Should I stay, or should I go? (photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Edmonton Oilers General Manager Steve Tambellini announced that his club has extended qualifying offers to the following RFA’s: Devan Dubnyk, Sam Gagner, Linus Omark, Theo Peckham, Jeff Petry, Alex Plante and Chris VandeVelde.

This leaves…  » Continue reading “Drafting, Signing and Training”

Hot Like Hemsky - no. 83 tallied his first career hat trick tonight, getting him named the second star. (photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Edmonton Oilers at Nashville Predators – March 20, 2012

This was the first of a four-game road trip the Oilers took on as they visited the Nashville Predators in tonight’s 6-3 win.

Pekka Rinne and his team of Preds haven’t been a difficult puzzle for the Oilers, who are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. Edmonton had a 4-2-1 record against Nashville going into tonight’s game, and were looking to end the season series on a high note.

Ben Eager dressed tonight, meaning Linus Omark would sit out; Devan Dubnyk got the start in goal.

Taylor Hall, who suffered a concussion during Friday’s game against Calgary thanks to Cory Sarich, skated today for the first time since the incident. Head Coach Tom Renney is unsure as far as whether or not he’ll be playing on the rest of this road trip. He didn’t play tonight, but Renney spoke on where Taylor’s at.

“I won’t be surprised to see him play on this trip, but at the same time but at the same time I wouldn’t if he didn’t. We’ll follow the protocol and make sure we do the right thing with him,” he said. “As mentioned, even the night he hurt himself he was doing pretty good. That being said, there’s a procedure that we’ll follow here.”

Hall passed all concussion tests and has been healthy and exercising, too.

“He had a good bike ride yesterday, his baseline test also went well,” Renney added. “He skated a little bit this morning, that went well. We’ll take it a day at a time.”

» Continue reading “Preying on the Predators”

Jordan Eberle was the first star in tonight's 3-2 SO win over the San Jose Sharks. (photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Edmonton Oilers at San Jose Sharks – March 6, 2012

This was the third of four matchups between these two teams, each having taken a win; most recently Edmonton’s 2-1 shootout win on January 23. Coming into tonight’s game, Edmonton was 4-5-1 in their last ten, and the Sharks had an unimpressive 2-7-1 for theirs.

- Theo Peckham missed 15 games with a facial injury – played tonight

- OKC call-up Linus Omark played tonight – did not play Tuesday vs. Anaheim

- Jordan Eberle lead the Oilers with 29 goals going into tonight’s game

- Edmonton was 25-33-6 over the course of this season before tonight

- This was the second – and last – of a two-game California road trip for the Oilers.

Three Stars: 1: Jordan Eberle, 2: Logan Couture, 3: Jeff Petry

» Continue reading “Shark Fin Soup”

Captain Shawn Horcoff was the third star in tonight's 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. (photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

Edmonton Oilers at Anaheim Ducks – March 5th 2012

This was the first of a two-game California road trip for the Oilers tonight as they made an appearance at the Honda Centre. The last time these two teams played, the score was 5-0 in favour of the Ducks, who are in the middle of a last-chance playoff push. These two teams have two more games this season – April 1st and 5th – and the home sides are getting equal opportunities.

The Oilers came into tonight’s game off a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday, and were looking to ruin as much as they could of the 12th-place Ducks’ postseason hunt.

- LW Taylor Hall had seven points in his last six games going into tonight’s game

- D Theo Peckham is no longer on IR but was questionable tonight – did not play

- LW Linus Omark was called up from OKC – did not play

- G Nikolai Khabibulin has 12 career wins against Anaheim

- G (Anaheim) Jonas Hiller played in his 26th straight start – a franchise record for the Ducks

- RW Jordan Eberle’s 61 points had him tied for 14th in NHL scoring

- The Oilers’ power play unit is ranked 1st in the NHL – they have a 21.7% average

- Edmonton was 4-5-1 going into tonight’s game, having lost 3 of their last 4.

The three stars were Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan and Shawn Horcoff in tonight’s 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

» Continue reading “Edmonton 2, Anaheim 4: Recap”