree to give the kids a shot.
According to TSN: these were the practice lines today (you can obviously scratch Thoresen’s name from that list!
UPDATE: Moreau is the man!! He becomes the Oilers 12th Captain!!!! Interesting, assistant captains will be Hemsky and Horcoff for home games, with Staios and Stoll for away games. I like that!
UPDATE: Smid and Stortini get sent to the minors! Holy hell…..I do not understand the decision to demote Smid. He had a decent camp and easily outplayed Greene. Why the hell is Greene still on this bloody team??? Smid is your future. They threw him to the wolves last year, giving a rookie like him way too many minutes and he didn’t exactly thrive but didn’t perish either. He held his own and now he’s thrown down to the AHL. Good news: Gilbert made the team and will be in the season opener.
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 Albertawith 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.
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.
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!!
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! 🙂
