“Mutual Agreement”

Michael Sciarpelletti

End of an Era

It was at 12:05 PM on a sunny Wednesday afternoon when eight years of Craig MacTavish as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers was brought to an end by Steve Tambellini who at that moment announced that MacT was to no longer be the head coach of the Oilers.

Both here and everywhere across the internet and media the sentiment remained the same: MacT would be moved aside politely in favour of taking the team in a new direction.

Tambellini showed some fire and bashed the team’s efforts this year, hinting that changes would not end at MacTavish, leading me to believe that Huddy and Moores could also be ousted before the team hits the ice come next season.

Rob Daum could very well be brought back up as an assistant coach, and has been named as a “possible” on a number of different occassions both by media close to the team and by members of the team as well.

But at the end of the day, there are a lot of suggestions for who could be the next Oil bench boss.

These range from whacky (Pat Quinn) to exciting (Brent Sutter) to scary (Marc Crawford).

Whomever the Oilers pick, expect it to be someone that they know in their heads to be someone that can turn around a dressing room that seems to be falling apart.

Souray Mayday

Rumors that Sheldon Souray could possibly request a trade soon or that he has already done so have been running rampant, and one should not ignore these rumors, because he has been considering it.

He has been conversing with his agent, but now feels that since MacT is gone that he would rather wait and see, but certainly shows that there is unrest in the dressing room.

Smid is another play that the Oilers are going to need to figure out what they want to do with, because if the rumours regarding the Oilers are planning on trading one of their defensemen are true it sounds to me as though Smid might just be getting the trade that he requested in this past off-season.

Oilers Moving to Vegas

Michael Sciarpelletti

Black Wednesday

The Edmonton Oilers will cease to be at the end of the 2008-2009 season, moving operations to Las Vegas under a new moniker.

“After 30 years in the NHL we no longer feel that Edmonton is a viable market for a professional sports franchise and instead see the city of Las Vegas as a more suitable location for this organization,” says Hubert Macintain, who announced he was speaking on behalf of the team’s owner, Daryl Katz.

The move comes after over a year of speculation regarding the NHL’s stance towards a team being created in the state of Nevada, although moving the Oilers there may come as a surprise for most fans who felt the team was in good standing when bought by Katz during the off-season.

“To be honest, Mr. Katz expected the Oilers to remain in Edmonton but does not feel that this team can be competitive enough in this market with an old building such as Rexall Place that has such a small number of seats which in turn provides less revenue,” says Macintain.

“Negotiations with the city of Edmonton have fallen through as the city is expecting the Rexall organization to essentially foot the bill for a new hockey arena, something that we feel is disrespectful to a company who was simply trying to help this team succeed by buying naming rights for their building and being an integral part of the Oilers family,” says Macintain.

The Las Vegas Redbulls

In addition to the move, the Las Vegas team will also adopt a team name unlike any other in the NHL, opting to sell their organization’s name to produce advertising revenue.

Red Bull, who has identical sponsorship deals in Major League Soccer as well as some European hockey leagues, has reportedly purchased the naming rights to the team for a 10-year-deal worth upwards of US$500 million.

“We are proud to announce that the Las Vegas Red Bulls will have a solid sponsorship base that will allow us to do more than just break even,” says Macintain, who noted that the Oilers small arena coupled with the high salary cap and dropping Canadian dollar meant that Katz was only able to make a small profit from the NHL team.

“At the end of the day, the NHL is a business, something that the city of Edmonton has failed to be cognisant of when discussing the new arena project,” says Macintain, adding that the Redbulls will have a facility provided for them by the city of Las Vegas, with the tax payers footing the bill for the entire project.

A person who identified himself as current Oiler captain Ethan Moreau also fielded questions for bewildered reporters via telephone conference. Reporters questioned him as to whether or not players were willing to part ways with the city they have called home for decades.

“I am very happy to be the captain of the Red Bulls, and am excited to see this team taking steps towards being successful. It will be nice to be able to go classy places like casinos after the game instead of hanging out in overcrowded clubs where we as players are harassed by the crazy fans of a team that just hasn’t been cutting it,” said the man on the phone at the press conference.

“I love the people I get to work with, and now, finally, I’ll get to love the city I work in.”

Major Shakeups

It was also announced at the press conference that at the conclusion of the season all current coaching staff, management, and trainers will be fired and replaced with an entirely new staff.

“At first I thought this was some kind of joke, but I guess this is really happening. I guess even an organization stupid enough to call themselves the Redbulls don’t want me as their coach,” says a man who identified himself as Craig MacTavish over the phone.

“We want to be competitive, that means we need to stop being the Oilers and start being winners,” says Macintain.

The Redbulls will reveal new uniforms at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas as well as a group of “scantily clad women” that will serve as ice girls for the organization which noted that they will cater to a more adult audience with all you can drink alcohol service for season ticket holders as well as half off tickets for women willing to attend games in bikinis.

