It was a big night in my neck of the woods.  Last night was the first Battle of Alberta and was the first home game of the season for the Edmonton Oilers.  I’m not even going to go into how lame I thought their whole pre-game celebration was (I’m sorry but it was really stupid to me) since I was really just interested in their starting lineup.

After the Calgary Flames were stonewalled by goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning, I’ve always hated playing against him.  I wanted to see how Miikka Kiprusoff would …read more

Mike Comrie is heading home to Edmonton after being traded to the Oilers.  He was offered a one-year deal worth $1.125.
You might remember that Comrie was originally drafted by the Oilers in 1999 and he really had a golden career with the team from 2000-2003.  During the 2001-2002 season, he had a career-high of 60 points and then things went terribly wrong.
Comrie had been given a $10 million entry-level deal with the team (which included a signing bonus) and, for whatever reason, he held out in a contract dispute for 30 games during the 2003-2004 season and the fans …read more

The Edmonton Oilers have an assistant coach.  The team has brought on Wayne Fleming, who was most recently employed as the head coach of the Continental Hockey League’s Avangard Omsk (last season) but may be more familiar to Canadians as the former assistant coach of the Calgary Flames for three seasons.
Oilers GM, Steve Tambellini, seems happy with the deal: "Wayne brings an array of experience from both the NHL and international level. We feel his knowledge of the game will be a compliment to our coaching staff."
Fleming does have great NHL experience after working with Calgary, Philadelphia, Phoenix and …read more

After ten years with the Edmonton Oilers, captain Ethan Moreau was honored at tonight’s 2009 NHL Awards with the King Clancy Trophy for his on and off ice leadership skills. 
His humanitarian efforts in his community did not go unnoticed, of course, as he is very active with several charities in the Edmonton area. 
Moreau made sure to not only thank his teammates and his club’s organization but, also, made sure he showed his appreciation to his city and fans who have supported him for a decade.
image: NHL.com

Looks like the Edmonton Oilers have won this round of the Battle of Alberta.  Both the Oilers and their rivals, the Calgary Flames, needed a new coach and, this morning, it was announced that Pat Quinn would take on the role of head coach for Edmonton with former New York Rangers coach, Tom Renney, at his side as the associate head coach.  Kelly Buchberger, will remain as an assistant coach.
Wow.  Let me just get that out of the way.  Wow. Wow.  Wow.  I don’t even know what else to say and, judging from the reaction around the internet, fans …read more

Jordan Eberle has been signed to a three-year entry level contract by the Edmonton Oilers.   He was drafted by the team during the 2008 NHL Entry Draft but has played three seasons with Regina’s junior hockey team.  He has been quite successful during that time, racking up 105 goals, 99 assists and 204 points in 197 games.  Pretty impressive!
If the name sounds familiar then you probably recognize him from the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championships.   He was one of the three “Top Canadians Stars of the Game” in Canada’s gold medal victory over Sweden and made the game-tying goal …read more

The Edmonton Oilers might have been celebrating the return of captain, Ethan Moreau, but the excited was short-lived since they went on to lose 4-3 in overtime against the visiting Atlanta Thrashers.  Unfortunately, the night also turned bittersweet for the victorious team since they lost their captain, Ilya Kovalchuk to an undisclosed upper body injury during the first period.  "We don’t want to say too much right now because we don’t know for sure," said head coach John Anderson. "He’s day to day as we speak right now. He had a little problem yesterday and I didn’t practice him. He …read more

Team captain, Ethan Moreau, is on the bench after suffering a horrific eye injury over the weekend in a game against the Minnesota Wild.  It happened on Saturday night when the Edmonton Oilers forward was hit in the right eye by the stick of Antti Miettinen (Wild). 
While it’s true that he didn’t need surgery right away, the full extent of the injury isn’t immediately clear so doctors will have to monitor it over the next few days.  
Here’s the video of the injury.  It’s pretty gruesome so don’t watch it if you think it’s going to bother you: …read more

The Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins have swapped goaltenders.  The Oilers have sent Mathieu Garon to the Pens in exchange for netminder, Dany Sabourin, forward, Ryan Stone and a fourth round draft pick in the 2011 Entry Draft.
Garon and Sabourin have similar stats this year when you look at them side-by-side:
In 15 games, Garon posted a 6-8-0 record, a 3.17 goals-against average and .895 save percentage but last year, in 47 games, he finished with a 26-18-1 record, .913 save percentage and a 2.66 goals-against average.  He also had the most three star selections.
In 19 games, Sabourin posted …read more

Late-night talk show host, Conan O’Brien, noticed a group of Canadians in his audience earlier this month and it turns out that they were Edmonton Oilers fans who were in town for a hockey game.  He joked that he was going to have to change his monologue to appeal to the Canadians in the audience.  He then proceeded with his originally planned joke about Canada which, ironically enough, ended with the mention of hockey legend, Wayne Gretzky.  One of the Oilers fans in the audience then stood up and showed that he was wearing a Gretzky jersey (talk about playing …read more