Speaking of Wookiees

The new batch of kids were handed their numbered jerseys today. MPS will wear 91, Eberle will wear 14 and Hall was ceremoniously awarded Kevin Lowe's old number 4.

Not real earth-shatteringly shocking news.  But interesting none the less as I suppose this means they will all have a spot waiting for them on the roster - It's theirs to lose.

I can't wait for this season to start already.  It's going to be a lottery year again I think, but a least we might have some fun watching these guys play.

-TB

Getting Excited - UPDATED

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season. So excited that I figured I needed to write about it. Ok, I am excited but I'm really only writing this right now to prove to Oilersnation stalwart commenter "Buck75" that my blog is indeed still active. I was planning on writing something about the upcoming season in the next week or so, but he just kicked my butt into doing it. No problem. I blog in my sleep.

So lets get started, shall we?

The topic of discussion I want to talk about is how Tambo's summer went from my point of view.

Short Answer: Great.

He started off by firing/reassigning the training staff. Awesome. I didn't like the way that one guy tossed Hemsky towels during a game last season. I'm no physiologicalist, but I think that towel toss may be the reason Hemsky bowed out of the season early with a shoulder injury.

He reassigned the great Pat Quinn higher up the ladder and stripped him of his coach-ship. Really, it's just a fancy way of firing without all the optics of a "firing". Renney has the reigns now. That's cool. I think Pat is a good hockey mind, but it was quite evident last season that he had no real pulse of his lineup - not that it was much of a lineup. Really nobody, except Penner, excelled during his reign. That should say something. Renney brings a more scientific approach to coaching, as well he seems to be more dialed in with his players. That being said, Renney doesn't scare the fuck out of me like Quinn does. Maybe that was part of Quinn's problem...who knows. Only time will tell I guess.

Tambo also unleashed his wrath on the roster. Nilsson, O'Sullivan and Moreau all were placed on waivers. Good riddance. I don't necessarily champion the idea of waiving your Captain...but, in my opinion, Moreau shouldn't have been named Captain to begin with. So...yah, that's a whole other blog. Moreau was picked up by Columbus off waivers, O'Sullivan was traded to Phoenix for Vandermeer (and then released by Phoenix - OUCH!). Nilsson signed in the KHL. Good stuff.

Tambellini also added a few peeps to the roster by acquiring some players via trades, free agent signings and re-upping some existing Oilers:

SAM GAGNER	C	21	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT AUGUST 29
LIAM REDDOX	LW	24	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AUGUST 9
MARTIN GERBER	G	35	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AUGUST 6
JEFF DESLAURIERS	G	26	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 31
GILBERT BRULE	C	23	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 27
RYAN O'MARRA	C	23	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 16
GREGORY STEWART	LW	24	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 16
THEO PECKHAM	D	22	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 15
J-F JACQUES	LW	25	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 14
DEVAN DUBNYK	G	24	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 13
SHAWN BELLE	D	25	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 13
BEN ONDRUS	RW	28	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 9
BRAD MORAN	C	31	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT JULY 7
TAYLOR HALL	LW	18	SIGNED 3-YEAR ENTRY LEVEL CONTRACT JULY 5
ALEXANDRE GIROUX	LW	29	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AS A UFA JULY 3
STEVE MACINTYRE	LW	29	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AS A UFA JULY 2
JASON STRUDWICK	D	34	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AS A UFA JULY 2
RICHARD PETIOT	D	27	SIGNED 1-YEAR CONTRACT AS A UFA JULY 2
KURTIS FOSTER	D	28	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT AS A UFA JULY 1
JIM VANDERMEER	D	30	ACQUIRED FROM PHOENIX FOR PATRICK O'SULLIVAN JUNE 30
COLIN FRASER	C	25	ACQUIRED FROM CHICAGO FOR 6TH ROUND CHOICE (151ST OVERALL) IN 2010 DRAFT JUNE 24 & SIGNED TWO-YEAR CONTRACT WITH OILERS JULY 1
MAGNUS PAAJARVI-SVENSSON	LW	19	SIGNED 3-YEAR CONTRACT JUNE 2
LINUS OMARK	RW	23	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT APR. 6
CHRIS VANDE VELDE	RW	23	SIGNED 2-YEAR CONTRACT APR. 6

As you can see, plenty of depth/role players, some key re-signings and of course: Taylor Hall. There's also a plethora of, presumably, AHL players that were picked up over the summer. Good stuff. Setting up shop in Oklahoma over the summer was a catalyst to build a team that can at least compete. The shitshow in Springfield last year was atrocious. Come to think of it - the NHL team wasn't much better. It did get us Hall though. YEAH!

The only RFA waiting to be re-signed is Cogliano. From what I've read there is a deal on the table and it's pretty much in Cogliano's hands at this point. Obviously there's a bit of a gap between the two sides. I'm sure it will be agreed upon in the near future.

What else did Tambo do? Oh yeah...He let Pisani go out to pasture (signed with Chicago) and he also will apparently let the newlywed Comrie have an extended honeymoon by not re-signing him. It's probably for the best. Sad to see both of them go, but there's a lot of young talent bubbling under the surface here that the team needs to have a good look at.

