Yardbarker: Edmonton Oilers

Sunday's Three Stars: Potulny, Oilers hand Avs 1st home loss

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:37:04 -0500

No. 1 Star: Ryan Potulny(notes), Edmonton OilersCalled up from the AHL thanks to injuries and illness in the Oilers' lineup, Potulny won the faceoff on Tom Gilbert's(notes) first goal of the season and later scored a power-play goal in the third that ended up being the game-winner in Edmonton's 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. It was the Avs' first home loss of the season. No. 2 star: Johan Hedberg(notes), Atlanta ThrashersThere were a few different heroes in the Thras...

Penner, Oilers score 4 PP goals in win over Avs

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:40:11 -0500

DENVER,(AP) Ryan Potulny and Dustin Penner scored two of Edmonton's four power-play goals and also had assists, and the Oilers handed the Colorado Avalanche their first home loss of the season, 5-3 on Sunday night.

Oilers jumps out early, hand Avs first home loss

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:58:00 -0500

Ryan Potulny and Dustin Penner scored two of Edmonton's four power-play goals and also had assists, and the Oilers handed the Colorado Avalanche their first home loss of the season, 5-3 on Sunday night.

Oilers top Avalanche with four power-play goals

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:49:53 -0500

Edmonton hand Avalanche first home loss, 5-3

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:43:58 -0500

Oilers at Avalanche, G17, 09-10

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:15:00 -0500

In Quebec province the men go about their business in about the same way as guys do in this part of the country. Always time for a beer or a glance at a pretty girl, always time to talk some Canadian football (believe it or not, Quebec is the new heartland of Canadian football) and hockey holds a special place.I've never really been able to get behind any kind of animosity toward Quebec province with regard to politics.The one political item I do care about with regard to Quebec is the re...

Is there Hope for Colin McDonald?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:25:00 -0500

Bill James taught us about comparables (comps) and what they can tell us about specific prospects. If a #4 overall pick begins to sputter and make funny noises, Jason Bonsignore might be a comp. If the kid your team drafted in the middle of the first round starts to make ridiculous plays with the puck and make veterans miss while still a teenager, then names like Hossa, Middleton and others come to the fore.It should be mentioned that not all comps go on to have long and productive careers. W...

Rangers halt skid on road with win over Oilers

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:34:50 -0500

Ales Kotalik had a goal and two assists, and the New York Rangers halted a four-game, road-losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

Rangers at Oilers, G16, 09-10

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

I'm not sure if Jean Ratelle has a hockey stick or a divining rod, but this photo from 1967 is a beauty. Also in photo for the Rangers is Rod Gilbert and behind him appears to be Arnie Brown (but it might be Al MacNeil or Wayne Hillman). The Hab is the pocket rocket, Henri Richard. Goalie at the other end is for certain Ed Giacomin.The Rangers of my childhood always had about 10 guys who were famous but spent the heart of their career in Toronto, Detroit or Montreal. Boom Boom Geoffrion w...

Bravo for the Irony

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:26:00 -0500

It is ironic that on the night before the Rangers faceoff against the Edmonton Oilers with their new "associate" coach Tom Renney that 2 undrafted Ranger prospects went against each other. Like Tom Renney as the Ranger's coach or not; his contribution to the Rangers will pay dividends longer than people will ever realize.

It was during the NHL lockout that Tom Renney made his greatest contribution to the rebuilding of the Rangers as he spent that season scouting, planning and helping to develop the prospect program that Ranger fans are seeing the benefits of today.

If not for Tom Renney, there is no Michael Del Zotto, no Brandon Dubinsky, no Ryan Callahan and many more yet to come. The prospect program that is in place today is because of Tom Renney, Gordie Clark, Christer Rockstrom and the 8 great guys who make up the Ranger's amateur scouting team.

With only 7 rounds in today's NHL Entry Drafts, it is really key for the Ranger scouting staff to find free agents who can help supplement the draft picks and sometimes turn themselves into Rangers like Dan Girardi did.

We bring this up because 3 of the Traverse City invitees were in action on Wednesday night starting with Craig Cunningham and his Vancouver Giants visiting Luke Walker and the Portland Winterhawks. Cunningham has been leading Ranger prospects in scoring prior to the game against the Winterhawks and added on to his lead.

Cunningham scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season to raise his prospect leading season totals to 12-16-28 (good for 7th in the WHL) as Cunningham's Giants shut out Walker's Winterhawks 4-0. For Cunningham he has now 7-8-15 over his last 10 games as the Giants have gone 7-2-1 during that span.

As for Walker and his young Winterhawk teammates it was their second straight game where they were shutout. Still Walker is also not having a bad season as he is 11-9-20 in 20 games which is 3rd among Ranger prospects.

Cunningham earned the game's second star for his efforts as his first goal of the game was also the game winner. Cunningham now has 4 game winners on the season also tops among Ranger prospects.

Yes Sam Klassen (2009 UFA) extended his "Plus" streak on Wednesday night to 7 straight games and yes that means that his Saskatoon Blades also won their 7th straight game this time coming from behind to edge the Swift Current Broncos 2-1.

This win in our eyes was more impressive because the Blades were playing their 5th game in their last 6 nights. How they were able to find the energy and effort to not only shut down the Broncos but to pull out the win is just amazing.

Klassen with a +1 is now up to +19 on the season which is 3rd in the WHL behind his defensive partner Stefan Elliot. In fact the Saskatoon Blades who are at the top of the WHL can credit their league leading defense as for why as they have only given up 2.25 goals a game also tops in the WHL.

