The final ten days on the Canadian junior hockey season start tonight when the Memorial Cup gets under way in Shawinigan. The Memorial Cup, which has been awarded annually since 1919, was originally dedicated to the memory of those who had died during World War I. Recently it was rededicated to honour all who have died while fighting for Canada.

This season the host Cataractes will be joined by teams from Edmonton, London, and Saint John as they battle for title of Canadian Hockey League Champions. Not only did each of those teams manage to win 16 games to capture their respective league titles, each was also the regular season champion as well. That combination, which hasn't happened since 1979, should lead to some terrific hockey over the next week and a half.

For Edmonton this is the first time the city has been to the Memorial Cup since 1966 when the Oil Kings won their second title defeating the Oshawa Generals in last of a stretch of seven seasons starting in 1960 when they competed for the title every year. The format has changed since then and this year's Oil Kings team is an reincarnation of that old squad but the ultimate goal and the trophy remain the same.

After the jump you'll find a look at each of the team's in this year's tournament and a couple numbers that might be of interest as well.

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It was the worst kept secret in town, Tom Renney won't be returning to coach the Edmonton Oilers next season. The Oilers finally made the announcement this afternoon through their Twitter account that they will not be renewing Renney's contract. The announcement comes a full 40 days after the team played their final game of the season. Only in Edmonton, where it seems all decisions are made at glacial speeds, would it take more than a month to make this official.

Renney, who was with the Oilers for three seasons including two as the head coach, made some questionable decisions this season and was widely criticized for his use of the Chosen Line, most of which centred around how much ice time that group received. While he may not have done the best job in the NHL last season, I'm not sure how much better the team would have been with another coach behind the bench. The team he was given was simply not good enough to compete in the NHL and finished pretty much where everyone outside of management expected them to. That Renney is the man to take the fall for the failings of this team isn't necessarily fair but that's the job I guess.

With the Renney decision finally made, attention will now turn to the search for Renney's replacement. There have been plenty of names already thrown out for potential replacements and Brent Sutter, the former coach of the Calgary Flames, seems to be at the top of most lists. That Sutter's role as the head coach of Canada's World Championship team also came to an end today will no doubt be seen as anything but a coincidence by some. I don't know who will be the next coach of the Oilers, but whoever it is will be Tambellini's third hire in four years: his job will depend on getting this one right.

I am not a fan of the Oilers rebuild. In fact, I haven't yet and likely never will accept that the only choice the team had in early 2010 was to burn the team to the ground and start fresh. Yes I like that the Oilers have acquired players like Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins through management's decision to rebuild but I still don't accept the rebuild as the only, or even the logical, course of action. If every rebuild ended as planned I'd be more accepting of it as a plan but as we know that's not the case. If it was Winnipeg probably wouldn't have a team today.

Being skeptical about the rebuild I really enjoyed the work Jonathan Willis did first in January and then added to yesterday at the Cult of Hockey looking at the various rebuilds, both successful and unsuccessful (there are links to some of Jonathan's earlier work on this subject at the end of the linked article). Looking at the timelines of the Penguins, Kings, and Blackhawks helps give us an idea of where the Oilers rebuild might be at and what reasonable expectations are going forward.

Personally I hope that the days of lottery picks will soon be behind us but for that to happen there will need to be some upgrades to the defence. Which led me to the question: How did successful rebuilds construct their defence, and what might this mean for the Oilers?

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When it comes to the Oilers, fans in Edmonton are rarely in agreement on anything. Take Linus Omark for example: I think it's vast majority of the fans see a forward with a tremendous skill set but there is no consensus regarding how, or even if, that skill set will transfer to the NHL. Personally, I see Omark as a solid 35 point, third line player at the low end with the potential to play a bigger role on the second line. Others can't imagine a scenario where he will ever be a useful player on any NHL team. That's quite the discrepancy.

