Tag Archives: Oilers Now!

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers

2019/20 Edmonton Oilers: Insiders Split On When Hockey Will Return

I’ll tell ya what, this is an awesome challenge being presented to sportswriters and bloggers everywhere. On a normal day, one has something to write about be that the game msot recently played or some roster speculation, perhaps something on prospect development, or even the upcoming draft. But when there’s no hockey being played, things get quite difficult I’ve found.

I mean look at the Athletic, for example, Oilers writer Jonathan Willis has gone back to ragging on Peter Chiarelli for his latest article and this guy is one of the more talented writers out there. He simply grabbed an interview between Chiarelli and Bruce Garrioch out of Ottawa and gave his two cents on the former Oilers GM’s comments…

Luckily for me, the boys on the radio haven’t let me down.

Yesterday on Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer interviewed both John Shannon and Mark Spector (Sportsnet) and he posed the same question to both,

“What percentage possibility would we have that we would have a Stanley Cup playoffs and a Stanley Cup Champion?” 

Spec said his gut tells him there’s a lot closer to a 25% chance that this happens. He basically said that hockey is at the behest of the governments of Canada and the US and when they decide that it’s safe to congregate in groups of more than 50 people (for example), then we might see some hockey.

“I don’t like the chances, Bob. I hope I’m wrong.”

Stauffer added this,

“Mark, if we get shut down for six more weeks here and they can hit the ice (around) basically May 1st and then we’re up and running for the playoffs May 15th. That’s the only way it’s feasible and a lot of things would have to go right for that to occur here.”

Mark Spector briefly noted that hockey would suffer if it were played in August. He thought the interest would be minimal if they were playing hockey in the summer.

Really? He reckons that there isn’t going to be any interest after the game was ripped out of our hands on the brink of the post-season? You have to be kidding me… Hockey fans are nuts. They’ll watch it on the moon if they have to. In addition to that, I don’t hear anybody complaining about the u-18s going in during August or the World Cups in September…

Shannon said he thinks there’s a 75% chance.

“First of all, let’s put this in practical terms. We all believe that the next 14-15 days are the most important of COVID-19 and the spread and containment of it. if everyone does their part then in 15 days from now we’ll get a better indication and that to me is a lamen and I do believe that the people in professional sports have had a much greater dialogue and understanding of what’s going on with the virus and in reading and in talking to a few people, they’ve said that the optimal opportunity is within 45 days of the 60-day CDC ban or suggested deployment of “nothing going on” that they could be in camp. And so I truly believe within our 15-day window and then another month we’ll have a great indication that the teams can go back to practice. 

Now, do I know that the virus is going to be contained? Absolutely not, but I do believe that it will pass and I believe that what we’ve witnessed what’s going on in China recently where there’s a decline in the virus, that we’re going to be in much better shape because we’ve admitted there’s an issue right from the beginning unlike some other countries.”

I like John Shannon, but North America wasn’t one of the parts of the world that hopped on this from the beginning. I was under the impression that Canada and the USA took action quite late and are now “paying the price” if you will.

Bob said he’s 50/50 on the NHL playoffs returning and Stanley Cup being rewarded.

Now, Am I missing something here? Is somebody going to magically make this virus disappear by the end of the week? I don’t think people back home get the severity of how contagious it is and if you saw the pictures posted from a Florida beach over the weekend, I don’t think the public has an idea either.

From last night to this morning, the global confirmed cases of infection went up 30,000 people approximately and we’re not even getting started yet. How in the world does anybody think that there’s even a snowball’s chance in hell that ANYTHING gets going before July?

From what I’ve read, a couple of things have to happen in order to really get a handle on this thing. Herd immunity where there are more infected than not. In order for that to happen, the numbers would have to spike at an unbelievable rate and that would put already stressed-out health care systems at high risk for failure, or a flattening of the curve where the health authorities manage to simply slow down the infection rate to the point to where it’s manageable.

I’ve seen online that the vaccines are on the way but it’s still going to be some time before they can be produced at the level required to stunt this virus globally.

The big thing standing in the way is the lack of testing that’s taking place in some countries and once that challenge is solved, the numbers will climb even more.

