Why should the NHL continue to reward the Edmonton Oilers for on-ice failure and organizational ineptitude by giving them a better chance to select the cream of the crop at the Entry Draft while more successful teams line up behind and wait their turn? It shouldn’t.
While it’s probably prudent to curb ones enthusiasm, given Team Canada’s opening game at the World Junior Championship in Russia amounted to little more than a controlled scrimmage against an overmatched opponent, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave fans plenty to cheer about in a 9-3 waltz over Germany today.
If you’ve had difficulty getting your head around the numbers being tossed around during the NHL lockout regarding the financial situations the league’s 30 teams find themselves in, there’s good reason – at least if you look at the numbers published in Forbes Magazine today.
Multiple media outlets are reporting the NHL has tabled its first CBA proposal to the NHLPA. Based on what’s being reported, it’s a proposal that can only be characterized as a swift kick in the nuts low-ball offer to the NHLPA and the first volley in what stands to be a protracted and likely ugly…
Former Edmonton Oiler Georges Laraque doesn’t name names, but the retired tough guy says the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs was not uncommon during his time in the NHL. In a book to be released by Viking Canada, The Story of the NHL’s Unlikeliest Tough Guy, that is bound to send ripples through the…
With the NHL still coping with the deaths of players Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, the hockey world is reeling with today’s tragic news out of Russia about the crash of Jaroslavl Lokomotiv’s team flight shortly after take-off. Here’s the story, starting with the original report by the Associated Press, as it has unfolded…
With Sidney Crosby’s hockey career hanging in the balance because of concussions and Marc Savard’s apparently over, the NHL’s overdue decision to address headshots in the game is a classic case of being a day late and a dollar short.
One big positive about the possibility of the Phoenix Coyotes returning to Winnipeg is that Edmonton would no longer be perceived by players as the second-least desirable destination in the NHL, which it now is.
Is it time for the NHL to eliminate fighting?
The Edmonton Oilers are 2-0, but they could easily be 0-2. If it wasn’t for Nikolai Khabibulin, who swiped a couple of points in a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers Sunday, the mood around town might be considerably different today than what it is.
Hockey blogs and hockey bloggers aren’t going anywhere. That’s a reality the Edmonton Oilers and other NHL teams have to accept and come to grips with, and the sooner the better.
Back in 1970 when the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL, it didn’t really matter that they were destined to stink like rank limburger for seasons on end because fans like me were thrilled just to have a team.
