On his show last night, Dan Tencer and a guy from Sportsnet (can't remember his name) talked about the violence in this year's playoffs and the controversy that surrounds it. With the suspensions and injuries, the general reaction has seemed to be negative. The fans are calling for tougher rulings that must solidify the league's stance on the punishing of such illegalities.

These two gentlemen went on to say that we all secretly love the violence. We'll scream for justice when our player goes down, and we'll cheer when our team gets back at the offender with a punch/stick/elbow to the head. They compared the violence to that of the UFC, which is full of it's Tapout shirts (Ta-pout?), veiny muscles and bloody gore.

Continue reading this post »

There are a ton of potentially horrible decisions to make this off season to solidify another year in this land of mystery:

- The Linus Omark mystery. He sits, players get injured, he sits again. Now, he could be in Oklahoma but since they called him up and he doesn't want to go back down, he sits. He'll sit out the rest of the season and then go back to Sweden and we'll never see him again. The worst part is that we have no good explanation or reason why this is the case. Talent wasted.

Decision time: This decision seems to have already been made.

- Teemu Hartikainen scores 2 goals tonight. He hits everything he sees, goes to the net, etc. He's been doing it consistently since he's been called up. Yet, the radio guys aren't quite sold on him. They're wondering if he can maintain that kind of play for a whole season. My question? Who the hell else is getting the job done?! This is nonsense. Play the man, if he struggles, play the man. Give him a spot in the roster next season. He's earning it right now. No one else plays the way he plays. This team needs him.

Decision time: October 2012. Hopefully they give him a legit shot next season.

Continue reading this post »

I really like this Linus Omark fellow. He's obviously skilled, surprisingly strong in the corners, and from what I heard on last night's radio broadcast, determined to put pucks on the net.

Of course, there is a lot of chatter about him not fitting in with the team and the theories on this range from reasonable to hilarious; he's too small, he's cocky, he's a duplicate of our other awesome talent, he whines too much, He's handsome. His name rhymes with 'Venus'. Whatever the reasons, people seem to think that he's headed out of town.

Continue reading this post »

I am not an NBA fan at all. They lost me when they propped Kobe and Lebron up to God-like status and left everyone else in the dust. Well, since this whole Jeremy Lin thing took off, I find myself checking up on the situation of my team a little more often.

My team, the Detroit Pistons, is a team that, if you wanted to, could be somewhat comparable to the Oilers. I look at the Pistons with a team of young, hustle players and say, "Boy, if they can really suck it for one more season then they'll get a top pick and be set to compete. I hope that they don't win too many games." After catching myself saying this, I proceeded to punch my brain in the groin. I hate that kind of talk. What kind of world do we live in where fans of teams are cheering for them to lose so that they can get better?

Continue reading this post »

Over the years of this "rebuild", the words used to reassure Oilers fans have added up to something like this:

"We need to be patient. There are no short cuts here. We want to build a team that competes for more than just 8th place. I mean (chuckle, chuckle), you don't want to be like Calgary, do you?"

I know that that is an imaginary quote, but it sums up some of the things I've heard over the last few years regarding the Oilers, especially from management.

It's all come down to some mysterious, unseen goal that, if we do nothing long enough, just like Chicago and Pittsburgh did, we too can have a success hockey team competing year after year.

The theory goes, just wait and the longer we wait the more successful this team will be. People are already talking about a 2nd dynasty. And, may I add, they are pretty happy and with the clever little comparisons of Hall with Messier, RNH with Gretzky, and Eberle with Kurri. As if a dynasty couldn't exist without overblown comparisons to those 3 particular former Oilers, legends, and hall-of-famers.

It makes me feel uneasy to hear that the management is shooting for more than competing for 8th place, and that fans have bought into it. Why? Well, over the years, how many teams are in this category? How many teams never have to compete for 8th?

Continue reading this post »

"You know what? I look forward to the Battle of Alberta for the next X number of years. If the idea is, ‘Burn it to the ground,’ then (Flames president) Ken (King) can find another manager to do it."

- Jay Feaster.

This past week, Feaster revisited his comments about rebuilding with a lighthearted and "just playing around" tone when it comes to his underlying message about the Oilers sucking forever and a day. Whether he meant the sharp jab or not, his words have left many an Oiler fan somewhat confused about the whole situation. The common response is to tell Jay that his team will always be chasing 8th place while the Oilers will be sipping on the Champagne every spring starting 2014ish. At the same time, the Oilers DO suck and as the days and losses and excuses pile up, we inch closer and closer to a year that closely resembles 2014.

Continue reading this post »

...the more they continue to disappoint.

Did you feel that? That sudden, horror filled feeling that you've been here before? You look out on the ice and you see that the top, most promising young Oiler is, once again, Sam Gagner. It feels like only yesterday, all over again. Watching this team sans Eberle, RNH, Hall was a curiously strange look through a window into the recent past. I hope that we never have to look through that window again.

In the mess of this season, let us remember that we've got an 18 year old power play expert on the mend and Harry Freakin' Potter wanting to come back after taking another hit from He Who Shall Not be Named. In fact, top young prospect Sam Gagner is now eclipsed by the return of Jordan Eberle.

Continue reading this post »

via Getty Images

I'm not too sure how it all works, but from what I can recall it seems like a guy who scores a lot of points and keeps his penalty minutes down has a fair chance at winning this award. The official criteria, as per the NHL:

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.