After a promising rookie season where he scored 27 points in 51 games, Omark struggled this season totalling only three goals (one of which was scored into an empty net) in 14 games and spent most of the season in Oklahoma City with the Barons. Those struggles combined with his often being a healthy scratch when he was in Edmonton (he was scratched in eight of the Oilers final 17 games) and his tweeted trade request a few weeks ago has fuelled specualtion that Omark, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, might be on his way out of Edmonton sooner than later. The thought of a trade itself doesn't bother me that much. The potential return certainly does.

Yesterday Mark Spector waded into the trade discussion hypothesizing that the return form Omark might be no better that a fourth or even a fifth round pick at this summer's draft. If that is the best the Oilers can get for Omark then the smart thing to do would be to re-sign him.

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The quick/sarcastic answer to the question "What do the Oilers need to add this summer?" is everything. There are certainly some pieces of a good NHL team already in place but after another lottery pick season there are clearly still pieces missing as well. With another first overall selection in this year's entry draft the Oilers will have the opportunity to add another player potentially capable of playing the NHL as early as next season but the team will also be making some additions, or subtractions depending on your point of view, through free agency and trades this summer as they continue the slow and steady rebuilding process.

Using an idea borrowed from the good folks at Defending Big D I take a look at the Oilers overall system after the jump and gaze into my crystal ball a little thinking ahead to the summer to identify what the Oilers need to address through free agency and trades.

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Rebuilding an NHL team from the ground up isn't going to be a painless experience for the players of their fans. There will be losses. And there will be ugly losses. When a team sends out a lineup filled with raw rookies night after night there isn't much more that can reasonably be expected. But even if you know all of that going in it doesn't automatically make the losing any easier to take night, after night, after night, after night, especially for a fan base that's been losing for six years in a row.

With back-to-back last place finishes behind them, the team, and a lot of the fans, felt that this would be the season that the Oilers started to transition from perennial also-ran into a contender. In early January Steve Tambellini made it clear that he did not want to be a lottery team again. And yet, three and a half months later, that is exactly what his team turned out to be. It was a tough season for the fans but there were also glimpses of a better future ahead. There are, even for a dedicated pessimist like myself, reasons for optimism.

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This morning the following tweet was sent out from Linus Omark's official Twitter account.

@realoilfan I live to show that the "two" are wrong. But I really hope edm let me have a chance in another nhl team

— Linus Omark(@Limpanomark) April 11, 2012

That tweet has now been up for three hours so it's probably safe to assume that Omark's account hasn't been hacked and that Omark, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, has made one of the most public trade requests in recent memory.

Omark split his time this season between Edmonton and Oklahoma City and was most recently recalled on March 5 but dressed in only nine of the Oilers last 17 games. Given how Omark was utilized over the last weeks of the season it became increasingly clear that, for whatever reason, he didn't have a future with the Oilers and that his time in Edmonton was quickly coming to an end. This public shot at the Oilers certainly takes that to a new level.

Two years ago Steve Tambellini made his first appearance at the NHL's annual draft lottery, the event held to determine which of the leagues five worst teams will be given the opportunity to make the first selection in the upcoming NHL draft. Last year after a second consecutive 30th place finish Tambellini made another trip to Toronto to be part of the show. And this year Tambellini will be part of the festivities one more time as the Oilers find themselves in the unenviable position of being in the draft lottery for a third straight season.

After hosting a draft lottery party in each of the last two seasons the Oilers have taken a different, more subdued, approach to the event this time around. Perhaps that's because Tambellini, as he told us in January, didn't want to be a lottery team again. Or maybe it's because the Oilers finished 29th this season meaning that the Blue Jackets have the best chance at securing the first overall selection. Or maybe the team realized that celebrating failure year after year tends to get old quickly. Lottery odds and more after the jump.

Update: Things went the Oilers way tonight, they won the lottery and will be picking first overall for the third season in a row this June.

