Why Blogging is Gaining Momentum

When crows have passion and desire to attain something, they put their minds to work, they overcome challenges. When it comes to people possessing passions, these individuals always know more than the average person lacking the said passion. Why do passionate people know more? Are people as smart as crows? I sure hope so.

Sarnia Sting and Nail Yakupov

On the June 4th Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer makes a comment during the Nail Yakupov segment. He states that Nail Yakupov's Sarnia Sting aren't as elite as the other CHL teams that had a top 3 draft pick stationed there. This statement is true, but it doesn't reflect badly on Yakupov, at least it shouldn't.

Five Alive

Stu MacGregor said today that there are 5 guys left in the running for 1. Yakupov, Grigorenko, Murray, Forsberg, and Reinhart. This is a pretty interesting list, and we should be thankful because teams don't often release this kind of info, especially pre-draft.

Farewell, Good Sir

The news has finally been dropped. The Oilers are parting ways with Tom Renney.

Thick Swiss Cheese

Devan Dubnyk is making head way!

The Oilers and Their 50-Man Roster

This is Tobias Rieder, the Oilers signed him to an entry-level contract today, adding to the already plump list of professional contracts.

WHC Underway

Team Canada played their first exhibition game today, and who's the guy to save the day? See above.

Looking at Leadership

 Some question floating around about the Oilers leadership, why there's no pride. I don't put a ton of stock into it, but I decided to look at the current captains in the NHL by record. Somehow my brain justifies that this is a plausible judge of leadership. Shawn Horcoff and Mark Streit are the only ones with records under .500. Both of these guys play for shitty teams, so it's not their fault, it's the GM's. If Horcoff stays captain I think his record will slowly creep toward .500, as with Streit too. But by the time this teams good I don't see a chance in hell that Horcoff is still captain. Number 4 will be the leader by then.

A Look at the Team in General

Salary Comparables to 83

Looking at the deal that was recently agreed upon, I look at other situations of guys signing for money within the same viscinity of Hemsky's $5 million cap hit. I like how they compare...

D-Day Approaches

25	BUFFALO	NE	60	26	27	7	59	21	150	176	-26	15-11-7	11-16-0	5-4	5-3-2	WON 2
26	NY ISLANDERS	ATL	60	25	27	8	58	21	140	176	-36	13-14-5	12-13-3	4-3	4-5-1	LOST 2
27	CAROLINA	SE	61	23	26	12	58	23	160	184	-24	16-12-4	7-14-8	0-5	5-2-3	OT 1
28	MONTRÉAL	NE	61	24	27	10	58	21	160	167	-7	11-14-8	13-13-2	3-8	5-4-1	LOST 2
29	EDMONTON	NW	60	24	30	6	54	21	161	178	-17	16-10-4	8-20-2	3-4	5-4-1	WON 2
30	COLUMBUS	CEN	60	18	35	7	43	15	142	198	-56	11-16-3	7-19-4	3-5	5-4-1	WON 1

Don't look now, but the Oilers are 4 points away from being out of the lottery! Don't get your hopes up though, we'll finish firmly in the bottom 5. Maybe win win and pick first!? Anyway...

Season So Far

Taylor Hall vs. Jordan Eberle

A lot of talk about Jordan Eberle today and what the Oilers should do about signing him. A bunch of guys looked into his season and found a percentage driven total. Of course, in the comments section, a question was brought up. Who's better, Hall or Eberle? I say Taylor Hall, but let's look at some numbers to see.

Revisiting the 2011 Draft vol. 3

Samu Perhonen

I'm not even going to list these stats.
Samu Perhonen is big, 6'5 big. His hair is bigger, but man, the ladies must line up to sniff it and feel it. PUURRRRRRR. Size as a goalie helps now-a-days because of the style. Goaltending now is all about the percentages. "I'm taking away the easy shot, try and pick a corner, bro". That's all it really comes down to, if the NHL wants scoring up they need to shift goaltending style back to the 80's days. That won't happen though. Anyway, Perhonen plays in Finland and was drafted 62nd overall. He is struggling this year, but goalie development, as we all know, is a crap shoot. Most goalies taken in last year's draft were in the 6th round, you think we could have waited a little longer to take him? Probably, this doesn't look good for Stu, his decision to draft this guy so early...