I kind of thought that for normal life to resume, the risk of catching this “bug” needs to be zero to none.

If we’re being honest here, I’m preparing for the season to be scrapped. I’m just waiting for an actual confirmation or else I’d just go directly into my off-season blogging content but I can’t do that because I’d feel like an ass if I started posting those articles and then the season actually came back.

I hope that John Shannon’s optimism pays off and everybody is back to normal in two weeks, I really do. I just have a hard time coming to grips with that reality right now and I feel that until it hits North America at full power, the public there has no idea and won’t until it’s too late. I even think that Mark Spector’s 25% is too high.

What do you think? What percentage do you give it that hockey will be back, the playoffs will be played, and the Stanley Cup will be rewarded? Let us know in the comments!

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On the bright side, the break has allowed me to watch some old games on YouTube.

So far I’ve watched game 2 of the 1986 Smythe Division finals between Calgary and Edmonton and I’m just getting into game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Final. The one thing that I’ve taken from both games is that there’s no doubt in my mind that Paul Coffey is the best skater of all-time. He’s completely unmatched. Connor is a close second, but he doesn’t have the grace that Coffey had.

Have you been watching any old games? If so, which ones? Do you have any suggestions?

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Rumor: Prominent Sportsnet Journalist says the Oilers HAVE interviewed Kelly McCrimmon

We’ve been under the impression from pundits like Elliotte Friedman that the Oilers have been waiting around to interview Vegas Golden Knights assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon. That they haven’t yet received permission to speak to the highly sought after executive.

“As I write this, Vegas has not yet granted official permission for Edmonton to meet with McCrimmon, although an answer is expected at some point this week.” (source)

That is from the April 30th edition of 31 Thoughts. 

The next quote is via Oilers Now! It belongs to PHWA President Mark Spector. It pertains to what sort of person Kelly McCrimmon is and Spector prefaced this quote by saying, “I talked to a contract that knows McCrimmon real well and the quote I will share with you was,”

“When that interview in Edmonton ended, the guys in Edmonton probably felt like they were the ones being interviewed.” 

Just click play and you’ll hear what Spector said. Also, this came out on the same day as Friedman’s blog.

Now, I know from time to time that Spec lets things slip that shouldn’t get out from time to time, but I don’t see this as one of them. This was very much on purpose.

I also remember a couple of things blowing up on Friedman this past season that he’d reported…

So who has the right information?

My impression of the way this process was supposed to go was it was going to be airtight. No Leaks. So what’s happening here? The Sportsnet guys are putting out conflicting reports whereas the pundits over at TSN are still speculating on who the third or fourth candidate is still. Then you have Friedman and Rishaug going head to head on the Ken Holland reports…

I do think the Oilers are leaking things but don’t ask me which things are true and which are not. At this point, the news is so juicy that I reckon the reporters are grabbing onto anything and running with it.

Hockey politics is fun, isn’t it?

My belief is that Edmonton has talked to McCrimmon, be that informally or as Spector said, formally, and he is the no. 1 candidate at this point in time. Whether he wants the job, I think that’s the more pertinent question because if he doesn’t want it, Mark Hunter has interviewed twice and I would go as far as to say that it’s his job if McCrimmon passes on it.

Interesting note coming from Bob Stauffer from today’s Oilers Now! though. He said that Sean Burke could still be in the running for the GM’s position but it was his opinion that he could come into the org in more of a support role potentially. The reason for that according to Stauffer is because he’s not seen in the same light as McCrimmon and Mark Hunter.

So how would you feel about a Kelly McCrimmon/Sean Burke combo or a Mark Hunter/Sean Burke tandem?

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oilers: More MSM Chime in on Puljujarvi ft. Burke, Rishaug, Seravalli, Dreger, etc.

I thought my previous post on the mainstream media’s comments on Jesse Puljujarvi was a lot. Yesterday I woke up to TWICE as much and now I’m going to bring that to you but I think today I’ll just post the most debatable points that the pundits made. I’ll save you (and me) some time.

Before I do that I just want to touch on Jesse and let you know what I’m thinking with regards to his situation at this very moment.

You’re not going to find a bigger supporter for Jesse Puljujarvi who doesn’t live in Canada or Finland than myself (and maybe another, I think she knows who she is) but I can see that this young man is struggling. He’s struggling with his teammates, his coaches, and a game he very dearly loves and that he’s SO so good at playing. I do not believe that he has the right support structure in Edmonton for him right now though.

As far as I know, he’s rooming with the Koskinens and if that is indeed true, it is a good place for him because he needs the camaraderie of a fellow countryman. Someone with whom he can relate to. Mikko Koskinen was also a touted young prospect that didn’t pan out at the pace he was expected but I’m not 100% certain that even big Mikko alone can help Jesse.

He needs the support of the Oilers leadership core. He needs Connor to go to bat for him. He needs Milan to sit beside him on the bench and offer words of encouragement or let him know where he could’ve done something better. Leon should be offering to set some time aside to work on some things with Jesse after practice and make an effort to work towards developing a potentially deadly partnership. Could Darnell take him out on the town and show some off-ice togetherness?

It’s so very apparent that the coach wants nothing to do with him and that he’s exhausted efforts in an attempt to communicate with Pulju and that makes me feel disappointed.

But on the other hand, it’s also incumbent on Jesse to take the first steps in asking for help. He’s a timid fellow which is fine but he still has to make that effort to go to his leadership group or his coaches and ask them to show him what he needs to do to make things easier for all and then work on those things.

I want the best for Jesse and I want the best for the Edmonton Oilers. That said, there’s something I’ve learned over my years following the team and that is that players will come and go and not to get too attached no matter how much you like the player. If Jesse or Leon or God forbid, Connor gets traded I will feel down but I’ll also feel relieved for him and I’ll wish him good luck on his new team. The same way I did with Nail Yakupov (or maybe the same way you did watching Ryan Smyth or Taylor Hall) and others who I’ve enjoyed watching play for the Oilers.

But if the Oilers were to meet an ex-Oiler that I really liked during his time in Edmonton in the playoffs or the Stanley Cup final, I’ll be cheering for the Oilers. No questions asked.

Let’s see what the pundits had to say about Pulju yesterday. I think you’ll be very interested in Brian Burke’s comments.

FRANK SERAVALLI (TSN)

That sound you hear is me banging my head off the desk repeatedly for the next hour trying to sort through this because I’ve said and I’ve been on record for time and time again with you (Lowetide) last week, Jesse Puljujarvi needs to play more not less. He needs to have more consistent shifts with upper echelon talent instead of playing with guys like Ryan Strome for most of the game.

This is not a guy you can just throw in there (the top-6) for spot duty with the big boys. You need to have him play, that’s the only way his game is going to become remotely more polished.

DARREN DREGER (TSN)

I get the feeling that they’re just trying to exhaust every scenario with Puljujarvi because I think that there’s been enough in his play to show them that there’s a really good player that’s just waiting to break out of this guy. They can’t coax it out of him on a consistent basis.

The question I always ask, and I’ve asked it of the Edmonton Oilers – not recently, but perhaps in the off-season – is at what point do you get where you go, ‘Alright, we’ve seen enough to know that maybe he’s not going to be the player that we hoped he would be when he landed in our lap on the draft floor.’

Well, that’s not an indictment on the player or the organization – sometimes that stuff just happens, so at what point are you better to use him as a tradeable asset? And at least in the off-season, the message that I got back was – they wouldn’t even discuss it with me. It was like, ‘We’re not trading Puljujarvi.’ They just didn’t want that narrative out there at any point.

And look, 10 games from now, 15, 20 – whatever the timeline is in this regular season – we might be signing a completely different tune because he’s playing with that consistency that everybody is searching for. (source)

RYAN RISHAUG (TSN)

Not only is he not creating offensively and having positive things happen for him offensively on a given night but he’s starting to make mistakes and do things that are costly and the Oilers are at a pivotal point in their season where they can’t be developing a player on the fly in the games against this kind of competition. 

There are two conversations here, two different focal lengths. How do you feel about Jesse Puljujarvi being scratched tonight and that (above) would be the answer to that question. Completely different conversation, how do you feel about Jesse Puljujarvi’s development and the way the organization has handled it from draft day to this point?

Rishaug on Accountability

I think coddling him to the point to where when his play dips to unusable status, I think you need to hit him with a natural concequence and I think you need to let him get right back on his horse and see how it goes. 

If it comes to the point to where they’re considering doing it again, send him to the American Hockey League. Enough is enough. 

Rishaug on Expectations

The organization expected this player to develop quicker and you can tell by the way they handled him. Straight to the NHL out of the draft then they realized it might be a little early, sent him down, then after some success brought him back and then last season they did their best to believe he was a full-time NHL player and for tiny little portions here and there he was. Still poured in 12 goals last season but the base has not been built in Puljujarvi’s game and the coach does not trust him enough to use him enough to justify having him here.

A Reasonable Comparison?

We’ve seen this with other players, I mean Adrian Kempe is a good example. 16 goals in 81 games last season, drafted a few years ago and 1 goal in 9 games this year. Down to the minors he goes. Drafted as an offensive player to be an offensive player and hasn’t been and so down to the minors he goes and this might just be where it lands. Let’s see where Puljujarvi rebounds.

BRIAN BURKE (SPORTSNET/HNIC)

Remember Henrik Sedin? He didn’t put up any meaningful numbers until his fourth year after he was drafted. Remember Daniel Sedin? Same thing. Remember Markus Naslund? So you gotta be careful. 

And I can tell you, it’s very fashionable to criticize the Edmonton Oilers and say Puljujarvi is a bad pick. We all had him there. We all loved him. We all think he’s going to be a player.

I’m telling you, the Calgary Flames had those guys in the exact same spots or close to, within one or two. We had Puljujarvi, we loved him, absolutely loved him. So did every other team. So if the Edmonton Oilers blew that pick, a lot of other teams would’ve done the same thing. Peter Chiarelli got offers for that pick so teams could leapfrog Edmonton and take Puljujarvi. 

Burke on Trading Young Players

You’d better not be too impatient because the best trade Pat Quinn ever made, he made a ton of great trades, was when he got Markus Naslund from Pittsburgh for Alex Stojanov.

LOUIE DeBRUSK (SPORTSNET)

This is a young man who’s still trying to find his own way and if I was speaking to my own son I’d say control the things you can control, don’t worry about the things you can’t. 

Right now I think there’s some expectation there from Jesse’s perspective where he’s thinking he has to do more and in reality I think he has to do less in the sense of basic down the game. 

I would tell him to be the hardest working guy on the line each and every night. Go out there and make it known that you are the guy that is working the hardest on the ice. 

DeBrusk on Mindsets and Consistency

When you’re a dominant player like Puljujarvi was in his younger years, big physical specimen, bigger than most of the guys he was playing against. He could manhandle, drive through, he was like a bulldozer going through the middle of the ice. I saw so many highlight reel videos of him just kinda dangling through people, blowing past guys getting off that wrist shot and getting a goal. Different animal here in the NHL and he’s still finding that out but he has it in his ability to do it because we saw that speed. It’s a matter of doing it consistently. 

Here’s the other thing, when you have that mindset as a top-rated guy it’s sometimes hard to go back to the ‘Let’s put the work boots back on and drind this out’ type of an attitude. 

If you want to play with better players make sure you’re playing harder than those guys are playing and everybody will want to play with you. 

LOWETIDE (TSN 1260)

The organization has handled this player poorly. Puljujarvi has far too much skill to give up on, or trade for 10 cents on the dollar. His game has been broken. It might be time to repair and rebuild in Bakersfield. This time next year the Oilers won’t be able to send him to the AHL without waivers. For Oilers fans, the blame game (player, coach, general manager) is less important than unlocking Puljujarvi’s considerable talent while he is an Edmonton Oilers winger. What is best for his development should be the only consideration. (paywall source)

What do you think after reading this group of hockey analysts’ opinions on Jesse Puljujarvi? Let us know in the comments and also tell us what you’d do with him?

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Is this Oilers Insider Spilling the Beans on Chiarelli’s Annual 1-for-1 Trade?

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Well if you haven’t read it by now, Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer has sent out a tweet that has the oilogosphere more confused than Pat O’Neill Riley from SNL. Let’s check it out below and then do some analyzing afterward.

So according to Stauffer, the Oilers are going to sit on their pick (a good idea) and see how things play out. If Adam Boqvist drops as a lot of people are prognosticating, then good for the Oilers! He’s really the kind of player they need but won’t be ready for a few years mind you. I talked to a scout in Sweden this morning and he said Brynas has one of the best d-corps in the SHL and that Boqvist would be given a chance to break into their lineup next year but would probably be a no.7 defender on their team and PP specialist. Makes you wonder if the team that selects him moves him to their AHL club immediately if that’s going to be the case for Boqvist in Sweden.

Bobby S. then says that the Oilers won’t be “chasing” the pricier UFAs and that says to me that perhaps there’s a UFA out there that is considered amongst the pricier ones who is willing to come to Edmonton. No chasing required hence the word being in quotation marks.

Lastly, the juicy part and the timing couldn’t be any better as we’re coming up to the annual Chiarelli special, a June 1-for-1 trade!

So a player with term for a player who brings a different dynamic to the team? What does that even mean?

Oh and if you don’t know, No movement clauses, no trade clauses, modified ones, they all mean nothing to me. They’re a request away from being waived. Just because a player has one doesn’t mean he’ll use it.

Who are the players with term?

  • McDavid
  • Draisaitl
  • Nugent-Hopkins
  • Lucic (NMC)
  • Kassian

Well, I know which one a lot of fans want to be traded and he very well could be. Milan Lucic is never going to become Pavel Bure over the course of a summer. Hell, he probably couldn’t become as good-a-skater as Kassian over the offseason. So asking him to change his body composition is a tall ask and I know there are teams out there that would trade for him. Vancouver being one, Montreal being one, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit of a team like Carolina wanted him.

but I’m going to say that if the player with term being moved out is a forward, it’ll be Zack Kassian. Chiarelli loves Lucic too much and I imagine he’s learned from his trade with Eberle but Kassian’s got one more year after this one at $1.95M and that’s a tad too much for what he brings in the regular season production-wise. I love the guy so much but I do believe the team could find a similar type of emotional player for cheaper.

  • Klefbom
  • Larsson
  • Sekera (NMC)
  • Russell (NMC)

Two players stand out right away for me here. Oscar Klefbom and Andrej Sekera. That’s because Larsson and Russell will be required come playoff time 🙂

The Klefbom for Krug rumors started a while back but kinda of kicked it into another gear this year. I wrote about it twice. Once when Jimmy Murphy tweeted something out and again when Fluto Shinzawa. So the trade fires are burning in Boston.

I think with Oscar there are a couple ways of looking at his situation.

  1. Great player WHEN HEALTHY. Do we know that he has the ability to stay healthy? As a fan, are you willing to give him that chance? He’s a 40pt dman and is the team’s PP threat from the point when he’s not on that IR.
  2. Given his contract and age, he could very well bring back an excellent return and now that he’s had surgery on that bum shoulder of his, he should be ready to tear it up. Great! More value.

If Krug IS the return, that’s not bad but you’d hope there’d be a bit more to that as Krug is older and makes more money. He also produces more points mind you but as a lefty. Could he be paired with Larsson leaving Nurse to play with who? Sekera? Russell? Benning?

As for Sekera, who knows with him. He seemingly had a good World Championships as we never heard a peep about a poor performance or struggling like he did when he returned to the team last season. I think he’d be the kind of guy who would waive his NMC because he just wants to play and probably sees the writing on the wall or maybe he’s received an invitation letter from Ference Island…

My personal preference is for the team to move on from Andrej Sekera. I’ve never been a huge fan of his and I’m more afraid for his playing future than Milan Lucic’s. But would a trade involving him bring back a player that moves the needle for the Oilers because I’m still trying to figure out what the bloody ingredient is that Stauffer is talking about?

Is it a PP producer from the point like Krug? Is it a faceoff specialist like Ryan O’Reilly? Is it a speedster like Chris Kreider?

Could it be a player that is so far off the radar? A guy like Phil Kessel?

Since Chiarelli is the worst poker player on the planet and has already telegraphed his moves this year, I assume it’ll be a PP quarterback like Krug or Faulk or maybe Ristolainen.

Surely Bob will clear the air a bit on his radio show today…

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Dear Bob Stauffer

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Normally I just write about Oilers rumors or whatever Oilers news is going on at the moment but today is special I feel and there isn’t a lot of news going on apart from McDavid and Nuge tearing up the opposition for Team Canada at the World Championships in Denmark. I’m sure a lot of you don’t know or don’t care but there was a little incident between myself and Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer over the weekend and he sort of addressed it on his show yesterday but this is just a message to him since I can’t send it to him over the Twitter machine.

There’s no real Oilers news or rumors in this post, so you should bail while you’re ahead or continue and be dragged into the drama…

You’ve been forewarned.

Hey Bob, thanks for unblocking me. I think sometimes Twitter conversations can be misunderstood and after listening to your show yesterday I wanted to reach out and clear things up. We could’ve done that the other day but you blocked me before I could reply but I’m glad you did because it gave me the necessary time to reflect on what happened.

I’ll be honest, I listened to Monday’s Oilers Now and I heard what you had to say and I wanted to write on it because that’s what I do when I feel compelled.

I’m not 100% certain that you were referring to me at the beginning of yesterday’s show when you said,

“we got a guy out there selling merch that, you know says, I need this info, who who are ya? Like seriously, why don’t you just tell me your name and what your occupation is and what you do?”

But if you are referring to me, that’s not how the conversation went at all, is it? Here’s a snippet.

Doesn’t quite look as innocent as you made it out to be on your show eh?

As far as the merch, if you’ve got a problem with that, I’d hope you have a problem with Oilersnation doing it as well. I’m sure you can understand that we all “grind” in different ways to make ends meet.

Let’s get one thing clear though, and again if that comment is directed at me, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but just for future reference; I don’t need any info from you and full disclosure, I have DM’d you in the past asking for your opinion on things but never have I requested anything from you. But maybe that’s another guy online selling merch online to support his website who you blocked and unblocked this weekend.

Moving on, did you go after all the other people who had a difference of opinion re: that Leicester FC tweet or just me?

On your show you said someone told you this,

“Leicester was made up full of ECHL soccer players.” 

Well that’s not exactly true is it?

We discussed this in the DMs. You said Leicester and Vegas both started from scratch and to a degree, I guess you have a point but really the two teams are not the same. Leicester didn’t get to select one starting 11 player off of every Premier League Team. They had to grind up through two levels of football and use their earnings to buy players, like a couple we’ll get to in a bit, before getting the chance to compete in England’s highest division.

Their best three players, and the only ones you could mention to me, were Kante (who was bought that year), Vardy, and Mahrez (transferred in the year previous). They all had lovely years but were all in ECHL-like leagues only 3 years beforehand.

In fact, Kante left after that season for Chelsea and Mahrez/Vardy (and the whole team frankly) have failed to rekindle the magic of that season. Their manager was fired the next season too.

I’m sure there’s ton more to it than that but as you can see, the short version is the two teams have one similarity. Nobody thought they’d do what they did or are doing. That’s it. And since I didn’t use foul language or insult you (your rules as laid out on your show), there’s no need to block someone over that, is there?

I enjoy your radio show and we’ve had minor conversations in the past that have been cordial. But you’ve never “earned” the information that you requested from me and for a gentleman like yourself who values grinding and hard work, you know that nothing in life comes for free.

Just to address Dave Campbell’s comment of people hiding behind their Twitter handles. I’m not hiding. I’m simply not revealing my personal info to you or anybody else that asks and there’s a reason I do that. I want this aspect of my life separate from my home life.

But it’s not a secret. If you truly have to know who I am, it’s out there.

Dave Campbell did say that people take Twitter too seriously and this experience is a very good example of that. You went on your show to talk about it, so it must be pretty serious from your end, and I’m writing about it on my website, so there must be some element of seriousness on mine.

Bob, you’d done nothing to offend me and this post is just to clear things up a bit for those who care. Maybe you’re one of those people, maybe you’re not. I respect your knowledge for hockey and Oilers trivia is not a game I’d like to play with you.

So, you can take the information provided and do with it as you please but the bottom line is, and I’m sure you’d be the first to admit, we both have to be better.

I hope you have a wonderful day and a good show. Go Oilers!

– BLH

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