“The sexiest hockey will be in Sin City,” noted Macintain who added that the team will also attempt to change NHL rules regarding advertisements on jerseys as a number of casinos would like their logos to be placed on the team’s jerseys.

“If we have our way our players will look like stock cars by the time we hit the ice at the start of next season,” says Macintain who pulled no punches by saying “Like many teams in the US we’re willing to whore ourselves to make a buck.”

Sceptical reporters were curious to see what the athletes of the Vegas bound organization thought of casino advertisements covering their jerseys as well as a host of other concerns regarding the direction that the management has decided to take.

“Prostitution is legal there, enough said,” Macintain responded.

Outrage in Edmonton

Oilers fans in the streets were shocked to learn of the news and found the date the move was announced on suspect and even accused Oilverse reporters of fabricating some type of hoax.

Sadly for Oiler fans the Oilverse is far too professional and accurate to ever be wrong, ever.

“What in the blue hell is going on, is this some kind of retarded joke? Are you all idiots?” said one man who didn’t want to be identified but added that “This seems like a very strange time of year to announce the team is moving, are you sure you aren’t all idiots?”

The timing of the move seems just a bit off, as there will likely be riots in Rexall Place in the remaining games before the post-season.

“We don’t really care what Edmontonians think, we’re going to Vegas baby!” Macintain said before abruptly ending the bizarre press conference which was held at a west-end Denny’s.

Edmonton security feels that they can handle wild fans in the remaining games and noted that police presence will be increased as it always is during playoff games.

“We’re bringing in the Canadian military which will have tanks outside of Rexall in addition to the entire Edmonton SWAT unit who will all be sporting bullet proof vests as well as packing some tear gas and chain guns, but those are normal precautions,” says Douglas Wellsworth, head of Oilers security.

He added that he felt possible playoff hockey in Edmonton’s final season will make the bitter pill of the Oilers moving just a bit easier to swallow.

But I doubt it ever will be easy.

Eberle Signed

Michael Sciarpelletti

Three-Year Entry Level Deal

The Oilers have signed Eberle and if they continue all contracts next year will have 51 on the books as pointed out by OilersNation.

The young Jordan Eberle turned heads at this years WJC and was expected to be signed and is also expected to make the Edmonton Oilers out of training camp much like Sam Gagner did after a nice WJC showing.

Does he fix anything? No? Does he add anything the Oilers don’t already have? No? But, the only thing that he does do is put more pressure on the already existant prospects.

I think that if he passes Schremp on the depth there will probably be more drama in Springfield, that is if they haven’t already had enough this year with the horrible record they have put together.

And with the contract total being 51 for next year you know the Oilers are going to drop at least a few of their prospects to make room for off-season acquisitions as well the draft crop coming in this year.

We have an over-abundance of plugger AHLers, as the Springfield Falcons record has proven this year, and Sabourin seemed almost hated by the Oilers when they traded Garon for him earlier this year.

Some moves are a brewing indeed, stay tuned.

Shuffle the Deck

Michael Sciarpelletti

Looks Good on Paper

The Edmonton Oilers are going to be sporting a very different line-up tonight against the St. Louis Blues if their pre-game practice is any indication, with combinations that looked like they were dreamed up by someone at an Edmonton Oilers message board rather than MacTavish himself.

I find myself being a proponent of these moves, although alternative views are abound across Oil Country.

O’Sullivan – Horcoff- Hemsky
Nilsson – Gagner – Kotalik
Reddox – Cogliano – Pisani
Moreau – Brodziak – Penner

The O’Sullivan Hemsky pairing is certainly an interesting one, and I think that once Hemmer figures out his game he will be making some great passes across to O’Sullivan. I think the main problem with the Czech Mate pairing was that Kotalik couldn’t keep up with the speed that Hemmer operates at, same as the multitudes of former linemates that the offensive leader of the Oilers has had over the years.

Kotalik might have a nice refreshing feeling playing with Gagner and Nilsson, as I would say that the latter of the two is similar to Ales in his style of play.

The Red Ox draws back in with Cogz and Pisani, this is a curious draw up that reunites the Italian-Connection of 13 and 34, and though it looks nice on paper I haven’t seen the type of chemistry that will make this line last very long. However, Pisani and Reddox are good players for sweeping in rebounds and Cogliano likes to shoot from the outside, so I can definitly see the train of thought used to bring these guys together.

Penner is back on the fourth unit after yet another unproductive week, but he has shown before that he will bring his game back up to snuff for at least two outings when he is tossed in the doghouse, and Moreau has been a fantastic impact player so look for this unit to provide some offense as well as being a shutdown unit against the top line of the Blues.

Peckham Poised

Sources in the Edmonton Oilers have indicated that Smid has not practiced with the team since his injury and will likely not dress against the Blues, meaning that Peckham will draw back in as we had originally anticipated in our pre-game article that was posted yesterday.

I’m excited to see who will pair up with Peckham for a dance at centre ice, as it is always an entertaing affair when the young Oilers d-man drops the gloves.

