Wounded Oilers

My Oilers just can't seem to catch a break at all, much like last year. Right now they have Sheldon Sourey out till the end of this month with a shoulder injury. Ethan Moreau the last I heard is at least a month away. No word on when Mathiew Roy might be back. Jani Pitkanen still looks like it may be until the middle of December before he is back. Fernando Pisani could also be back by the end of December if all goes well. Mat Green is out till the end of January.

So with 4 defencemen and 2 forwards out it's no wonder the Oilers look a bit like a farm team right now. They aren't in as bad a shape as they were at the end of last season when 11 regulars were out. But hey they have 6 out right now it'll only take another 5 injuries.

Don't be surprised if they go on another 5 wins for 15 game stretch before they get everyone back. I still think they can make the playoffs, they just have to get the injured players that are out back and hope that no one else goes down. That's a lot of hoping if your an Oiler fan these days.

Will the Oilers Produce Offencively

I've been thinking alot lately of how the Oilers will do scoring goals next year with a group of forwards that are either boarder line NHLers or pretty good AHLers. The more i thought about it the best way to look into the future is to see what the recent past tells us. Alot of Oiler fans last year got all excited about the Oilers filling the oppositions net with a lot of pucks and in the end the Oilers were one of the worst offencive teams in the NHL.

So Here Goes.

At center the Oilers have Horrcoff, Stoll, Reasoner and Pouliot. Looking at the last 3 year of NHL play it's reasonable to assume that this goup of players should be good for 58 goals.
At left wing the Oilers have Torres, Moreau, Sanderson and Nilsson. I figure this group should be good for about 70 goals.
At right wing the Oilers have Hemsky, Pissani, Thorenson and Stortini. This group of players is the weak link in the Oilers already weak offence. It's lead by a player that, as good as he is, refuses to pass the puck. I can only see about 42 goals coming out of this group.
On defence the Oilers have Souray, Pitkanen, Staios, Tarnstrom, Green and Smid. I'm thinking the defence should be able to kick in 54 goals.
This isn't pretty but as it sits right now the Oilers should be able to score about 224 goals and will only have four 20 goal scorers. That means the almost 40% of the offence is going to come from those 4 players, lets hope none of them get hurt. 224 goals is about 29 more goals than the Oilers scored last year but in my mind not enough to get the Oilers into the playoffs yet. Lets hope we get some help up front before the season starts.

Oilers Sign Souray

Yesterday the Oilers signed Sheldon Souray to a 5 year contract worth $27 million (from what I've seen around the net). I'm happy the Oilers have finally signed a "big name" free agent. I also have mixed feelings about it being Souray tho, his +/- is a bit of a worry and I hope that he wasn't just signed by Kevin Lowe out of desperation to sign someone, anyone that was remotely big name to a contract.

It should be interesting to see how MacTavish handles Souray. MacTavish is not a coach that has ever dealt well or liked players that are laps defencively and Souray certainly has his defencive short comings. Who knows, maybe MacT will actually get Souray to play better in his own end. Stranger things have happened in Oil Country

I do like the fact the Souray isn't afraid to mix things up and should provide a lot of grit to a defence that suddenly doesn't look half bad at all. It now looks like the Oilers, who last season had no puck rushing defencemen, now have 3 puck rushing defencemen and 3 pretty good stay at home defencemen. Souray and Staios would be a good defencive pairing in my mind follow that up with Pitkanen and Green, and a third pairing of Tarnstrom and Smid and the Oiler defence actually looks pretty good.

One thing is clear after yesterday, if Craig Simpson can't get a power play working with Souray, Stoll, Pitkanen, Horrcoff and Hemsky then he's gotta go. The Oilers power play has always been suspect a best under Craig Simpson. Now he has all the tools in the world and ther should be now excuses.

I'm liking the look of our goaltending situation, the defence looks like something that belongs in the NHL and should produce points, now it's time for Lowe to go out and get a top 6 forward, because right now the offence looks like one hell of and AHL line up.

I'm Back!

