Your Edmonton Oilers Fan Site
Where your opinion matters
Dec 28/02
Different topic, I am really getting annoyed at these bandwagon jumpers. On and off of our beloved team. Ohhh, we sucked at the beginning of the year, our worst team ever. Get rid of them all. Oh wait, we are on a roll, winning a ton in a row? Wow, best team ever, might even be better then the 80's. We could go all the way. Smart move to keep all our guys. Ohhh, wait now, we don't win in 5 games, man, we suck. Worst team I have ever seen, fire everyone, get new players. Trade Salo. Man that one really gets to me. Here we have a low maintance guy with huge stamina and is easy a top 10 guy in the league, usually rated better then that. And we have him on a small market Canadian team at an amazing price. Trade him? For who?? and how much will the new guy want in cash and special treatment? God, this is all I have been hearing. Lets look at it shall we. Hmmm, play some huge nasty power teams, lose a lot, win some. Play some easier teams plus some tough ones, Win lots, even some with the tougher teams. Wow, really great. Hmm, pull 2 points in 5 games against teams that are on top of the league. Wow, really that isn't to bad, not great but expected. We outshoot a team by 15 shots, out chance them 3 to 1, but lose in OT and we suck? I don't think so. Unlucky maybe, not suck. And how good is it for the players to hear all the time that they suck. Hmmm, confidence is down, lets fill all the media we can with how bad they are, should pick them back up. Played great except for 1 turnover that cost them the game. Hmmm, lets dwell on that instead of the rest of the quality game. It just goes to strenghten my resolve that I hate all morons with a passion. Go Oilers Go!! You are doing great for what you have to work with. Keep it up, some of us can actually see all the good things you are doing out there!!
Dec 28/02
My God. How stupid is our favorite team. We just love to toss away talent. We have a guy here who could arguable be the best Check player in the world. A guy who back home would give Jagr a run for his money. We got him for a song. What do we do? Gee, we have a huge talent who isn't used to our style of play in the NHL, he is 33, that is a long time to play 1 way. Well lets give him 8-9 minutes of ice always with different guys for 10 games. If he doesn't score 10 goals well we will sit him on the bench or just scratch him. He has a knee injury? So what difference would that make. What a shock after sitting for a few games he wants out. Gee, how many more guys can we not give a real chance to and have just walk away. How many more guys can we see lighting it up on other teams who actually gave guys a chance and say, wow, he never played like that when he was here. Man, some days I just want to walk up to that glass tower these coachs and managers live in and just smack them upside the head.
Dec 22/2002
Ouch, what a run. We need to get back on track again. I have no idea what happened there in overtime in the Vancouver game. What kind of rule is it that you can get a 5 on 3 in overtime?? That is the stupidest thing I have ever seen! What happens when the 1st penelty is over? 5 on 4? Then the 2nd one ends and it is 5 on 5 in overtime?? What next, in regulation time, being down 5 on 3, take another penalty and they let it be 6 on 3?? 7 on 3 after another penalty?? Are they making the rules up as they go along?? Such a great effort to tie the game and get to overtime and Boom, someone makes up new rules and we lose it. Ugh, and that effort or lack there of in Colorado, or even that stupidity in Minnisota. My goodness, what is with the Oilers and 2 goal leads. Get it through your heads boys, you are not a defensive team. Don't sit back and try and defend a lead. Your all great but it just isn't your style. Remember, if you have the puck in there zone, they can't score on you. If you let them come at you time and time again, guess what, they are going to score.
Dec 12/2002
Hmmm, looks like they did it again. Tossed away a player for nothing. I hate when that happens. I am sure we could have gotten something for him. Hamilton could have used him I am sure. And what is with the Rangers anyway. How many of our castoffs could they possibly want. Is it even possible for the Oilers to trade with anyone but the Rangers? Should someone get Lowe a list of the other GM's phone numbers for Christmas?
