BEWARE FOLKS……GRAPHIC AND HORRIFYING MATERIAL IS BELOW.
Yes it’s the new Oilers jersey. One word: UGLY!!!
This linkcame 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!
Well well well, check out the bad newsconcerning 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?????
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.
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!!!
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 Pennerof 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 reviewsmention 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.
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 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!!
Yup folks, Katz is offering to buy the Oilers again. Although this time, he’s shooting for the pie, not a piece. I am majorly in favor of this, and hope the EIG takes the offer. In my mind, one owner is better than 30. This guy has the money, has the profile, has the business sense to take this team and make it not only profitable (which it has become recently. Did it make money last year…does anyone know? The previous year it obviously did owing to the huge playoff run) but also successful.
I’m heading out of town today for three weeks. I probably won’t be hearing too much hockey news in England or Ireland, but I hope to return to new ownership!!!!!
Guess who is an Edmonton Oiler?? Yes this guy, Sheldon Souray. I don’t know details of the contract yet, but this is a surprising signing. Wikipedia has info on the contract already but not sure if it’s accurate (they say it’s a 5 year deal 27 million which averages to $5.4 mill). So what do we think? Yes, we might actually have a successful powerplay this year. Although, we give up something even strength.
Some facts on Souray:
– 19 of 26 goals came on the powerplay last year, so he is almost one-dimensional in his scoring – plus/minus last year was -28 (damn, Lupul had a -29) – he’ll win the next Hot Off easily
So is the bad outweighed by the good? Also, how was this guy not signed sooner? Is it his even strength play that kept some teams on the sidelines?
So our defense is set. It’s a complete reversal from last year. Now we’ll watch Kevin Lowe wait until February to fix our offense.
Update: Is Patrick LaForge an idiot? Here are some of his comments on Primetime Sports today (sportsnet):
– Edmonton is not a great city. It’s a fine city – You need to budget for snow tires – We wouldn’t want another franchise in our background (in reference to the Hamilton issue and more Canadian NHL teams)
And many more gems of wisdom from him. And basically the dude on the show kept asking about the Hamilton issue and nothing much about the Oilers themselves. Nice to see Toronto being Toronto: self-centered!!! Also, the Canadian teams don’t want to share their television contract with another Canadian team: Laforge basically admitted that. Good one!
AND, we now have two replacements for the number 44: Souray and Pitkanen. Who gets the number?
AND a nice quote from Souray:
“If no one else wants to be associated with the organization, believe me, there’s one guy here who does.”
The Oilers have made one helleva splash….offer sheet for Thomas Vanekof the Buffalo Sabres. It’s a 7 year, $50 million offer for Vanek who scored 43 goals last year (and 84 points).
The Oilers would have to give up FOUR first round draft picks. Damn, that’s crazy but to get this guy, maybe not so crazy after all?? But how can Buffalo not match this offer? They lost Drury and Briere to free agency. They must have a huge amount of space to accomondate this contract. I’d be surprised if Buffalo doesn’t match. But I like this move….aggressive and he’s going after the right player. Good move.
Update: Never mind. Buffalo has matched the offer. Next time Kevin, go after a team that is in cap trouble.
From the Edm Journal:
“You can’t blame the blame player, you can’t blame the agent,” said managing partner Larry Quinn. “It’s not doing the Edmonton Oilers any good to do what they did today. It’s not the New York Rangers, the Philadelphia Flyers, preying on Buffalo. It’s the Edmonton Oilers.”
Yes cause this is the same as Philly’s offer sheet to Kessler. No, it’s not. Kessler was highballed, but Vanek was not. The rules are in place to make offers on restricted free agents. When a team cannot sign free agents, what else are they supposed to do? This is not wrong. It was not preying. The Oilers made a good move, but it didn’t work out.