Tambo also had plenty of drama to deal with this summer. There's the Souray thing and of course this whole Khabibulin thing. Tambo has been trying to deal Souray since the end of last season. As you can imagine, there's not much of a market for an oft-injured, old, high salaried player that doesn't have that "team player" aura. Tambellini waived Souray...nobody wanted him...even at half price. That's a kick to the junk from Souray's point of view. Well, I suppose it's a kick to the junk to the Oilers too. :(

Khabibulin just got his sentence the other day for his DUI trial in Phoenix. His lawyers appealed the sentence, further delaying any real resolution. This seemed to catch Tambellini a bit off guard. The plus to all this is that by appealing the sentence it makes Khabibulin available for training camp and the beginning of the season. From what I've read the appeal process can drag on forever - perhaps even to next summer.

That's pretty much it for the major news hits from the Oilers over the summer. It's hard to believe summer is almost over. Rookie camp kicks off in a couple weeks and main camp is shortly after that. Unreal.

So, back to the beginning of all this rambling. Why am I excited?

Mostly because of these beauties: (nohomo)

Who saw this coming?!? Not Buck75...that's who didn't see this coming.

-TB

UPDATE:

P.S.  Don't click here.

Eberle Mancrush Starts in 5, 4, 3, 2...

Photo above: Canadian Players huddle around Jordan Eberle for warmth.

Most likely because he was on fire in the 12-1 romp over Norway

at the WHC in the southern German city of Mannheim on May 14, 2010.

1G, 4A, +3

Team Canada Player of the Game

I love this kid. I know...I know...It's only Norway. I will hold off on the statue and parade for now.

Still, I think the future looks bright in Edmonton with MPS, Eberle and Hall/Seguin knocking on the door.

-TB

Wait...what? There's Hockey Already?

Picture Above: Me, looking at the calendar the other day and discovering there is hockey being played already.

What the hell!?! There's friggin hockey being played already! It's the middle of September! Who saw this coming!?!

Yeah, so basically in my excitement of becoming a new owner of a sweet top hat (pictured above), I forgot that the preaseason season was happening. I didn't forget in the sense that the Oilers have played two preseason games already and I didn't know. I "forgot" in the sense that some people actually read this site and expect well written, informative and often mind blowing essays on all things Oil. What better time to fire up the old blogging machine than the first preseason game for the Oilers. Problem is, I was lazy...didn't do it and the first preseason game was two days ago.

Sooooo, I'm hoping all my faithful readers will forgive my laziness and absense over the past couple months and start reading my crap again. I have quite a few unique visitors to this site. If you'll bare with me, I'd like to give a shout out to some of my regular returning visitors:

1. Google cache. You, my friend, have been coming back to this site since it started. You stop by every few days to see if there's any new content and I applaud you for that. I'll remember you, always.

2. Google image search = Child_crying.jpg

I don't know what it is about this picture...but it gets more visitors to my site than any other image I have. People must google image search "Child crying" lots...cuz I bet I get 3 or 5 unique visitors per month looking for this image. Is there that many depressed individuals in the world that they actually look for pictures like this? Does it make them feel better? I know it makes me feel better and I'm glad I google image searched it 10 months ago. I look at it from time to time when I'm feeling sad and I realize that the kid in that picture has it much worse than I do. "Haha...loser" I say to the kid in that picture when I'm feeling sad, and then after I say that I feel awesome again. True story.

3. us.military.gov - I'm not sure what you guys are looking for, but I'm not involved in any terrorist plots to overthrow the government and I think Obama is a pretty cool dude.

4. Mom - Thanks mom.

5. Person that connects to the internets via the University of Alberta running MacOSx - You read this site. Lots. If I could identify you I would by you a sandwich or something. Keep coming!

6. Myself - You, good sir, have more visits to this site than anyone I know. You are amazing, great looking and you have a great smile. I thank you for your tireless efforts in reading this site and I hope you'll continue doing so as the season wears on. Thank you. Sincerely.

Ok, now that we've got that out of the way...How about those OILERS!!! Yeah baby! 2 and 0 to start the preseason. I love it. I am locking down playoff tickets as we speak. I would like to share with you a few observations from the training camp and the two games so far:

- Everyone looks real damn rusty. Like seriously...how many missed nets, posts and whiffs happened in the first two games? I don't keep stats for that stuff, but I wager if it was a number...it'd be high.

- Ethan Moreau's eye still creeps me out.

- Pat Quinn looks godly behind the bench and I swear to god he will cause the splitting of an atom at some point this season from chewing the hell out of that piece of Extra Sugar Free gum.

- We have like 35 goalies at training camp this year. WTF?

- Schremp sure looked good in the first preseason tilt in Calgary. He really controlled the play on the PP and he didn't look too terribly out of position. The Islanders are sure going to have a sweet waiver wire pickup when the Oilers have to place him on waivers because they have 102 forwards to fill 14 or so spots in the lineup.

- Hemsky looks like a giant when he plays with Gagner and Nilsson. Like he absolutely looks HUGE.

- Eberle is a beaut! Man, this kid is gonna be some kind of awesome if/when he makes the team. It's crazy to think he'll go back to JUNIOR if/when the Oilers boot him out of taining camp. Pretty solid offensively. Quick shot and he's sneaky.

That's about it for now. The Oilers' next preseason game is tomorrow night against the Panthers. Somehow the TSN preseason power rankings have put the Panthers one spot ahead of the Oilers, so I figure the Panthers should walk right thru Rexall on friday and score 12 goals and not even break a sweat. We'll see, TSN preseason power rankings....we'll see.

-TB