The Edmonton Oil Kings had to take the early flight back to Edmonton from Shawinigan Quebec on Friday morning, and of course without the Memorial Cup. After the long and hard fought trip to the WHL championships, the shorter but harder battle to the Memorial Cup was just a little bit more than the Oil Kings could muster up and battle through.

With an unfamiliar 3 game losing streak, and their worst loss of the entire season (6-1) the Oil Kings said goodbye to Quebec and loaded up their plane for their respective flights home. At first glance it appears as though 20 of the 25 Oil Kings will return next season, with captain Mark Pysyk and Kristians Pelss beginning their professional careers with their NHL teams, the Buffalo Sabres and the Edmonton Oilers and Tyler Maxwell, Jordan Peddle and Rhett Rachinski all looking to make a splash on the free agent market as 21 year olds.

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The longer it took to make an announcement, the more sure we were becoming that Edmonton Oilers' head coach Tom Renney would not be back behind the bench for the upcoming season. Finally Thursday afternoon the Oilers sent out a tweet saying "Edmonton Oilers General Manager Steve Tambellini announces the club will not renew the contract of Head Coach Tom Renney." You have to hope that this was not how Renney found out his fate, but this is how announcements are made in this day and age.

Tambellini followed the tweet up with a short press conference where he did not announce who the next head coach is, but many out there would have you believe that ex-Flames coach Brent Sutter is soon to be named. There has also been no announcement as to the status of Steve Tambellini's new contract, nor the rest of the coaching staff. There is a possibility that associate coach Ralph Kruger is hoping for a promotion within the organization and he could even have already been promised something. This would be why Kruger was so quick to dispel rumours that he was about to take a coaching job in Europe.

There has also been the suggestion that Oklahoma City Barons head coach Todd Nelson could be up for the job of Oilers' head coach. To this point, Nelson has only been an assistant coach in the NHL but Nelson does have a relationship with several of the players and he is known to be a player's coach. Then of course, look how far he has taken the Barons.

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The Edmonton Oilers' season has long been over, but for the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Oklahoma City Barons this is crunch time. Friday, each member of the extended Oilers' family was one game away from taking their series and advancing. For the Barons, it will be a trip to the AHL Western Conference Finals, and for the Oil Kings, a trip to the Memorial Cup. While the historic Oil Kings franchise has made that trip before, this team is treading new ground, as are the Barons. In their inaugural season the Barons made the playoffs, but were eliminated in the first round. And so this year has already set new franchise records, but they want more. Really though, can you blame them? No of course not.

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It's another year where the closest the Edmonton Oilers will get to the playoffs is the the IIHF World Championship. Thankfully, several Oilers made the cut for their various countries. Representing Canada are Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Devan Dubnyk. jeff Petry will be suiting up for the United States and for the Czech Republic Ales Hemsky. Winger Linus Omark did try out for team Sweden, but was one of the final cuts. There is no way that Omark could opt to play for the Oklahoma Barons now instead. So instead, this might be a good opportunity for Omark to have some real discussions with the Oilers to help determine his future, or to have them facilitate a move that will work for both parties.

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The nominations keep rolling in and now a second Oiler will be making the trip to Las Vegas for the awards show. Jordan Eberle has now been named as a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial award and now all of your fears of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins running around Vegas on his own have been erased. Have no fear, Eberle will watch out for him. Then, there is also the very good chance that Nugent-Hopkins will be whisked away following the awards show to the 2012 NHL entry draft in Pittsburgh to welcome the next Oilers' first overall draft pick that in it's second year can be considered a new and hopefully soon to end tradition.

Just being nominated is indeed an honour, and unfortunately for both Oilers, they will likely go home empty handed. The members of the Professional Hockey Writers have the vote and all indications are that it will be Gabriel Landeskog taking home the Calder Trophy and Brian Campbell the Lady Byng, but hey, stranger things have happened. And remember, Steve Tambellini will be stepping up to the draft day podium first this year.

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The Calder Memorial Trophy nominations are out and of course Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made the list. Unfortunately his biggest competition is Colorado Avalanche right winger Gabriel Landeskog who not only tied Nugent-Hopkins point totals but also scored more game winning goals, and played the entire 82 game season. Nugent-Hopkins looked to be the Oilers' best chance to ever win this honour and we haven't given up hope but I think we all know that this is a long shot. The writers who will vote have commented that Landeskog's 82 game season may be what puts him over the edge. There is also the fact that Landeskog played in every situation for the Avalanche while Nugent-Hopkins has been seen to have played the "softer" minutes.

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Incredibly, the Oilers won the 2012 NHL draft lottery moving up from 29th place to make the first overall selection and at the same time making the Columbus Blue Jacket's season that much more unbelievable and maybe even depressing. After suffering through 8 straight losses to start the season it was injury after injury for the Blue Jackets who would exhaust their supply of goaltenders and even the backup backup goaltenders eventually having to sign and ice prospect players. As hard as it might be to imagine, the Jackets had it worse than the Oilers, but they didn't even get the first overall pick. Instead, it was the Oilers with their arsenal of highly talented early picks who are just coming into their own. And now, they will just have to make room for one more. Talk about your first world problems. It's like they won a fully furnished house and now have to take a free car. Pure suffering I say!

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The Edmonton Oilers have only a single regular season game left this season, all that fans will have to look forward to, once again this season is the NHL Draft. While there is once again a chance that the Oilers could trade their first round pick, it hasn't happened yet and the Oilers could always use another talented forward or defenceman. Tuesday night, the Oilers will find out who will win the lottery and where they will end up selecting.

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I'm not sure how many of you have read through the entire CBA and understand it completely, but apparently the Oilers' front office aren't in a better position. Friday morning winger Magnus Paajarvi was called up from Oklahoma City on a non-emergency call-up. He took the early morning flight out and arrived in Edmonton in the late morning hours. Paajarvi prepared for the game, line combinations were discussed and everything seemed fine. Suddenly, just two hours before puck drop the Oilers tweeted and released their email statements that Paajarvi had been assigned to OKC. "We believed we had confirmation to recall (him) ... The league informed us the only way we could was under an emergency." - GM Tambellini tweeted the Oilers. It seems that the Oilers at least attempted to check in with the league about recalling Paajarvi but either asked the wrong person, or didn't word their question properly. Paajarvi's initial assignment to OKC on deadline day would count as one transaction, the counting does not start after the deadline had past.

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There was little news from the Oilers this week. A concussed Taylor Hall did make the trip with the Oilers, but perhaps that is because this trip included stops in Florida and Nashville. Who would pass up a trip like that with some of your best friends?

The Oilers hosted the Phoenix Coyotes Sunday night, but lost 3-2 in a shoot out. The Yotes win helped to keep the team's playoff hopes alive, and made things a little more difficult for the Flames at the same time. So in Oil Country at least, this loss was acceptable.

Tuesday, the team travelled to Nashville where they took on the Predators in what has become an easy win for the team. Easy, despite only getting half as many shots as their opponents. But it was mainly due to a hat trick from Ales Hemsky that the Oilers won 6-3.

Thursday night was showdown of the oldie golaies as ex-Lightning Nikolai Khabibulin faced off against ex-Oiler Dwayne Roloson. In the end the Lightning would take this one 3-2, but the real winner may have been Ladislav Smid who added to his goal total once again. Smid has been invaluable to this organization this season.

Friday night was the second part of a back-to-back against the Florida Panthers in Miami and the Oilers took it down in a shootout. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins iced the game with a backhand winner in the shootout.

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At this time of the season, you are either looking for a playoff spot, or looking to play spoiler it seems. This season, yet again, the Oilers are spoilers. And oh what spoilers they are. Not once, but twice this week, the Oilers have thwarted the Calgary Flames' attempts to make it into that eighth and final playoff spot. After Friday night's battle of Alberta, the Flames sit at 11th.

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The Edmonton Oilers had a fairly quiet week in terms of injuries, moves and call-ups. Which is a refreshing change of pace from seasons past and even earlier this season. There were a few players in and out of the line-up but not due to any major broken bones or concussions. Rather, Ben Eager was isolated from the rest of the team due to the flu and Linus Omark received the call-up from Oklahoma City.

There were a number of injury concerns during games this week, but Taylor Hall, Ales Hemsky and Jeff Petry all completed their games in one piece. The Oilers’ injured list is now at it’s shortest it’s been all season; none.

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The biggest news of the week in Oil Country was of course the trade of defenceman Tom Gilbert to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for defenceman Nick Schultz in what can only be referred to as a hockey trade. The two are of similar age and pay and with Schultz being the the slightly more defensive player and Gilbert being the slightly more offensive player. Of course because Gilbert polarized players throughout his time with the Oilers, the divide only seemed to grow larger once he was moved.

Gilbert did get better defensively this season, and was playing top minutes with the Oilers, but on this Oilers team who were struggling with their defence rather than their goal scoring, something had to be done. Schultz is not a player that is going to stand out to you on any given night, so long as he is doing his job, but he grew up an Oilers fan and put up an assist his first night. There is something to be said about living your childhood dream, perhaps Schultz, like Smyth will play better with the Oilers than any other team.

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The biggest story this week had to have been the back and forth of what the Edmonton Oilers should do with Ales Hemsky. Rumours and stories abounded that Hemsky was looking for for a long, secure, 5-6 year deal and that the Oilers were looking to sign the winger to only a two year deal. By Thursday however, the story had changed to indicate that Hemsky was willing to consider a two year deal. Friday morning the reports were that the Oilers had a two year deal on the table and that the decision was now up to Hemsky. By Friday afternoon, we learned that Hemsky had signed.

Trading Hemsky would have meant trading a proven NHL player who is fast, skilled and competitive and from all accounts likes the city of Edmonton and would like to stay. Keeping Hemsky, and especially to a long term deal, means taking a risk on a player who may not be able to play an entire season, and it potentially means that there will be less money for the up and coming kids. However, we don't know what the next CBA will look like and because the Oilers signed Hemsky to a 2 year deal money and contracts for the youth may not be as much of an issue.

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In what was likely the first of a few, if not many trades to come this month, the Edmonton Oilers traded Ryan O`Marrato the Anaheim Ducks for Bryan Rodney. O'Marra was acquired in the trade deadline day deal with the New York Islanders that saw Ryan Smyth leave Edmonton. It's difficult to know what the Oilers now have in Rodney and there is speculation that O'Marra would not have stayed with the Oilers past this season. Bruce McCurdy also did some research into Rodney to see what his past has been. It sounds as though this deal is to help bolster the Barons' blueline due to the continued call-ups to the Oilers, but based on what some of the Ducks' writers have said it doesn't sound as though Rodney will fare much better than the rookies the team already has. The Barons' penalty kill will likely suffer the most from this deal.

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While the Edmonton Oilers were away on a road trip, the AHL farm team the Oklahoma City Barons came to Alberta for a short visit. A special Abbotsford Heat game was played in the Calgary Saddledome giving many Alberta fans a chance to not only see Omark play live, but to see him play his first game in three months live.

Omark has returned to the ice after a lengthy healing process and although Omark said his ankle wasn't "game ready" following the game, I'm sure he meant that he wasn't feeling like himself yet. After all, trying to make up for lost time is difficult and will take time. Regardless, Omark played quite well and earned a goal and an assist finishing +2 during the Barons' 4-0 shutout over the Calgary Flames' farm team, the Abbotsford Heat. The previous evening, the Edmonton Oil Kings were in Calgary to take on the Calgary Hitmen. The Oil Kings won 9-2, and so perhaps, just maybe, the Oilers can pull off the win as well when they travel to the Saddledome in two weeks. It could be a long shot, but Edmonton is 2 for 2 over Calgary during the month of February.

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After the Oilers first 8 point game by a single player since 1989, how could Sam Gagner not be the story of the week? Scoring 4 goals and notching 4 assists, Gagner's 8 point game against the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night, Gagner has tied records held by two elite former playrs; Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. I cannot wait to hear what either of those players will say about their records that have not been touched in 23 years.