Dec 11/2002
Well another win under our belts and I finally got out to my first game of the season (Thanks again Thure). Now we will the game 4-1, and people are upset we didn't get 3 shutouts in a row. They should be thrilled we came out of that game at all. During the first period we might as well not had anyone on the ice except Tommy Salo. He was the first period. How we came out of it not down 3-0 I will never know. It could have been better but we seem to have no idea how to take 1 step and get the puck out of our own zone. Yeah, look for the pass, look for the play but not taking that one step and getting it "out" led to turnover after turnover and the need to have Tommy put on a highlight reel save performance for the first period. It is nice to see York out there putting up some points now, shows how when you have a talented player you shouldn't be quick to give up on him, give the guy some ice time, people to play with and things happen. Hint hint Jiri Dopita. Let the guy play. He looked great out there double shifting the other night in Atlanta. Other then size, you couldn't tell he wasn't the usual guy in that spot. How can he get comfortable and confident with less then 10 minutes per game. One other thing on an unrelated note. I would like to see the message boards get some more traffic so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.
Nov 24/2002
Well there is not much to rant about these days. They really didn't put out much effort at all against LA but that is the only downside in the last while. They are showing that they play well as a team and can win games. Makes you wonder what their problem was earlier. At least now if things go badly again we will know who to blame.
Nov 8/2002
Ugh, what can I say. They played with no effort, stood around until the 3rd period, dug themselves a hole and didn't climb back out. Someone needs to take them out back and smack them around a bit. Or maybe toss in their contracts that they lose money when they lose games, might make some of those lazy $#$@!#'s wake up a bit and do their jobs which is play hard and win.
Nov 1/2002
Why oh why oh why. The thing you really notice about the top lines in the league is their ability to read each other, know where the other players are, be able to make those blind passes, knowing how your linemates think. Look back to last year when Smyth, Comrie and Carter were lighting it up. They knew each other, fed off that knowledge and played like the best in the NHL. Now this season we can't keep a line together for more then 10 minutes. How can they learn to know each other when they are always with someone knew. Especially with the new players. Dopita was the best player in the Cech league, here, he is still getting used to everything around him, at least put him with one consistant guy he can learn. I don't see how anyone can expect him to do when playing with a different guy each night. Pair him with the other new guy York. Let them stick together for a few weeks and see what happens. I am sure they will learn each other and start producing. York has proven he has what it takes to play with talent and noone can deny that Dopita has talent. Let them learn each other, learn each others styles. If it happens we will have a great second line. If we keep shuffling all the time, Dopita will just become another Oiler we traded who didn't do much here but became a superstar after he left. And god knows we already have way to many of those.
Oct.24/2002
Ack, man, ugh. How much easier can they make it for us, 4th and 5th string goalies with ZERO nhl experience and we manage 1 whole goal. They only score twice on us and we can't beat that on nobodies. They didn't even put on the pressure, pepper these rookies with shots, try and scare them, maybe even bump them a bit, get them rattled. And they are still all going to the same side of the net, makes life so much easier on the opposition goalie when they only have one side of the net to worry about. Sigh.
Oct.22/2002
Wow, after all our pain and misery, after losing to 3rd string and rookie goaltenders, we come up against Patrick Roy, on his home ice, with a healthy line-up in front of him. So what do we do? Take the lead twice and manage a tie. I didn't get to watch a lot of the game but I am seeing the Oilers make the same mistake they have been making for years. They never have anyone at the far side of the net. Tonight at one point one of our guys had it behind the net, Smyth is out front and off to the side. Smyth comes in to the same side the guy behind the net is coming to. So the wrap around attempt comes with Smyth right in there too. Wow, Roy blocks that side of the net, and no goal. Now if Smyth goes to the far side of the net, just 2 steps over, now Roy has to watch for the pass to him and a possible wrap around. I can't say they would have scored then, but the chances would have been greater. The Oilers always seem to all go to the same side of the net, never anyone on the far side. I hate going to game, see a puck fly through the opponents crease and the crowd goes "OOOHHHHH" like we had a chance. We never have a chance because we never put anyone over there. We would score a ton more goals if we tossed a guy on that side instead of in front.
