Tag Archives: Gretzky

Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Jan 24th-31st

Taken from oilers.nhl.com
Taylor Hall Celebrating in front of Mark Giordano, who’s a big tough guy that likes to hit people into the boards.

Hey guys! I’m back from a one week hiatus (I had a Basketball Coaching Clinic last Sunday).

During that one week break….the Oilers didn’t lose a game! They also didn’t win a game. Or lost in Overtime. Or the shootout.

There were no Edmonton Oilers games this past week. A weird blip on the schedule as the All Star Festivities are taking place in Nashville this weekend.

The most notable Edmonton Oiler event was the Skills Competition which took place last Sunday.

Which, if you’re like me, who missed out completely, here is the Skills Competition in it’s entirety.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars

There are none. Nobody gets a gold star due to lack of participation.

Seriously though, kinda hard to give three stars when there are no games.

IF I had to give one, I’ll go with Taylor Hall since he is representing the Edmonton Oilers today in the NHL All Star Game. Surprisingly, it is his first NHL All Star game. A bit shocking, but considering his injury woes and his career best year of 2013-14 had the olympics, it’s reasonable.

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors

There’s some rumblings out there concerning the Oilers.

First off, last week the Edmonton Oilers claimed Adam Clendening off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks. Clendening is now officially on his fifth NHL team since last season (7th professional team if you count the AHL)

What does he bring? Clendening is a Right handed shot, offensive defenseman who is on his last year of his Entry Level Contract. His downside is that he is a bit slower and struggles defensively.

Personally, this guy is the Justin Schultz replacement. He brings the same skill set as Schultz and is 3.2 million dollars cheaper in terms of cap.

Another rumour out there: Hamonic to Edmonton from Elliotte Friedman. Friedman was on Oilers Now saying to host Bob Stauffer that he believes the Oilers are working hard to get the deal done, with Jordan Eberle being the most likely candidate. He also mentioned Justin Schultz being on his way out, possibly to Buffalo.

Now it’s important to note that Friedman would tell Staples, the author of the link, that it was more of him speculating. I wrote at Oilonwhyte a few months ago that Eberle would be the most likely piece to be moved, depending on the fit. With it sounding that the Islanders are having trouble working on an extension with Kyle Okposo, maybe a fit is there?

Around the League

John Scott has an awesome Players Tribune Article.

Sticking with the Players tribune, Taylor Hall was part of the “What the Blank” series.

Commissioner Gary Bettman signed an extension to remain Commissioner thru 2022. 

 

Highlights

It’s an NHL All Star Clip Show!

Weber nearly breaks Chara’s hardest shot record, recording a 108.1 MPH Shot

 

John Tavares showed why he’s one of the best snipers in the NHL

 

Subban won the Breakaway Challenge because he was Jaromir Jagr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmDBwmoAxvQ

 

Here’s a throwback: Gordie Howe’s final NHL All Star Game at Joe Lewis Arena, which was also Gretzky’s first NHL All Star Game

 

The week Ahead:

Connor McDavid’s Return on February Second against the Columbus Blue Jackets! (Or at least, it looks like it)

On Thursday, the Oilers visit my second favorite team, the Ottawa Senators.

Finally, on Saturday, on Hockey Day in Canada, The Oilers visit the Montreal Canadiens at noon.

That’s all for the week that was. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter. Have a wonderful week Oil country!

Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Nov 30th-Dec 5th

Hey, the Oilers are not doing bad this week! They managed to go 2-1, losing a stinker in Toronto, winning in a shootout against Boston and winning in overtime against Dallas.

To be fair, I didn’t really expect the Oilers to be 2-1 this week. I had them going 1-2 with the win going against Toronto.

The Boston game was my second game of the season I had the chance to watch the Edmonton Oilers live and it was my first original six team and my first NHL shootout. Plus, this time, nobody broke their clavicles!

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars

3) Jordan Eberle . Eberle gets the third star this week because of his shootout winner and over time winner. That said, he has not played the greatest so far. However, both goals were just beautiful. Top corner, both goalies had no chance. It was vintage Eberle.

2) Taylor Hall. Hall right now has leveraged himself above Leon Draisaitl for best current Edmonton Oiler skater. He continues to drive the plays and is the heart of the Oilers offense. He had a very solid showings all week, including a goal in the game against Dallas.