Update: A good bit from the Big Dude at Sportsnet who defended KLowe’s move perfectly:
Spurned by free agents in search of a beach, and Michael Nylander in search of a backbone, K-Lowe was forced onto a road less traveled. It’s his job as a general manager to do whatever it takes to build a competitive hockey team, and what Lowe did Friday is show that he’s not afraid to go in the corners and get the puck to make something happen in order to win hockey games.
Yes I actually am pitying Kevin Lowe now following this. However, the rest of the Oilogosphere is hitting him hard. Is it his fault this team can’t attract free agents? Maybe but lately it seems to be the reputation of Edmonton that is distracting players (thanks Pronger). Oh the travel sucks, oooh the winter sucks. Not really. I chose to live here over anywhere in Canada. Hell, I wouldn’t step foot in the United States. No offence to Americans, but that is not exactly the ideal place to live. Kevin Lowe can’t be blamed for all this, not entirely.
Lowe needs to dangle Ales Hemsky in front of these elite free agents. He has to say, hey look how good this kid was when playing with B+ players (sorry, Smyth is not an elite player. In addition, he’s not the ideal linemate for a player with Hemmer’s skill. Smitty stands in front of the net….that’s all. He’s not a strong skater, doesn’t have a big shot and I don’t care what kind of intangibles he brings). Hemmer has the potential to be a superstar, he needs to find better linemates (and of course shoot more often). Hemmer is the team now. There must be someone out there licking their chops to play on a line with him. Come on!!!
However, even though I pity Lowe and don’t blame this entire fiasco on him (hello EIG, we know you play a part in all of this, people forget they hold the purse), I think it’s time he moved on and took the entire coaching staff with him. Aside from a three month period, Lowe’s tenure has not been successful in years. April to June 2006 notwithstanding, this team has struggled endlessly. I think Lowe is a great GM but he’s hit the wall. It’s time to bring in new blood….no more former Oilers. I adore the fact this team is linked to the past, but it’s time to try something new.
So early Monday or late Sunday, it was being reported that the Oilers had signed Michael Nylander. Later that day, it was announced that the Washington Capitals had signed him for $19.5-million, four-years. So what happened?
Despite rumours and an erroneous radio report and the allegedly waiting all day for returned paperwork, Michael Nylander did not become an Edmonton Oiler yesterday.
So upset at whatever transpired when the Washington Capitals announced they’d signed the free agent to a four year deal yesterday afternoon, Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe was said to be so livid he refused to talk about it, even to a Sun Media reporter parked outside the team officies for two hours.
So what happened? Nylander was probably playing the Oilers off against the Capitals, trying to get a better deal. It looks like Lowe thought this was a done deal until the Caps announced the signing. Seems pretty underhanded by Nylander at least and maybe even the Caps. I’d like to know exactly what happened here.
Update: Oilers statement regarding this whole mess is below. It looks like they have been wronged big time here. I’m no legal expert, but if the agent wrote a letter of agreement, would that be binding and his subsequent contract with Washington null and void? Probably not, because the agent signed something, I would think the NHL must have rules in place for this.
The Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club is compelled to clarify the unfortunate and unprecedented circumstances surrounding the Edmonton Oilers and Michael Nylander.
On Sunday, July 1, 2007, Kevin Lowe, Oilers General Manager, and Mr. Mike Gillis, Certified Agent for Michael Nylander, negotiated and agreed to a multi-year NHL Standard Players Contract, starting in 2007/08. Mr. Gillis confirmed same to the Oilers in writing.
The Oilers then proceeded with preparations to announce Mr. Nylander’s contract agreement on July 2, and concurrently continued with the process of negotiating with other free agents based upon Mr. Nylander being an important roster ingredient for the future.
However, while the Oilers were expecting the returned, signed agreements from Mr. Nylander and Mr. Gillis, the Oilers discovered through public announcements made mid-afternoon on July 2, that Mr. Nylander had subsequently entered into a long-term contract with the Capitals.
The Oilers can find no precedent for such conduct in our history. The Oilers are examining and pursuing every course of action available in the best interest of the team and our fans. For legal reasons, the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club will not be discussing the details any further at this time.