Of course this was supposed to be Gagner's breakout year, but 5 goals and 22 points in 43 games were not the most encouraging stats by a log shot. Gagner had been playing more and arguably better minutes that Ryan Jones, but was no farther on the Oilers stats list. Now, after a single game, Gagner may have brought many of the fans he had once polarized if only for a short time. Likely, Gagner's name has been removed from many lists of must trade players, but there are however those who will now believe that it is absolutely now that you look to move Gagner if he doesn't fit into the long term plan. Gagner's father Dave Gagner had a similar start to his career in the NHL, and Sam is only 22, so there are many possible outcomes to Gagner's future career.

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Jordan Eberle was the lone member of the Edmonton Oilers who received the call to Ottawa for the 2012 NHL All Star Weekend, but as the team's leading scorer he was the most deserving. Although Eberle was picked late in the fantasy he was still picked before Logan Couture. Coutrure of course has won a car and did not have Alex Ovechkin pointing, laughing and tweeting photos of his selection. Still, it is for the best that Eberle did not have to deal with this.

Eberle of course has had quite the history in the Nation's capital in his short career. Eberle was drafted in Ottawa, was a World Juniors star in Ottawa and now we wait to see what he can do there as an NHL All Star. Eberle will play on Team Chara but Eberle was selected by Joffre Lupal. "I'm actually kind of happy Chara didn't pick me because I didn't want to go up and get the jersey from him." Eberle told the Oilers' Tom Gazolla. "I'm like up to his hips. He's a big man, especially when you see him off of the ice. But I'm happy.It would have been kind of neat to go last and get a car and get to donate some money, but it is what it is."

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It was a freak accident, a one in a million chance, but still another star Oilers player has succumb to injury. Taylor Hall slipped on a puck during warmup, slid into a corner taking down Ladislav Smid and Corey Potter attempted to jump over it all. It was a traumatic injury for the entire team. For Potter, it was the horror of knowing that he injured a teammate and that it could have been much worse. For Hall's teammates, it is knowing that once again another Oiler is on the injured reserve.

This accident of course sparked discussion on helmets and NHLers. Many players opt not to wear helmets, part of their personal protection equipment during warmups because it's not mandatory and because when these players were younger, they saw their hockey heroes skating without helmets. Now however, with the speed of the game faster, shots faster and harder and hundreds of pucks flying around during warmups, goaltenders wear their full equipment, but many skaters do not. Hall's injury is sparking discussion once again that helmets should be worn by players at all time on the ice.

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Likely due to the fact that we have been down this road before, fans are already divided on whether or not they should cheer for losses. For some, there is still that competitive edge, and for others we can't look at ourselves in the mirror if we go another season counting up potential losses rather than wins. What makes things worse is the fact that Jordan Eberle can only be seen on a regular basis in the ATB commercials he has recorded for the season.

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For 10 days, hockey in Edmonton and Calgary has turned to the 2012 IIHF World Juniors Tournament and with good reason; the best U20 hockey minds from around the world converged in Calgary for the medal rounds this past week. Although Team Canada came close in the end, they were no match for Russia and battled Finland for the bronze medal, taking the victory with a 4-0 win. For gold, it was Russia vs Sweden, and as you all know, future Oiler Oscar Klefbom and Team Sweden would take the gold medal after 70:09 of play.

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This has been another in a seemingly long strong of "not good weeks" for the Edmonton Oilers. Currently on a road trip, the Oilers have been to Vancouver and back, and are now back on the road and away from their homes and beds where healing seems to come more quickly.

Hockey players are always banged up or bruised in some way, and for the Oilers it always seems to go a little deeper than that. Ryan Whitney this week addressed the media feeling nothing but disappointment and seemingly shame. Whitney has had surgery to repair foot issues he was born with and then an unrelated surgery to repair a broken ankle. The ankle took 10 months to heal before Whitney took to the ice. However, Whitney was anxious to get back to playing, and after reading the story written by Robin Brownlee on Oilers Nation it seems that Whitney came back a little too soon. Currently, Whitney is listed as day to day.

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The Edmonton Oilers have played their last game of 2011 in Rexall Place to make way for the IIHF World Juniors tournament. At least the team went out with a bang and delivered fans an early Christmas present. At least it was the one gift that all Oilers' fans had been asking for; a big win.

