Jonathan Willis

"No. I wouldn’t say that. All I know is that to me, this whole thing has presented such great clarity. Not just to me, to everybody, of what has to take place here. Whatever happened happened. That’s the real comforting part of this, is that this entire organization is on board."

Then, turns out, you like to boost your own narcissistic ego and started a Twitter account (as if the "In the Loops" blog wasn’t enough). Here’s how your "tweets" panned out by theme: 85% partying and/or girls, 5% stupid comments that make you look like a moron, 5% music, 2.5% hockey, and 2.5% physical therapy. If that wasn’t enough, you weaseled your way onto the team’s road trip to Canada, only to announce that you wouldn’t be coming back that season; ergo, partying on the company dime. For those facts alone, I give you my "Douchebag of the Season" award.

J.F Jacques’ back problems have flared up again and he will surgery in Los Angeles later this week. Jacques’s back acted up at various points this season and the Oilers were hoping the two week break might be enough rest, but his back isn’t responding so he’ll go under the knife again.

Ethan Moreau is a hot commodity out west. San Jose, LA and Anaheim are interested. Putting him on a solid checking line with Pisani and Horcoff is as much of a showcase as it is Pat Quinn trying to shelter his young players from the opposition’s top lines. The Sharks and Ducks seem the most interested.

"One time [the Red Wings] had played poorly on special teams and we were practicing the penalty kill," [Aaron] Ward says. "The puck comes to me, I stop for a second and then shoot it out of the zone. Scotty blows the whistle and starts screaming that I should get rid of the puck before I get it. There I am, wondering if that's even physically possible. Now we're doing a drill where the [defensemen] have to get the puck out of the zone off the face-off, and he's standing at the boards at the blue line. For me to get it out, I'm going to have to wing it right at him. At this point I probably haven't been in the lineup for two weeks. Off the face-off the puck comes to me way too easy in the corner—you can see [centers] Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper grinning—so I fire it around the boards and wham! it hits Scotty in the head. He's bleeding. My career's over. He blows the whistle and screams, 'That's how you get the puck out of a zone.'

During Pat Quinn’s Maple Leaf era, I never saw him look or sound as defeated as he did following Edmonton’s 4-1 loss in San Jose Saturday night. (The clip is edited for length on the Oilers’ website, so the full effect is lost.) Quinn was almost always defiant during the tough times in Toronto; always an "I’ll show you!" response to any doubt, one of the intriguing things about covering him. It was really jarring to see him like that.