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Tonight in Denver, the two most interesting young teams in the NHL will do battle. There are plenty of stories going into this game to discuss.
1. I Guess We'll Keep Him - The Oilers have decided not to return Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Junior, and Gabriel Landeskog will stay on with the Avalanche. Well, duh. There was no real question about whether or not these two should be sent back.
2. Klassy with a "K" - With respect to the Oilers keeping Nuge around, I can't be the only person who thinks management have acted like complete asses. They should have told Nuge and the public the player wasn't going anywhere after he scored his hat-trick. He was good during training camp, and has been great during the regular season. He's an 18 year-old who looks better than 90% of all the other players in the league, regardless of their age. Why treat this matter like there was some question over whether or not he was good enough to be here? Extremely disrespectful behavior from the team towards Nuge and Oiler fans.
3. Cough-Up Call-Up - After Theo Peckham's embarrassing game yesterday, the Oilers made the decision to call up defenseman Jeff Petry from OKC of the AHL. I'm thinking Petry will play and Peckham will spend the evening watching the game from the press box. His pass to Ovechkin last night was one of the best I've ever seen.
4. D for D in the Works? - I believe it was Darren Dreger saying a couple of days ago that Oilers GM Steve Tambellini has been and is continuing to make calls in an attempt to acquire a veteran NHL defenseman. There is no word as to which teams are talking to the Oilers right now, but scouts are following the team around.
5. New Kids on the Block - I've heard several rumors that Linus Omark, Sam Gagner and Theo Peckham are being made available by the Oilers right now. However, there is starting to be speculation that the Oilers might try to land a Top 2 guy, and might be willing to move Magnus Paajarvi to make it happen. I'm not sure I believe that one, though. Maggie is off to a slow start offensively, but he's got so much size, speed and skill. I'd rather the Oilers give him a stint in the AHL instead of dealing him.
6. Old Kid Not on the Block - Ales Hemsky's name is quickly being taken out of trade rumors, in part because of his injury issues, but mostly because the Oilers desperately need him back to score some goals. The Nuge/Hall/Eberle line is carrying all of the offensive load right now. Put Hemsky with Smyth and Horcoff, and the Oilers have two lines that can score. If you deal Hemsky alone, there is no way the Oilers could get someone of equal offensive skill back.
7. Duchenenozzle - Matt Duchene is now playing Bottom 6 minutes. Slow start? An example of what happens when a player makes the NHL too soon? Nah, he's just in a slump. People are so excited about the Avs fast start that they are overreacting to Duchene's slow start. If he's still bad after 40 games, then get worried. For now, patience.
8. Dubey-Step - I know the Oil must want to put in Nikolai Khabibulin again considering how great he's playing, but we all need to remember his age and the dangers of burning him out (see Dwayne Roloson's current play in Tampa for an example). Play Devan Dubnyk tonight against Colorado, and come back with Khabby on Sunday.
9. But We've Always Loved Khabby! - Some dip was giving me a hard time yesterday about my blogs on Khabibulin over the summer. Wanted me to apologize for being a jerk. Look folks, Khabby was terrible last season and everyone was making jokes about his Extreme DUI situation. I and all the Oiler fans going into this season had every reason to doubt he could return to form. It's great he has, and we're all quickly turning into huge fans of his. When you do good, we cheer; when you do bad, we boo. It's like that for all hockey players. If you don't agree with my blogs, don't agree with them. But don't bother asking me to apologize over things like that, because I won't.
Besides, most of you who are getting mad at me now about the comments this summer are a bunch of hypocrites. I have no patience with that.
10. Oilers Now!...will be right back - Someone sent me a message the other day saying how much they missed Oilers Lunch, and that Oilers Now! is being ruined by 630 CHED with the amount of news reports and advertisements during the show. I don't normally listen to it, but after I got that message, I did to see if I agree. Yep.
Two minutes of hockey talk for each 20 minutes of commercials and various reports (news, business, weather). Look, Programming Gods from 630 CHED: We commoners listen to sports radio to escape news, business reports, and brutal radio-friendly pop music. Commercials I can live with, because everyone has a mortgage to pay. But just talk hockey and shut up about everything else for those two hours, please. Thanks.
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