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The decision, at least in the short term was finally made for Magnus Paajarvi. On Thursday in a move that shocked likely only three people (because I was out of the country and out of touch this past week I was one of the three), the Edmonton Oilers have finally ended the suspense and assigned left winger Paajarvi to the Oklahoma City Barons of the AHL. The interesting thing is that after 25 games with the Oilers this season, Paajarvi is without a goal. In his first game with the Barons, Paajarvi scored the shootout winner, impressed Barons' head coach Todd Nelson and Barons fans alike. I believe that the AHL is a physically tougher league. There are so many players that are all competing to make the leap to the NHL and they are all aware that their respective teams are watching their every game. By playing in a more physically oriented league, this may help Paajarvi to learn to use his size and physical abilities in a different way than he has been playing in the NHL. If nothing else, if Paajarvi can score some goals and gain back the confidence he seemed to have lost when the Oilers re-acquired Ryan Smyth and Paajarvi's position seemed to be in question.

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The Edmonton Oilers have not seen so many suspensions in over a decade. How sad that "so many suspensions" is two in two months. Andy Sutton was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Kurtis Foster, and although at the time it seemed like a lateral move, I have been happier with the play of Sutton than I was with Foster. Although Sutton has now received two suspensions in the year, I think that in some ways that is a good thing. How long have the Oilers been a soft team that never seemed to hit or inflict damage and instead was only ever on the receiving end? Too long, the only trouble is that while Sutton is suspended those he has been trying to protect are now vulnerable. The interesting part about Sutton's suspension last month is that he was considered by Brendan Shanahan to be a repeat offender, but according to this article that I only just now discovered, according the the CBA, he shouldn't have been. This time around, Sutton was clearly a repeat offender. Sutton waived his option to an in person meeting and while awaiting the final verdict has been suspended indefinitely.

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For the second month in a row, the Edmonton Oilers' Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been named rookie of the month. Nugent-Hopkins is the first player to have the honour of being rookie of the month two months in a row since Evgeni Malkin in 2006 and should Nugent-Hopkins continue to have a strong rookie season, he could be the first Oiler ever to win the Calder Trophy. Yes, the Oilers need top defencemen and yes the Oilers could use another excellent centre, but I'm telling you, this kid is special. The Red Deer arena had a special feeling while Nugent-Hopkins played there. The whispers about Nugent-Hopkins, his plays, his passes, it was impossible not to get as caught up as the home crowd. Now, with the team struggling to find consistency, Nugent-Hopkins' play and production is one of the reasons to watch the team night in and night out.

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The Edmonton Oilers were not able to break their Dallas losing streak, but thankfully have put their Minnesota streak behind them after an American Thanksgiving weekend win. After 17 losses in Minnesota, the team is now going into each game in the Xcel Energy Centre with a clean slate.  Other big news for the week was also changes to the Oilers' roster.

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Look out below Oklahoma, this Oiler team needs to rummage through the cupboards again. As tweeted by the Barons Taylor Chorney, Colten Teubert and Linus Omark were all absent from Friday morning's practice. We know that Omark has an injured ankle and now we know that Omark will miss approximately six weeks, but shortly after the Oilers released a press release saying that Chorney and Teubert have been called up. At the same time, the Barons have signed Dan Ringwald of the ECHL Stockton Thunder to a professional try out contract. This will leave the Barons with six defencemen, so the Barons will also be in a precarious situation.

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The Edmonton Oilers continue their Canadian Finals Rodeo road trip this week, and show signs that they are indeed not infallible, and remind fans that there will be losses and bumps in the road this season. Despair not my friends, no need to oscillate between playoff hopes and top ten pick dreams just yet, there are still many more games left this season.    

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The Edmonton Oilers it seems are full of surprises, continuing their stay on top of the western conference is one of them. No one, not a single one of us thought that this would be happening, not now. Maybe in a few years we've all thought we would see the Oilers leading. I also doubt anyone picked Nikolai Khabibulin in their fantasy draft. No one thought that he would also be leading the league in goals against average and often save percentage. You know what though; these surprises are the best kind. I like that so many of our complaints have suddenly vanished and we have been left with our happiness and delight. 

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