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When it comes to Tom Renney's fate with the Oilers I could honestly go either way. If he's let go tomorrow I won't lose any sleep over it. And if he's extended I won't take to Twitter to rip apart Oilers management for another bizarre decision. Basically I'm ambivalent about Renney; I haven't been thrilled each and every night with all the work he's done behind the Oilers bench but at the same time I'm not sure what he was supposed to do with a roster that was virtually unchanged from the team that finished 30th overall the year before. As the saying goes, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

That lack of significant improvement to the lineup over the past summer (or the summer before, or the summer before that) is why I think Steve Tambellini, not Renney, is the man most to blame for the Oilers recent season and that if anyone is going to pay for another disappointing season with their job that his name should be at the very top of the list. And yet it would seem, if you believe what the local media has to say, that Renney is the man most likely to be sent packing. But if Oilers management is considering an extension for Tambellini the smart thing to do would be to keep Renney around for another year as well.

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The Oilers played game 79 tonight. For those counting that means there are only three games left in what has been another miserable and disappointing season for the Oilers. Sure there have been good times this season and there are a few things worth being excited about but the rebuild still looks to be a long way away from anything more than selling hope. There are still far more losses than wins and plenty of nights where the team simply doesn't look like and NHL team, tonight in Anaheim was one of those nights.

The Oilers had luck on their side early with bounces leading to two goals but that was all the scoring the team would do. There wouldn't be many more scoring chances either, or even shots for that matter. Throughout the game the Ducks were the dominant team and looked many times to be on the verge of scoring but Devan Dubnyk was excellent in the Oilers net holding to the Ducks to just a single goal. If not for Dubnyk the Oilers, who were outshot 33-15, would have lost this game in an ugly way.

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When I look at the standings I find myself wishing that the Oilers and the Canucks could switch places. I am by no means a Canucks fan but I can’t deny that that team is pretty damn good and with the Oilers two years into the five-year plan that is Rebuild II, it would be a welcome change to cheer for a team that I expect to win on a nightly basis. Unfortunately the Oilers can’t just switch places with the Canucks on the ice but they might be able to learn something from them in the dressing room, like how to deal with concussions.

On Sunday afternoon in a game against the Blue Jackets Theo Peckham stayed down on the ice for about 15 seconds after taking a hit from Rick Nash. Peckham was sent to the "quite room" for evaluation but returned a few minutes later to play another five shifts only to leave the game with a concussion before the end of the first period. Given the NHL’s concussion protocol that sequence of events doesn’t seem right to me.

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Two weeks ago, after a halfhearted effort against the San Jose Sharks, Tom Renney took some shots at his team and their play (if you missed it, or just want to watch it again, you can find the video here). In the seven games since then the Oilers have come away with at least a single point in every outing and with a 5-0-2 record during that stretch have eliminated the gap that had existed between them and the teams ahead of them in the standings. As of this morning the Oilers have 71 points and find themselves in 28th place only two points back of the 26th place Islanders.

With their season effectively over the Oilers picked a somewhat odd time to start winning games because with wins come points that improve a teams position in the standings. And, as I'm sure you know, with each spot the team climbs in the standings now that corresponds to a spot further down in the draft order come June. In fact, the Oilers have actually played so well of late that if they were to win four or five of their final six games there is an outside chance that Steve Tambellini might not get to make his annual appearance on TSN's draft lottery special.

For the fans who have fallen in love with the draft and think that the Oilers are just another lottery pick away from a Stanley Cup this is of course seen as cause for concern. To listen to some you'd think that the team is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions; human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! But I think it's absolutely great. After the jump I'll tell you why.

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Tonight Nikolai Khabibulin made his first appearance in Tampa Bay since turning away 16 of 17 shots for the Lightning in Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final against Calgary. Throughout the playoffs I cheered for whoever was playing Calgary and by the time they reached the finals I was in almost constant state of fear that they might actually win the Stanley Cup. It was a thought that was almost too much to bear.

But in that final Khabibulin played some really great hockey, posting a save percentage of 0.918 and holding the Flames to a single goal or less three times (three of Tampa Bay's four wins). He was a big reason why the Flames didn't win that series and for that I'm grateful but part of me wonders if a Khabibulin without a Stanley Cup ring would have been just a little less attractive to Steve Tambellini in July of 2009 when the Oilers signed him to a four-year deal.

