K, so it's like this:

I crack a joke about Ryan Smyth Bobblehead Night, and some chucklehead calls into the morning show on 102.3 Now FM in Edmonton to talk about the blog's title. Thanks, whoever you are: There is no such thing as bad publicity.

I've decided to make 102.3 Now FM the Oilers unofficial official station of choice. Why? I have no idea. I've never actually listened to the station. I did check out their website however, and I have the following advice: Please play more Tool, Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Cirle, Smashing Pumpkins, Japanese Voyeurs, Electric Six, Nirvana, Arctic Monkeys, Bad Religion, The Distillers, Rancid, Foo Fighters, Gogol Bordello, Matthew Good, Metric, Powder, Radiohead, Rammstein, Seether, Steel Panther, Stereomud, and Within Temptation. Thank you.

Actually, 102.3 Now FM makes more sense to be the official Oilers station than 630 CHED radio does. What is 630 CHED? Right-wing talk radio. Yuck. I mean, massive, huge, body-shaking upchuck of yuck. I don't mean Tencer and Stauffer's shows. They talk hockey, so therefore, they're acceptable. But everything else on that station is just awful. 102.3 Now FM plays young, fun music. What are the Oilers? Young and fun. Crowd is mostly young and fun too. Right-wing talk radio-types are completely against things like big, overpriced, stupid vanity hockey rinks. We don't like those people. Give us Katy Perry, give us Hall and Nuge, and give us a massive hockey and rock concert venue. Give us two minutes in the closet with Taylor Swift, while you're at it. If I wasn't old enough to be her hair dresser, I'd say something really disturbing with her name in the sentence.

Okay, enough about radio stations and music. Let's talk hockey.

The Oilers played a stinker in Calgary. What did I tell you? If I said they'd win, they'll lose. Oilers never seem to let me down that way. We did learn a few things from the game:

- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle kinda need Taylor Hall's reckless abandon in order to succeed. Hall opens up so much ice and draws defenders to him.

- We learned that the Flames are a truly awful team. The Oilers were without much of their offense: Hall, Hemsky, Gagner...I am not sure Whitney's play counted for anything, as he was rusty as hell. Hall opens up offense with his speed and drive; Hemsky creates offense by having sick hands and incredible creativity. The Flames had practically everyone in the line-up, and should have destroyed Edmonton easily. They didn't, and that's sad. Sure, they won the game...in the last five minutes or so. Couldn't buy a goal for 55 minutes against a tired Oilers team that was missing a quarter of their roster. Not a good sign for the Flames.

- It isn't like the Oilers had much to brag about though. Linus Omark looked terrible again. I love his skill so much, but he really isn't good enough to be here. It might be time to send him down, move him, or let him go to Sweden to bring up Teemu Hartikainen or Tyler Pitlick...someone who has size and can make some room out there.

- Shawn Horcoff played pretty well, so good for him. I hope he finds his game this season. I certainly like him better with Smyth and Jones than I did with Paajarvi and Omark.

- Speaking of Magnus Paajarvi, he needs to work on getting pucks to the net. He skates circles around everyone, but really doesn't do anything offensively. Maybe playing him with a big body that drives the net like a Hartikainen would be a good fit?

- Did Anton Lander get five minutes of ice time? I haven't checked the stats. I actually look forward to Gagner getting back and Lander being sent down to the AHL, not because I dislike him, but because I think the Oilers aren't using him enough. You'd think with the lack of offense being demonstrated this season by lines 2 thru 4 that Lander would be given at least one game to play in an offense role, just to see what happens?

- Devan Dubnyk was the best player for the Oilers. It's too bad he didn't get much help tonight from his team. More than one player should apologize to him on the flight home for the loss.

I realize Ales Hemsky is gone for a while, so I won't factor him into the roster for now. Looking at the Oilers body of work so far this season, I have a few suggestions:

Forwards:

Line 1 is fine. Hall/Nuge/Eberle were born to play together.

Line 2 isn't 100%. Smyth and Horcoff look good, but they need a different winger. No offense meant to Ryan Jones, but he's not really a Top 6 guy. Paajarvi can play the right side. Give him three games there and see what happens.

Line 3 is experiment time. Sam Gagner at center. Send Omark down because he just isn't playing well enough right now and bring up Teemu Hartikainen to play the left side. Put Jones on the right. Gagner has creativity but he needs some muscle on his line to create room for him.

Line 4...Belanger, Letrell and Eager. I'd rather send down Anton Lander so he can play on the top line in OKC to gain some confidence, and bring up someone like Josh Green to be the 13th forward till Hemsky is back.

Once Hemsky is back and if he isn't dealt to Columbus (as rumors suggest he will be), put him with Horcoff and Smyth, and move Paajarvi to the third line replacing Hartikainen. Keep Green up until Darcy Hordichuk is healthy.

Defense:

Now that Whitney is back, the Oilers have some options. Whitney-Gilbert is the obvious first pairing, and they'll provide the Oilers with a solid 25+ minutes per game, playing in all situations. Don't panic if it takes five to ten games for Whitney to get going. He missed training camp, you know?

I don't like Cam Barker or Theo Peckham's games at all this season. I kinda wish they'd draw the short straws, but that won't happen. Ladislav Smid, Corey Potter and Andy Sutton should be playing regular minutes. I'd rather Jeff Petry get the #6 spot (actually I'd rather the Oilers make a deal to bring in a legit Top 4 guy, but that ain't gonna happen because it makes too much sense). Petry will be sent down, and Peckham will be the #7 guy for a while. You all know my thoughts on the Oilers D by now (not bad defensively, but terrible when it comes to moving the puck and creating offense).

Goaltending:

Continue to alternate Dubey and Khabby. They look pretty equal at this point.

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