1) Anders Nilsson. Could the Edmonton Oilers finally have a decent goaltender? He’s been rock solid these past few games. While all summer I was on board with Cam Talbot (I STILL AM!), it’s refreshing to see Nilsson, the guy who was seen as fighting for the backup spot with Ben Scrivens, taking the starting position. He stopped a whopping 42 shots out of 43 against Dallas. It’s not often we have an Oilers goalie stealing games for the team but we had one on Friday night.

Dishonorable mention: Mark Fayne. Boy Fayne looked god awful against Dallas. Oilers Nerd Alert has a solid blog post about how badly Fayne struggled.

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors

The Oilers don’t have a lot going on. Travis Hamonic is still a New York Islander. Mark Spector had a very obvious article that the Edmonton Oilers are bound to make a move by the NHL draft.

Yesterday, The Hockey News had an embarrassingly bad article about how the Edmonton Oilers must not get the First Overall pick yet again. I wrote a response over at Oilonwhyte.com but my goodness. When the author is the former Editor in Chief of the Hockey News and he can’t even get simple names right (Scott McLellan) or facts (Blues drafted Erik Johnson, not the Blue Jackets) its’ very hard to take something like that seriously. You should read it and treat it like part of the funnies section of the news paper.

Around the League

 

Highlights

Mike Condon made an outstanding save

 

Erik Karlsson is deadly in Overtime. Bonus: Bob Cole!

Best Radio Calls

 

Cool moment: Cammalleri ties the game up with Dad watching on.

This Wild fan watched the game in her wedding dress. What a keeper.

 

Finally, Eberle’s beauty in the shootout that sealed the Oilers win.

 

The Week ahead

The Oilers have three games this week all at home as they conclude a five game home stead. Tonight they face the Buffalo Sabres, what could have been McDavid vs Eichel round one, Wednesday against San Jose and Friday the Rangers visit for Glen Sather’s night at Rexall.

That’s the week that was, follow me on Twitter! Have a good one, Oil Country.

 

Beer League Hero

1996 World Cup of Hockey

When I was young my father had this inane ability to get tickets to hockey games that were hard to come by and I’m not really sure how he did it, to be honest I never bothered to ask. I got to see a lot of great hockey players by the time I was ten years old, Brett Hull, Wayne Gretzky (as a King), Ray Bourque, Steve Yzerman, etc. Unfortunately I don’t remember a whole lot from those games but in the summer of ’96 I was able to attend a very memorable hockey game. Nothing special, just an exhibition match between Russia and Canada before the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

All the names were there for the most part. Federov, Messier, Coffey, Kasparaitis, Lindros, Mogilny, Brodeur, Gretzky, Zhamnov, Kovalev, Fleury, Jovonovski, Rob Blake, and Claude Lemieux too. I think this was Glen Sather’s last true hurrah as an NHL coach. He did have a couple stints with the Rangers in the early 2000s but nothing compared to what he did in Edmonton.

It was a dream for me to be able to see such greats! We were treated to a few Paul Coffey end-to-enders and some vintage Eric Lindros hits. Russia countered with Federov and Mogilny dazzling the crowd with their ability to perform wizardry with the puck and Darius Kasparaitis was his typical self getting into it with both Mark Messier and Eric Lindros.

Our seats were right at the top of the Saddledone but at centre ice. Even with that though there was a pillar in the way and the roof slopes down so that made it a tad difficult to watch but nevertheless I got to see almost all of my heroes (#66 wasn’t on that team). As I wrote recently here about Paul Coffey, he was definitely the player I wanted to watch the most. Canada played “Canadian” hockey and Russia played “Russian” hockey and it ended in a 4 all draw. What a treat! Head here for an old write-up on the game.

Here are some highlights of a different game though. Possibly the most famous of all the games at that tournament. Game three of the World Cup of Hockey Finals vs. the USA. A few Oilers and ex-Oilers feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agJMOAh3e_U

As I said earlier, I don’t know how my dad got tickets to these games (he found a way to get tickets to the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals too) but I’m really happy he did. I think he enjoyed going to these games more to see my reaction to the players and how happy I was rather than for the entertainment of the game itself. I get it now.

Thanks Dad.