Khabibulin has been a big part of what has been wrong with the Oilers during the last three seasons during which the team has finished last twice and appears to be headed for a second last finish season this time around. That all of this could somehow be tied to the seven games when I cheered for him is a little depressing. But if I could go back and do it all over I wouldn't change a thing.

For those interested in the game that was actually played tonight and not one from June of 2004, there is a recap after the jump.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Raw Charge

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With only 15 games remaining in the Oilers season, the sixth straight season that will end without playoff hockey, the thoughts of a number of fans have already turned to next season. Given the state of the team right now there is lot of work ahead for the Oilers this offseason if they want to be a competitive team next season and actually play games that have some meaning after the All-Star break. Earlier this week Alan Hull took a look at just how much work needs to be done to achieve that goal and if you haven't already I suggest you give his Fan Post a read.

Personally when I think ahead to next season and I try to picture the blue line I struggle to come up with an image that doesn't make me want to turn off the lights and cry in the dark for a while. If you've watched the Oilers this season you know the problems so I won't waste time reciting them for you but with the entire blue line either already under contract or a restricted free agent this summer there is the very real, and terrifying, possibility that next seasons blue line will look quite similar to this seasons. So what then is the plan for the blue line?

The plan for the blue line has been front and centre twice in the last month first after the Oilers re-signed Andy Sutton and again in the wake of the Tom Gilbert trade. As someone who has been critical of both moves, and the rebuild in general, I've been told by some fans that I don't know what Tambellini and the Oilers are planning and that I should just wait and see rather than criticize without having all the facts. It is true that I don't know what goes on behind closed doors at the Oilers offices but I have history and I think that can provide us with a hint to what the future holds.

After the jump I'll look at the Oilers blue line under Tambellini and what that might mean for the Oilers next season.

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A night after an uneven performance, bad line changes, and terrible turnovers lead to an Oilers loss to the Ducks the team was back on the ice in San Jose taking on the Sharks who find themsleves on the playoff bubble in the Western conference after losing eight of their last ten games. For a team battling for a playoff spot a visit from the 29th place team in the second of back-to-back games must look about as close to a free space as there is on the schedule but the NHL still makes the teams play the games and on this night the Oilers beat the odds, dropping the Sharks 3-2 in a shootout.

In all honesty the final score is really all I know about this game because I fell asleep trying to watch it. But because you, the faithful reader, deserve a game recap I watched the highlights this morning with the intent of putting something basic together. It was there however that I ran into an unexpected problem, the highlight package didn't contain much in the way of highlights. In fact the game seemed a little boring which might be why I fell asleep in the first place. So there will be no game recap today on this site today. If you want to read something about the game I direct you to Bruce McCurdy's work at the Cult of Hockey. Or if the mood strikes you why don't you just tell me what I missed.

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There are things to be excited about with the Oilers this season. Taylor Hall is progressing before our eyes and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, while they still have a long way to go, are plenty of fun to watch. Add in Ladislav Smid and Jeff Petry who have by now made believers out of most fans and there are some bright spots for sure.

The problem is nights like tonight in Anaheim. Nights when the Oilers beat themselves. And not with rookie mistakes, those would on some level be acceptable, but with complete defensive lapses that leave you wondering what the players were even thinking. Or more likely that they weren't thinking and that was the real problem. It's these nights that take the shine of the hope of a better future.

Tonight's example of a bleak future comes in the form of Ryan Whitney who had two turnovers that lead directly to two Ducks goals in the last four minutes of the game. Whitney managed to be on the ice for every goal against tonight (I will give him a pass on the first goal though, more on that in a bit) and finished -3 despite starting only one shift in the Oilers end of the rink. He's clearly a shadow of his former self and yet there is no reason not the expect the Oilers to start next season with him in a similar role, a role that he can't play.

There might be reasons for optimism but when you watch a player like Whitney and you realize he isn't going anywhere this summer, like most of the defence, you have to think that there is just as much reason to believe that this team is no closer to being a contender today than it was when the rebuild started 1,833 days ago. And that is a damn depressing thought.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Anaheim Calling

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For the first time since the Jets returned to Winnipeg, or to be more accurate the Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg and renamed themselves the Jets effectively screwing with the Jets franchise history, the Oilers traveled there to play the newest Canadian team, the only meeting this season between the two teams thanks to the NHLs current schedule format that unfortunately looks like it will last for at least one more season.