Luke Pither (Traverse City) is the oldest of the Traverse City prospects but he is also having a pretty solid year with the Barrie Colts of the OHL. On Wednesday, Pither had 2 primary assists to help his Colts whip on Scott Stajcer (2009 5th) and the Owen Sound Attack 6-1.

For Pither, he is second among Ranger prospect scoring with a 12-13-25 record in 17 games. Pither is tied with Cunningham for most goals at 12 and has 3 game winners to his credit.

Scott Stajcer and the Attack once again saw the penalty kill as the main cause of their undoing as the Colts went 4 for 7 on the power play. Stajcer faced 45 shots and sorry when the goalie is facing that many shots it is almost impossible to blame him for the loss.

Then another prospect that the Ranger scouts can take a bow for is Roman Horak (2009 5th) as he was an unknown to most of us in North America but has been a pleasant surprise for the Chilliwack Bruins of the WHL. Wednesday night's results may not have shown it as Horak's Bruins got spanked on the road by the Spokane Chiefs 5-1.

Horak was held scoreless and for a rare occasion was a -2 for the night. On the season Horak is a respectable 5-11-16 in 19 games with a +7.

The hardest team for us to figure out is Tomas Kundratek and his Medicine Hat Tigers as no team in the WHL reminds us more of last year's Rangers than this season's version. It is "flip a coin" or "toss a dart" as we have never a clue as to what will happen with the Tigers.

On Wednesday evening it was the Bad Tigers who showed up as they got beaten 7-4 by the Regina Pats on the road. Kundratek was not bad with his play as he set up Taylor Gal for Medicine Hat's first goal (Kundratek's 9th assist) during a 4 on 4 but the Tigers were already trailing 2-0 at the time.

The Tigers were spending so much time playing catch up as they tied the game on 3 different occasions before giving up 3 third period goals for the loss.

(Cunningham courtesy of the Vancouver Giants, Klassen courtesy of the Saskatoon Blades)

Peckham Sent Down

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Word tonight that the Edmonton Oilers have sent out Theo Peckham. He'll join the Springfield Falcons and won't make the trip west with the big club. Peckham didn't play well during this callup, owing to a pre-season injury and no training camp. Not to overstate the issue, but the Oilers have a tremendous number of young defensemen coming through the system and this would have been a very good time for Peckham to establish himself at the NHL level.That slot has been earned by Taylo...

A Quality Taylor?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:50:00 -0500

During MacT's 8 seasons as Oilers coach his team sent a lot of rookie defensemen to the majors. There were high picks and low picks and kids who didn't get picked in the draft. There were juniors and college seniors and puck movers and stay-at-homes. There were Canadians and Americans and Russians and there were studs and there were duds.It is important to remember that there were also kids who played when they were too young but the organization wanted them at the big league level fo...

Dubnyk Emerging?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:30:00 -0500

We've been talking lately about minor league save percentage and its ability to predict future success at the NHL level. Although there is no such thing as a perfect way to project these kids, save percentage has a strong correlation between superior AHL save percentage and future NHL success.In the case of Dubnyk, I've wondered (both in junior and in the AHL) about the age of the blueline and Jonathan Willis wondered about quality of team and how it impacts SP. I'm wondering if t...

Penner takes advantage of clean slate in Edmonton

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:47:03 -0500

He was the center of the Brian Burke-Kevin Lowe feud two seasons ago. He was the main resident in Craig MacTavish's doghouse last season. Fans taunted him with "overpaid" chants and were lining up to purchase his ticket out of town. This season? Dustin Penner(notes) is beginning to prove why he's worth the high price that Lowe paid for him two summers ago when he signed the 27-year old to an offer sheet, gaving up two first-round picks and a second and third-rounder in the p...

Oilers at Bruins, G14, 09-10

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0500

In this photo, Dave Schultz is saying hello to Wayne Cashman and Bobby Orr will get the puck. I think this is a SCF photo which makes it 1974.We could use a Cashman. He was rugged, skilled, a master corner man, had an ability to take and make a pass and he was durable. A nice modern comparable would be Ryan Smyth.Dustin Penner was already the best left winger on the club before he decided to go supernova. This season Penner's fine play has dwarfed the other LW's (mostly Comrie, Jacque...

Oilers blow 5-0 lead ... get SO victory over Wings

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:54:19 -0500

EDMONTON, Alberta(AP) Patrick O'Sullivan beat Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot in the third round of a shootout, and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped Henrik Zetterberg on Detroit's final attempt to give the Edmonton Oilers a 6-5 victory Thursday night.

A Few Home Truths

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:23:00 -0500

This is Dave Gagner with his son. In the fall of 2007 the Oilers kept Sam at the NHL level and this is year three of his career in the big leagues.If we use Sam Gagner's first NHL season as the start of a brand new day for the Edmonton Oilers, then this season is looking pretty good.I think that's the only way we as fans can view the current edition of the team. Much like the 79-80 Oilers (and maybe the 80-81 or 81-82 edition) this team has tremendous young talent (although not at tha...

Oilers' Souray None Too Pleased With Ex's 'Erotic Revue'

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:45:30 -0500

I'm not sure, but I think this might be the first time we've linked to a Robin Leach story. Sheldon Souray and Angelica Bridges divorced two years ago, and she received full custody of their two children. But the Edmonton defenseman has gone to court to argue that her showing her ta-tas in Vegas isn't the most stable single-parent situation for them. Bridges debuted in "Fantasy: the Hottest Adult Revue for Couples" at the Luxor hotel this week. Souray went to a family co...