God it's been for ever since I posted here. Since my last post we got the washer fixed (thanks Sears - I think?) Never buy anything from Sears that needs repairing.
Then in the end of may was the Wedding! It was great, everyone had a blast and the weather, wile not warm was perfect for pictures (I'll post some later). The honeymoon was awesome, we had a great cruise around the Caribbean. We swam with dolphins in Mexico, that had to the be the highlight. (Again I'll post pics soon).

Sears Sucks

All I have to say this morning is that sears sucks. They do not stand behind what they sell and they do not service what they sell.
It all started last spring when we made the stupid mistake of buying a front loading washer and dryer from them.
About a month ago it started making a high pitched noise. A sears service man came in and looked at it and said the bearing at the back is going. He called it in and told me the best he could do for a part was April 12th!
Waiting over a month for a washer is unacceptable to me so I called there "service" department and complained. Sears called back and said that they could come on the 12th to fix the washer. Great I thought - only a week without the washer, I can live with that.
The 12th comes along and I get a phone call saying the wrong part came in they will have to move the appointment to the 16th. OK I thought - not great, I hope this isn't a trend.
On the 16th it became a trend. Got the call and now the excuse is that it's on back order and the new repair date is the 26th. And what do I get for this inconvenience? A $25 gift certificate!
How wonderful - 4 weeks with out a washer, 4 days off work with no pay and all the idiots at Sears offer is $25. Thanks for nothing. Despite my constant insistence that they replace the washer and the constant reminder that they are losing a future customer, they simply don't care.
So Sears - I'll give you 3 guesses as to where we WILL NOT be buying our dishwasher, stove and fridge this fall. All because your too short sighted to see that your pissing off a future customer. I have no doubt that on March 26th I will take the day off work and once again get a call that the part is on back order and the new repair date will fall on April 12th.

Once again - Thanks for Nothing Sears!

Well I Can't Keep Up!

So far this week, with a war raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, meteors hurtling towards earth and our environment spinning out of control the news media have decided that Britney Spears and her on again off again rehab and the Anna Nichole Smith saga of where to bury her decomposing body and, more importantly, what to do with her baby that no one's really sure who the father is, is some how the news story that everyone wants to know about. Frankly I've had more than enough and I'm stating to think it's time for some gene pool skimming if this is what passes as news these days.

Ok - that's just my rant for the day - I'll be quiet now - OOO, Angelina Jolie wants more kids!

OH MY GOD!!!!

Stop the press - Britney is going into rehab, and this after she shaved her head on the weekend.

Thank god for celebs that keep us entertained.

It's National Condom Week!

America's largest condom will be on display the weekend of Feb. 17 in celebration of National Condom Week. (Photo: Business Wire)

Fun Weekend

We had a really fun, busy weekend at Winterlude. On Friday night Tracy and I along with our friend Deb checked out the ice sculptures downtown. They were all really amazing but here are a few that caught my eye.
















Saturday night was a fun night out at Carmello's on Sparks - I can write about this place now because Deb told people about it and now it's just always busy. This used to be a nice quiet romantic place Tracy and I would go.

Sunday Morning we were back at Winterlude skating on the Canal and eating beaver tails.

Leave the Sharks Alone!

"This January 2007 picture, released by the Tokyo Sea Life Park, shows a rarely seen species goblin shark, measuring 130-cm in length, swimming in a large fish tank at the aquarium. The goblin shark -- a rarely seen species often called a "living fossil" -- was caught alive in Tokyo Bay but died after being put on display.(AFP/HO/File)"



This comes after last months finding of Frill Shark that the Japanese just had to drag out of the ocean and "study" that also died shortly after. Here's an idea - you'll probably learn more about rare animals if you just let a few of them live. Just an idea.

The Office of the Future?

Is this is the office of the Future?
Actually it's some wing nuts idea of a "Pimped out washroom". Yeah - they've moved on from piping out cars to washrooms now, what's next closets?

'Wacky warnings' rewarded in US

I always love it when I see these articles about warning labels on products. The most recent one I've spotted is one on the BBC World Site. The winner was from a washing machine warning people "DO NOT put any person in this washer". Other great warning labels were an engine manufacturer which warned "Never use a lit match or open flame to check fuel level" and phonebook which advised: "Please do not use this directory while operating a moving vehicle".

Just a bit more proof of how stupid Americans are!