From the opening anthem you can tell that the fans in Winnipeg are happy to have an NHL team once again. I haven't heard Rexall Place that loud for an anthem since early in the 2006 season, when memories of the Stanley Cup run were still fresh and the Ryan Smyth death march had yet to start. Once the game started chants of "Go Jets Go" were plentiful and the occasional "Oilers Suck" could be heard as well. With the Jets in the thick of the playoff race it must be fun to be a Jets fan. For once.

Despite a rather hectic start to the game that saw the teams trade turnovers and chances the game remained scoreless through 35 minutes. But once the scoring started it really started. Before the second period ended the teams would combine for three goals with the home team taking a 2-1 lead into the third period. For a team looking to make the playoffs a third period lead against the team occupying 29th spot needs to result in two points but the Jets managed to blow that lead inside of two and a half minutes. Eventually losing 5-3 to the Oilers.

They may not be the same Jets but the results are exactly the same when they play the Oilers: we win.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report

Arctic Ice Hockey Recap: Winnipeg Jets Get Drilled By Edmonton Oilers 5-3

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It's been a long time since the Oilers have gone into Calgary and come away with a win. Since October of the 2008/09 season to be exact. Edmonton has played in Calgary ten times and have lost each and every time since then. But that streak ended tonight as the Oilers not only won but dominated the Flames en route to a 6-1 road win over their provincial rivals. That's not a typo, the Oilers scored six goals tonight. And they won. In Calgary. In yet another season that's been reduced to nothing more than moral victories this was a very nice game to win.

The Flames scored first but the Oilers were the better team from start to finish and it wasn't really even close. Miikka Kiprusoff made the acrobatic saves Oilers fans have gotten very tired of seeing and there were thoughts that maybe his heroics would be too much to overcome but the Oilers owned the Flames on the shot clock, out chanced them by a significant margin, and chased Miikka Kiprusoff after two periods. With only four penalties in total, three to Mark Giordano, the other a delay of game call on Ladislav Smid, the game wasn't anything like the 1980's versions of the Battle of Alberta but who cares, the Oilers won. Let that sink in for a minute, the Oilers won.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Matchsticks and Gasoline

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The Oilers hosted their division rivals, the Vancouver Canucks last night. The Canucks are a much better team than the Oilers. You know that and I know that. On the off chance anyone in the building had somehow forgotten that fact the visitors provided a nice refresher course as they dominated the Oilers, handing the home team a lopsided 5-2 loss.

Games against teams against other Canadian teams always get the fans in Rexall Place excited. It's fun to be in the building even if you know that a large group of the fans isn't cheering for the Oilers and the rest are just trying to drown that group out. Unfortunately when the visitors score on the first shift of the game it's tough to put on a brave face and support the beloved blue and orange as they struggle to simply keep their heads above water.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Nucks Misconduct

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Jordan Eberle's second season has been a lot of fun to watch. He not only leads the Oilers in goals, assists, and points but he's among the NHL leaders in those categories as well. As of this morning Eberle's 25 goals place him in a tenth place tie league wide and with 55 points he's tied for eleventh, just a single point out of the top ten. After finishing his rookie season with 43 points, good for tops on last year's version of the Oilers, Eberle hasn't missed a beat in his sophomore season.

Eberle has certainly benefitted this season from Tom Renney's decision to shelter the Chosen Line with generous zone starts and second tier competition on an almost nightly basis, not to mention a shooting percentage mere decimal points below 20%, but to his credit he's excelled in that role. You can argue that his numbers are inflated but his skills are undeniable and he looks like he will be a very good NHL player for a very long time.