Oct.15/2002
Well we lost in Dallas AGAIN. What can you do? I watched the game and they played well, did a lot of things right, just never got a break. Now Dallas got breaks, my god, over then net into the perfectly fluked timing on Lehtinens stick. Now that was a 1 in a million goal there. Sigh, in dallas, lost again.
Oct.11/2002
Well they tossed away Mike Grier, the guy with the heart, the guy who can pop a shoulder, run back to the bench, pop it back in and then play the next shift. Tough to find guys like that anymore. All this wah wah wah I hurt my pinkie, I am out for a month type junk. And for draft picks because next years draft is supposed to be good? How many young guys do we have already? Ugh, oh well, what can you do. Also Hemsky on the first line. I was skeptical but I liked it, I really did, plus the Carter Dopita and York line looked good too. I hope they keep that up for a while and see what we can get out of it.
Oct.10/2002
Well here we go, it is 4 hours until gametime and I am pumped up and ready to go. I am sure I will get something out of this game to add a little contect to this site, tough to watch early in the season without a tons of mistakes too. Especially after the end to the preseason that we had there.
Oct.2/2002
The waiver draft protected lists are out and there really is no big surprises there for Edmonton. The only name that most people will recognize on that list and may go is Marty Reasoner. He had trouble staying in the line-up last year and is expendable will all the young guys who could be moving up.
Some names not protected out there that would be a nice fit for us include Steve Heinze from LA, Igor Ulanov from Florida(I know we lost him to free agency before but I like the guy and we can use a Defenceman who knows our system), Daniel Tkaczuk from St Louis and Brian Holzinger from Tampa Bay.
There are a few notable goalies in the draft but we really have no need of the expence of one of them unless we feel we can trade them for someone useful. If we do grab a goaltender like Rhodes or Billington, don't look at them staying long.
Sept.27/2002
Well here is my first rant on this new site. I keep looking at my favorite team and there are lots of good things and some bad ones. Being a small market team we are doing quite well but somethings you just have to wonder at. Not all of them are managements fault but I will rant and rave all I like.
The main one I still have not gotten over is over 2Million for Jason Smith. I mean come on, he had how many points last year? He is the Captain of a small market team. Set an example for everyone else. You know signing for that kind of money will only take money away from signing players that can put the puck in the net. What are you there for, to win or make a fast buck? If it is just for the money, turn over the C to someone who actually cares about the team.
I have a few old ones too, stuff that I thought about putting on the site before there was a site so I will just toss them in as I remember them. One is about Todd Marchant. Now this is a great player who just needs a little work. I remember hearing somewhere that he averages over 2 breakaways a game. Now we all know this guy is fast but just seems to have a problem scoreing. I say practice it man. Practice your breakaways for a few weeks. Just get you and Salo or a different goalie and work on it. Take their advice. If you would probably double your goals for the season.
Also another one is Mike Comrie. Now this is another great player, I love him on our team. He puts the puck in the net, passes, everything we need him to do. Now it may just be me but anytime I have seen a shot of him right after he scores, the guy is never smiling. Just that same totally serious look on his face. Come on, you scored, people are cheering and such, smile, enjoy it. That is what you are there for.
One last thing. I have been listening to some of the preseason on 630CHED and the call in show after. Seems some people are down on Mike Grier because he didn't produce much last season. Now I will agree his numbers weren't all that great but this is a great player. He has what a lot of guys lack these days. Tons and tons of heart and the disire to play. Look at his shoulder, popping in and out constantly. All those whiner, give me more money, type players would have gone crying home and sitting out recovering from their little boo-boo. Not Mike Grier, just pop it back in and send me back out there. That I can respect. Good old time hockey. All those stories of years ago, Guys playing with broken bones and such. Does the heart good to have a guy who loves to play that much.