Now You’re Out

Nashville has passed the Oilers and the Dallas Stars have slid into eighth to knock the Oilers out of the playoffs for the time being. The Stars have been a fantastic story of redemption after turning their season around and fighting back into the race after a start so bad they must have felt like they were dating Avery’s sloppy seconds.

The Oilers are only a point behind and can move back into that spot with a win (since Dallas has the tiebreaker advantage of more regulation wins, but only by one).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and may O’Sullivan have the luck of the Irish for this important match-up.

The puck drops at Rexall when the clock strikes 8 PM and will be televised by Sportsnet West.

Enjoy the game!

The Souray Injury – A Season in the Balance

Michael Sciarpelletti

Don’t Underestimate

At the Oilverse we always endeavour to give you fair, accurate information. We won’t tell you that the Edmonton Oilers are the best team in the league at the moment, nor will we pull the panic alarm at a moment’s notice.

But this is a very scary time for Oiler fans, and while we don’t want to scream doom, we do want to say that the Oilers need to be very careful with their best defensemen.

Sheldon Souray, who leads the D in points, goals, etc. this season has been a mainstay and played major minutes for the Oilers all year long. Someone must have mentioned aloud that this was going to be Souray’s first full 82-game season and jinxed it.

Mystrey and Intrigue

We can’t quite figure out when this injury exactly occurred, but most of the “experts” seem to think sometime in the second period. Well, it certainly wasn’t the third… (Souray wasn’t playing in the third).

Souray was at the time announced as having a lower body injury, but it was later revealed he had a hyper extended knee. This is bad news, and Souray will most likely miss the game against the Thrashers at 7:30 PM MNT on Sportsnet.

The most important thing here is that the Oilers don’t try to rush Souray back into action, the season could very well be over if Souray is out longer than a few games since the younger defence of this young Edmonton team don’t seem to respond well to eating up large minutes.

If Souray sits tomorrow (which I hope the team urges him to do) Theo Peckham will draw into the line-up after being called up.

Some Good News

Oilers captain Ethan Moreau draws back into the lineup tommorow against the Thrashers after missing a couple with an eye injury. Glad to hear it wasn’t more serious, that was a hell of an upswing (albeit accidental).

Dustin Penner Sitting

Michael Sciarpelletti

Quick Hits

As reported earlier on the Oilverse, Robert Nilsson will draw back into the lineup after being sat for a long while. The young sniper will be playing in place of Dustin Penner, who has once again found himself back in the doghouse. Penner had a decent game against the Canadiens last time around, but apparently MacTavish has a different train of thought.

Smid Cleared

Well apparently “highly unlikely” has now changed to “totally happening” as Oilers defensemen Ladislav Smid has been cleared to play. Conflicting reports of Smid having trouble breathing and Smid being totally fine surfaced just after we announced he would not be playing.

Well, apparently the latter was true, as it was announced by the Oilers that he will draw into the lineup tonight agianst the Canadiens.

New Coach, Plenty of Fire

The Edmonton Oilers are playing with fire tonight as the Canadiens will be playing their first game under Bob Gainey this season. Guy Carbonneau was fired yesterday, with the Canadiens’ GM replacing him for the remainder of the season.

Expect the Montreal squad tonight to be extremly motivated and eager to please their GM. Hopefully the Canadiens will go the way of most of the teams that have fired their coach this year and lose their first game under a new bench boss.

Post-Game Coverage

Stay tuned to the Oilverse after the game for post-game analysis from Etai Handman and Bobby Roy. The game will begin at 5:30 PM MNT on Sportsnet West.

Enjoy the game.

Smid Day-to-Day

Michael Sciarpelletti

Courtesy of Edmonton Oilers web site

Injury Announced

Following the Edmonton Oilers’ 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday it was announced by the Oilers that defensemen Ladislav Smid had sustained a mild concussion.

The injury occured in the first period when Smid awkwardly fell into the boards after colliding with Toronto’s Nikolai Kulemin. Smid only saw 30 seconds of ice time in the game.

He is listed as day-to-day, however coach Craig MacTavish noted that Smid was feeling better after a trip to hospital.

Whether or not he will suit up against the Canadiens on Tuesday remains to be seen, so look for a possible AHL call-up to take place.

Peckham Possible

Theo Peckham would likely slot in if Smid needed the night off. Peckham last played February 26th, 2009, against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The young blue-liner saw 14:13 of ice time and was a -1.

He has played in nine Oilers tilts registering no points, 43 penalty minutes, 5 shots, and is a -1 over that period.

The Oilers also have the option of trying out Taylor Chorney or Mathieu Roy, but MacTavish has apparently enjoyed the feisty play of Peckham, who last fought San Jose’s Claude Lemieux and gave him quite the working over.

Lemieux attempted to continue the altercation after the refs stepped in, resulting in the 43-year-old accidentally striking an official, something that perhaps is worth a second look.