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The Oilers got warmed up for the trade deadline by making a minor deal this afternoon, trading Ryan O'Marra to the Anaheim Duck for Bryan Rodney. Rodeny has played in 41 games this season for the Ducks AHL affliate, the Syracuse Crunch, scoring 5 goals and 15 assists. Before signing with the Ducks in July 2011 Rodney was a member of the Hurricanes organization where he played a total of 33 games with them at the NHL level over the last three seasons.

O'Marra of course joined the Oilers on the first day of Rebuild I when he was acquired from the Islanders along with Robert Nilsson and the first round pick that the Oilers would eventually use to select Alex Plante in exchange for Ryan Smyth. Since then O'Marra has spent the bulk of his time playing in the AHL, first for the Springfield Falcons and more recently for the Oklahoma City Barons. In each of the last three seasons O'Marra has made brief appeances in Edmonton playing a total of 31 games, scoring a single goal. With the Barons this season O'Marra had 17 points in 40 games.

I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about Bryan Rodney; in fact, an hour ago it would be safe to assume that I'd never ever even heard of the man. So to get an idea of who Bryan Rodney is I thought I'd see what our good friends at Anaheim Calling had to say about him. The following are the last two mentions of Rodney on their site; draw from these what you will.

From Chirping the Bench: The Philosophy of Lit:

You watch these guys play now, and you can see sparks of potential again. The energy is there. The drive appears to be brought back (unless your name is Dan Sexton). But then Yawney lets Bryan Rodney onto the ice, and everything falls apart.

From Chirping the Bench: Valley Low:

A few games ago, the Crunch lost in OT after Bryan Rodney stepped aside and allowed free reign at a rather rusty Jeff Deslauriers. Everyone in the building knew the game was over as soon as they saw that Rodney was our last line of defense, and sure enough the Crunch went home crying.

Someday in the distant future when Magnus Paajarvi tells his grandchildren about his days playing in the NHL it seems unlikely that this season will be featured prominently in any of his stories. After a solid rookie season with the Oilers, a season where he scored 15 goals and added 19 assists, Paajarvi has struggled to find his scoring touch this season - he scored his first and only goal of the season four days ago - and has as a result been demoted to Oklahoma City in an effort to get his game back on track not once but twice.

This summer when I looked at sophomore slumps I concluded that it was unlikely that each of Paajarvi, Taylor Hall, and Jordan Eberle would improve their point totals this season. And I was right. But as much as I like to be right I can't say that I saw this kind of production drop off coming. If I was to update the chart from this summer Paajarvi would, at his current pace, find himself ahead of only Patrik Berglund. Since I thought Paajarvi was the most likely to see his per game scoring increase, this is more than a little surprising. So what happened?

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In the last few weeks many NHL insiders have speculated that Ales Hemsky and Andy Sutton were the Oilers most likely to be moved at this season's trade deadline. With news this morning of a contract extension we can take one of those two players off the likely to be traded list. Unfortunately, the player in question is not Ales Hemsky. The Oilers still don't have one of the best forwards to ever play for the franchise signed to a new deal but have now gotten another bottom pairing defenseman locked up. Sutton's extension (according to Bob McKenzie because the Oilers still refuse to release financial details) is worth $1.5M with a $250k bonus for games played.

After the jump I'll take a look at Sutton's season, the value of this deal, and what this means for the Oilers going forward.

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Tonight the Oilers took to the ice in Detroit against the best team in the NHL. In addition to sitting atop the NHL standings the Red Wings are also one of the best home teams and are currently on a franchise record 17 game home winning streak. The Oilers, for those who have forgotten, are not one of best teams in the NHL and are not very good when playing on the road. To say that tonight's game was a mismatch would be an understatement.

And the Oilers did little to make the game any closer in reality than it appeared to be on paper. They were outshot 30-17 and outchanced 17-11. The Wings dominated the play and kept the Oilers hemmed in their own end for long stretches of time. In fact, if not for some good goaltending from Nikolai Khabibulin early on the Oilers wouldn't have been close enough to tie the game in the third period so bad goaltending from Khabibulin could help seal a 4-2 the win for the WIngs; their 18th in a row on home ice. The Oilers haven't won more than 18 home games in a season since 2007/08.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Winging It In Motown

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