Continue reading this post »

Being back in Country for a few weeks, I have had the chance to take in a lot of Oiler games.  Mind you, they have all been on TV but that is okay with me.  Something new to me is HDTV and boy is it a heck of a lot better than watching an Internet feed while sitting on my couch in China at 9 in the morning.

Watching the games at a bar is still the way to go for me.  The atmosphere is a lot more hockey centred than the one in my in-law's basement.  I have yet to check out The Pint, but I plan to, as I've heard good things.

The one thing that seems to be trending upwards as far as the Oilers' TV experience goes is that CBC is getting more tolerable to watch.  Now from what I can tell, it's a combination of replacing Kevin Weeks with Daryl "Razor" Reaugh and Sportsnet sucking even more than they did before.  Reaugh seems to pick his spots a lot better than Weeks ever could.  Weeks seemed to always work too hard on trying to add something to what Mark Lee was saying.  Or, in great detail and long winded sentences, to describe a play on the ice that we all clearly saw with our own eyes.  Maybe he'd be better on the radio, I don't know.

By the way, is it a rule that the colour commentator must be an ex-goaltender?  Lou DeBrusk seems like the exception to the rule.

One place to avoid watching a game at is Shanks .  It's too big and generic for me.  Too much is going on there.  Horse racing, golfing, bowling, etc.  I prefer a smaller, hockey centered place.  Also, I prefer HDTV over the big screen projector, even if the projector is bigger than Nickelback is in the eyes of football halftime show producers.

The team itself is very entertaining to watch.  Some people wish they would score more but I am ecstatic that they are doing so well at keeping it out of their own net.  "Team defence", they call it.  I love it!  They've been in every game this year and they seem to be growing in confidence as they go.  In Phoenix the other night they almost came back and won it when it looked like they were done.  Good on them!

Taylor Hall falls all of the time.  Is this a concern?  To me it says that he is out of control.  Sometimes he falls and the puck finds it's way back to him but he's down and not ready for it.  I'm looking forward to when he figures this out and positions himself better.  RNH is gold and those two could really start cooking at any time now.  

Hall and Eberle are both still learning, of course, but I was hoping that we'd see a lot less fancy stuff from the two.  They shouldn't be afraid to dump it in once in a while instead of trying their magic toe drags.  They'll figure it out.

The other thing I saw in Phoenix had to do with team toughness.  They seemed to get handled by pretty much everyone on the ice.  Is this a concern or can they continue to succeed while seemingly avoiding this kind of stuff?

Thanks for reading.

As training camp opens it's doors this weekend the excitement for this season is rising to quite a high level.  With the past few years in the books as suck and more-suck, it's time to peer through the clouds and see that big, bright, hopeful 25th place finish we were all dreaming of last night.  Yes, my friends, that dream could very well end up being reality!

It's the time of year when everyone is undefeated.  A time when people are hopeful that Hall will score 40 and RNH seems the obvious choice for the Calder.  Heck, why don't they just give it to him right now and get it over with?  Playoffs, here we come!

This kind of talk is what every fan loves, no matter how bad your team is.  Even Cubs' fans can trick themselves into believing their own hype.  So, when the Oilers come off of 2 straight last place finishes, it's only natural for us all to believe that, since we have Belanger now, we will make the playoffs.  The reality is that we still have a lot of messes to sort out before we sail on into glory.

But enough of that.  I'd like to steer the ship down a different road for a moment or two.  At the moment, I live in Central China.  My wife is working at opening a Kindergarten here and I will be busy watching the youngest of our 2 boys as she is busy at the school.

We have lived here since the Winter of 2006, just in time to miss the entire Stanley Cup run.  It was disappointing to miss it, my sister-in-law calling to give me updates during language class just didn't do it for me.  The excitement that flowed through the city was invisible to me over here.  The Chinese term for hockey is "Ice Ball", so you know that there aren't a lot of Oiler fans around to celebrate with.  I was able to skip class once or twice to listen to it on CHED's website but, seriously, not quite good enough.

The point being, I am an Oilers fan.  In fact, being far away from it has actually made me more of a fan.  Since moving here, I've turned to this site along with Oilersnation and Lowetide to get my fill of Oilers happenings and the like.  As for the games, I've been listening to the website.  Sometimes I can watch a stream of the game, but usually the internet is too slow to give me a smooth viewing.  Thus, at around 930am my time, I turn on the game and get stuff done around the apartment as Jack and Bob give me the play-by-play. 

It was rough there for a while.  God Bless Rod Phillips, but I often had no idea what was going on when he was commentating.  I can't blame him, I am sure that anyone would have trouble keeping things straight for so long.

The good news for me is that we will be coming back to Canada for 6 weeks on the 6th of October.  It was fortunate that the season starts on the 9th.  I'm looking forward to taking in a few games while I'm home; perhaps out at the pub with my brother like we did a few years ago when I was home.  Anyone have a favorite spot that they like to go to to watch the games?  I'm listening.

I will appreciate those games, watching them live in HD.  I'll appreciate them all the more since I am usually over here listening to them on the radio and using my imagination to see what's happening.  Surprisingly, my imagination thinks that the team isn't very good either. 

But really, after two 30th place finishes, lets soak it all in!  The team is better than it was last year, and if things play out the way they should, it will only get better for the next 10 years or so.  The toil of the last two seasons will make anything that happens this season all the more special. 

I'm hopeful that we are moving from the radio to at least standard definition.