G63 Oilers vs Senators: Deadlinemas Eve [UPDATED]

UPDATE

Ilya Bryzgalov has been traded to the Wild for a 4th Round Pick and reports are abound that Viktor Fasth will be an Oiler shortly.

Fasth is 31 years old and has appeared in just 5 games this year. He has a career .915sv% but is just keeping an .885sv% this year.

Fasth was acquired for a 2014 5th Round Pick and a 2015 3rd Round Pick.

As the Oilers will be without a backup goaltender in net tonight there is a growing push online to have Shannon Szabados, Olympic Gold Medal winner and hair afficionado dress as the backup. I think its an amazing idea. Let the Oilers know if you want to see it happen!

1:57PM - The Szabados dream is dead. The Oilers will take some guy from the UofA who will have an amazing experience but the club missed an opportunity to do something really spectacular. Some people will say Szabados was never the "Best" choice to be the backup. To that I ask "Based on what?" It doesn't take a lot of skill to sit on the bench with a goofy smile for 2 hours. This replacement will NEVER play in the game. Would it have been so wrong for the Oilers to give their fans something they wanted for once?

I will keep this section updated as more news comes down

DEADLINEMAS EVE

That magical time of the year is almost upon us and the Oilers are trying to confuse things by playing a game on Deadlinemas Eve. The fate of half the roster is up in the air right now and maybe, just maybe, some team out there needs one last game to make a decision on an Oiler player. GMs are getting their fax machines set up and cases of RedBull are on their way to hotel rooms across North America.

All the while the Oilers are gearing up for a game against the Senators. The Sens, by the way, are one of the teams who may have an interest in Hemsky, so a strong performance here could absolutely impact his future. Hockeybuzz’s own Travis Yost wrote an article for the Ottawa Citizen that went live yesterday in which he suggests acquiring Hemsky will be a steal. Take a look at it here.

I can barely focus on the game this evening so I cant imagine the players whose lives are about to be altered are going to be 100% invested in this game. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the game tonight is the perfect place for them to forget everything else that is happening around them. I would be a neurotic mess, myself, but that’s just me.

Naturally, if you didn't read yesterday's Deadline Day Preview then please go ahead and check it out. Not everybody was a fan.

DEALS?

The time for deals is really starting now and will continue into tomorrow. There were a smattering of exchanges last year on the day before the deadline and I don’t see why that trend wouldn’t continue. The Oilers have placed Corey Potter on Waivers today and I expect that he clears. With injuries taking their toll this year I don’t see anybody taking a flyer on him. Other than the fact that he stepped on Hall’s face, I’ve kind of liked Potter as a player. I think he can be a bottom pairing NHL Defenseman.

I’ve mentioned it previously, but I think the best thing that can happen for Edmonton is Kesler and other Tier 1 players get moved today. If Team X still thinks they’re in the hunt for Kesler then they aren’t spending much time on the phone with MacT asking about Hemsky. The Pens seem hell-bent on Kesler so I hope that falls apart and they feel obligated to get a winger. Ahem.

The only way I see the Oilers make a deal today is if it’s a legitimate hockey trade, just because their guys are going to be in the 2nd wave of players moved along. If we do see a hockey trade for the Oilers then the likelihood of Gagner being a key piece going the other way rises exponentially. The Oilers need defensemen but playoff teams don’t give them up at this time of the year. We’ll keep an eye on things for sure.

LINEUPS

Yak is making his way back to the lineup and Scrivens will be getting the start. I’m not sure about the lineups but I think Hemsky will stay in the top 6. What that means for me is that the mess you will see below will be a complete fabrication of my mind until anything else is actually confirmed. Gazdic has had some mild food poisoning so he will be a game-time decision.

Hall RNH Yak Perron Gagner Hemsky Hendricks Gordon Eberle Gazdic Smyth Jones

N. Schultz J. Schultz Marincin Petry Ference Fraser

Scrivens

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Ales Hemsky. Goodbye.

2) Ales Hemsky. It was an absolute pleasure.

3) Ales Hemsky. Best of luck wherever you land.

Puck drops tonight at 7:38pm on Sportsnet. Game On!

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy