Sports
Game On
Dec 4th
The past three games have been very encouraging for the Oilers. We’re battling through some pretty intense injury trouble, but with last night’s win in LA, we’re now just one game shy of .500, and a pair of points out of a playoff spot.
The two wins against Anaheim are HUGE for a couple of reasons. The first is obviously that wins are important against any team. But beating down Anaheim means that we are more likely to finish above them in the standings – meaning the draft pick we have from them is worth more than the one we gave up for Dustin Penner. The Kevin Lowe vs Brian Burke war seems to be evening out a little more. If the oilers can turn this season around, I think the Dustin Penner offer sheet was a pretty good move for Kevin Lowe – particularly since Penner has been playing better and better over the last few games.
The Edmonton Oilers, in the past couple of years, have been a frustratingly fun team to watch. Even in 05/06 when we made the run to the cup, the Oilers just squeaked into the playoffs. They did so by beating the good teams, and losing to the bad teams … which made no sense. Last year’s season was a terrible disappointment, but the team had so much trouble scoring. Add in the injury troubles that plagued the oilers in the late season, and it really was a recipe for disaster.
I still think the experts are crazy to think they can just write off the oilers as contenders. Anything can happen in the new NHL, and the oilers have a lot of the right ingredients to turn things around. Granted, they have a lot of young and unexperienced players on their team, but there is a lot of skill there, and if the elements click into place, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team playoff bound.
Heraldk
Maddening Oilers
Nov 16th
Man, I just can’t shake the feeling that the Oilers have some chance to go on a stretch of wins. They’ve got so much talent – they just can’t seem to put it together. Of course, the crazy number of injuries isn’t helping. If the Oilers started getting healthy all of a sudden, I think we’d be looking at a particularly good team.
The game last night against Vancouver was a lot of fun to watch. It was also a nail-biter, and every time Vancouver got some pressure on us I got nervous. But Mathieu Garon managed to put on A SHOW and stopped everything that Vancouver sent his way – including three shootout attempts! The Oil looked dangerous for parts of the game, but they seem to have this bad habit of giving the puck away in the neutral zone (or worse, in their own end). I don’t know how to get them to do this, but they need to be able to maintain control of the puck for longer parts of the game or we’re going to continue having trouble maintaining any pressure.
Tonight’s game was worse for that score. We just couldn’t keep constant pressure on the puck and it seemed like every second shift we’d give the puck away several times. Ewww. Hockey like that is maddening to watch for the fan. Glad to see Jarret Stoll get a couple goals though. They were a bit ugly, but I’m glad to see him snap his goal drought. Let’s hope he continues to recover last year’s form!
Maybe their play tonight was due to the back-to-back schedule. I sure hope they can start building some consistency into their game … if they do, and start to get healthy … I seriously think we’ve got a playoff bound team. Until then though, we’re in some trouble.
Heraldk
Catchup
Nov 13th
Okay, it seems these catchup posts are getting to be the norm. I hope they aren’t though – so I’m gonna try and get caught up here and start getting myself back in the habit of posting here.
First up, the big thing lately has been my return to poker. I started playing a few weeks ago to catchup on some PSO promos that they’ve been adding with remarkable regularity. I started with Carbon Poker where I jumped right in at 100nl and did quite well and banked a $500 profit plus my $120 PSO bonus. Next was Action poker, which I didn’t do quite as well at. Even with the $100 deposit bonus, I was only able to claw my way back up to even a little after finishing off the $120 PSO bonus. I didn’t really like Action poker – there wasn’t enough tables, and I never really felt comfortable. So I was quick to move on. My next promo though was Cake Poker, and it feels much better. Being up $500 plus the $90 PSO bonus doesn’t hurt in that respect … but I’m also rather enjoying the fast bonus clearing rate. So I think I’m going to stick around at Cake for awhile before I move on to my next PSO bonus.
Work is going well. I just moved offices, and have started to get familiar with the code that produced the bots that played in the man-machine match this past summer. I’m super excited to work on the next iteration of these bots … and even more excited to pit them against the world’s best players. At the moment we’re trying to lock down some money to challenge some players with. Any ideas where we could get that money? We’d ideally like something on the order of $50K or more to use as prize money. I don’t have many ins with people, but if you have any ideas I’d love to hear them.
Diane and I are doing well. We’re currently in the midst of wedding plans which are going pretty smoothly I think. We’ve got several months to go, but we’ve got a lot of the important things locked up and several others in progress. Hopefully we can have invitations out in a month or so. We’ve been pretty busy with social stuff too – attending quite a few fun events over the past month. Too many to really recount in a short space here, but the latest was a Chili cook-off. We made some pretty awesome bison chili (if I do say so myself) along with some skillet cornbread, apple crisp, and cookies. Mmm – it was quite a cooking day! We had a lot of fun in the kitchen, and it’s making me want to force myself to spend more time cooking on a regular basis. I’d certainly eat better (and healthier) if I did.
The Oilers are maddening to watch at times. The most recent game against the flames was sweet to watch though – now if only we could put together an effort like that on a more consistent basis. I see a lot of potential on our club. If we get a few key members back and contributing, we could have a contender on our hands. I realize it’s a lot of ifs, but what else do we have? In particular, I’m really impressed with Robert Nillsson’s play. He’s been fast, creative, and strong with the puck – I’m starting to get excited every time I see him get the puck. One last thing: what the hell is with the hit on Hemsky? That should’ve got a suspension for sure! He could’ve been badly hurt on a play like that!!!!
Not bad for an update post huh? If you’ve got questions, let me know – I’m feeling a bit lonely in blog land!
Heraldk
Predictions
Oct 3rd
I’m not going to give my predictions for the upcoming NHL season, although I suppose it has already started officially since there’s been a couple of games have been played over in London. I am, however, going to rant a little about the predictions of other “experts”. It seems that hockey experts agree that the Oilers have no shot at making the playoffs this year. I have one thing to say: why do these so called “experts” always sell the Oil short?
It doesn’t seem all that long ago when the Oilers were pushing for the 8th and final playoff spot a couple years ago. They were a team that was fighting it’s own potential. I knew the team had a lot of talent, but it seemed that every couple of games, they’d lose a you-should-win-this-game type scenario and they’d slip back a notch. They did it, but barely. In the first round that year, they were up against the high powered Detroit Red Wings. Everyone wrote Edmonton off and had them down in out quickly. Surprise, surprise when the Oil suddenly became the team they were capable of becoming and took down not only Detroit, but San Jose, Anaheim, and almost Carolina en route to the stanley cup final.
Last year was a painful year for the average Oiler fan. The team struggled in mediocrity for most of the season and then got hit by a terrible injury streak that took most of the regulars out of the lineup. As a result, the team skidded to a halt and failed to win most of their remaining games.
The offseason was a high-drama period where the Oilers made a large number of moves and almost completely re-tooled. Powered by the new blue-liners of Pitkanen and Souray, they have far more power on defence than they had last year. Penner adds some size and some scoring punch and Sanderson is a wily veteran who should contribute as well. The real exciting thing for this upcoming season though is the chance for some of the youth to shine. The Oilers have several young players, in addition to Ales Hemsky, who all have a shot of hitting it big this year. These guys include Gagner, Nilsson, Brodziak, Pouliot, and Cogliano. To me, this is super exciting … and I have a hard time believing that the Oilers are going to have trouble making the playoffs.
But lets take a look at what the experts think. One of the oft-quoted stats from last year is +/-. I’m not sure how they can compare player’s +/- stats correctly when these numbers are so very biased on the team they were playing for. For example, Souray and Pitkanen both played on teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year. This typically means that those teams got scored on more often than they scored (duh). So take two important defencemen who play big minutes for their teams and put them on clubs that are losing. What happens to their plus minus? It plummets. Whoop-dee-doo. I’m not saying the statistic is meaningless. I’m just saying that you need to make sure you keep in mind what you’re trying to compare.
A lot of analysis seems to compare how a team has changed from the previous year. Unfortunately, this also is a problem. How do the experts know that the “winners” of the free agency craziness (the rangers and the flyers) are going to gel and mesh the star players they signed? Who’s to say that teams with a bunch of young talent are going to not mesh and start winning games? The past doesn’t necessarily tell the future, folks – especially when so much has changed from last season.
One of the things I think many people forget is that the new collective bargaining agreement is giving teams some level ground to play on. It’s not completely level, that’s for sure, but teams are much more evenly matched than they used to be. Remember the Oiler’s heyday way back when they were winning cups every year? That team was so stacked that you had to expect great things from them. Fast forward to today – there are far fewer teams that looked that stacked in comparison. Maybe the penguins look a bit awesome at the moment … but the division from them to the next closest team is far smaller than for the Oilers back in the day. The salary cap helps balance out the skill players among the teams, and as a result, nearly any team has a chance to do well enough to hit the playoffs. So I don’t think last year means nearly as much as the experts seem to think. I also don’t think they have ever given the Oilers enough credit.
So I think the Oilers have a good chance of doing well this season, and we’ll just have to see how it turns out.
Go Oilers!
Heraldk
Jerseys
Sep 18th
The NHL this season is introducing the new Reebok Edge jerseys to all 30 teams. The jerseys are much slimmer, and reportedly contain a large number of technological enhancements that are supposed to make players faster on the ice. I’m not sure how much I buy that, but I think they look kind of cool. Many teams in the NHL have taken this opportunity to redesign their jerseys. As usual with this sort of thing, the results have been hit and miss.
The Calgary flames new jersey seemed to have riled a large number of Edmontonians because they put the Alberta flag on the shoulder. I don’t quite understand why people are upset. Sure, there are two teams in Alberta. Just because the flames are putting the crest on their jersey doesn’t mean they are claiming that they are the only Alberta team! I don’t really care if they put it on their jersey or not … in fact it’s kind of cool since they’re obviously proud to be Albertan. The blue patch does look kinda funny on the red jersey though …
The Vancouver Canucks’ jerseys look pretty good. Except for one really poor detail: they emblazoned a large VANCOUVER on the front of the jersey! WHY? This text looks like somebody was confused at what city they were designing uniforms for and forgot to remove it afterwords. I love the colours of the jersey — the blue and green look really good together in my opinion. The whale logo isn’t my favourite, but the colours were cleaned up and it looks decent.
As for the Oilers … well I’m not sure yet. They look not too bad, but they seem kinda odd. The vertical striping isn’t so terrible, but I’m not the biggest fan of it. The elbows look rather odd too. I guess I’ll have to watch a few games to see if I actually like them. We’ll see how it goes.
As for the season, I can’t wait to watch some games! The Oil made a huge number of changes to their lineup, and I’m excited to see what will happen because of it. I’m cautiously optimistic about our chances this year. The league is getting pretty even and tough across the board which makes it really quite difficult to judge which team will come out on top. I figure, we’ve got about as good a chance as any!
Heraldk
Baseball
Aug 23rd
I don’t really watch baseball much anymore, but last night I took a look at a television when Diane and I were out with Curtis and Pam. I blinked, and I blinked again, and then I just had to bring up the score into the conversation. The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 30-3. Yes, that is correct and not a typo. The Texas Rangers scored 30 runs in just four of the nine innings, breaking all kinds of records along the way.
Apparently it was a scoring fest. There was another big score of 15-3 that night as well, which now seems like a tiny win. Crazy.
Also, I tried a pint of the new Rickard’s White beer. It was VERY good! It might be my new favourite beer now.
Heraldk
Oilers and Nylander
Jul 3rd
Ugh. Why is so much bad stuff happening to Kevin Lowe? Seriously, if the news reports on the Nylander debacle are true, he has every right to be seriously livid over this. What the hell? Here’s where this thing hurts the most. Kevin Lowe thinks he’s signed the talented player to play on the top line with Ales Hemsky. Now he can move on to fill in other chinks in the Oilers roster. This is just two days after the free agency has kicked in, and teams have grabbed a large portion of the top talent available. Now, a full day later from when Lowe *thought* he had a signing, he now needs to backpedal and see what he can get from the dwindling pool of talent available. At this point, he might have to consider Alexei Yashin … a player I’m not entirely thrilled to think about in an Oiler uniform. If he doesn’t find a player he wants, he’s going to have to resort to trading again – which may or may not be possible.
*sigh*. I feel real sorry for Kevin Lowe. Seriously. The guy is smart. He’s made a lot of smart deals for the Oilers. However, he’s gotten seriously screwed over by a couple of things … the Chris Pronger thing was one, and now this. Not to mention the players who left after the Stanley Cup Finals last year … despite finishing runners-up to the Carolina Hurricanes, they decided that other hockey teams were better locations. Bleh.
I really respect what Kevin Lowe is doing. His job is not easy. I feel that his Smyth trade was a smart move considering that Smyth seemed to be more interested in the money than signing with his home team. The recent Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul trade looks like a really good deal on paper to me. Sure, we lose another heart player. We’ve still got a lot of those! Staios, Stoll and Moreau are awesome heart and soul players for the Oil! In return, we get Pitkanen and Sanderson – both players who I think can contribute.
We’ll have to see how things go. The Oilers are still in a position to do well this season. Sure, they need to add a bit more talent … and Nylander could have been a key piece. However, they still have a lot of young talent that could either prove themselves this year or be tradebait for some top-notch talent. I’m excited to see names like O’Marra, Nilsson, Shremp, Pouliot, Cogliano, and Gagner just about ready to enter the NHL – it’s an exciting time for them and I’m looking forward to seeing them develop into good players!
So I say to Oilers fans … stay patient with K. Lowe. We’re in pretty good shape still I think.
Heraldk
A New Edmonton Arena
Apr 27th
Anyone who’s been reading the journal lately knows that there seems to be an ongoing debate over the council’s investigation into building a new arena in downtown Edmonton to replace Rexall Place. There’s been a barrage of articles over the past few days pointing out some of the advantages and disadvantages to the proposal … and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised there is such hot debate over the topic. It is, after all, a large investment of city resources. I’m cautiously in favour of a new arena in the downtown core, but I’ve been waiting to weigh in on the issue until I’d read a few more articles in the paper.
I think today’s article by Scott McKeen convinces me that it’s a good idea, and touches on many of the complaints that people have with the arena.
So, why do we need a new arena? Well the reality of the situation is that Rexall is aging – particularly when compared to arenas in other cities. It’s the 2nd oldest building the remains in active use in the NHL. From the Oiler’s perspective, its hard to remain competitive if they can’t sell as many seats or luxury boxes as other teams. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I’m an Oiler fanboy, so you’ll know that I’m biased about this from the start. But before you chastise me for being biased, Scott McKeen makes the point that Rexall is not just used for Oiler games… a new arena would be usable to attract some of the world’s biggest musical acts as well. Not only that, one should only look back to this time last year when the Oilers were making their unlikely run through the playoffs to know how important the Oilers are to this city. Don’t you think they deserve the chance to remain competitive – particularly when a competitive Oiler team makes this city swell with pride?
So I believe a new arena is warranted. So what are the issues? Well cost is one big one. Already though, it looks like there are several options that will require much less taxpayer dollars to build the arena. As the committee looks at it in more detail, we’ll see what they come up with. However, several people more in the know than I remain confident that much of the cost can be absorbed from other sources. Sounds good to me.
As to the location – why not build the arena downtown? Downtown is starting to get much more lively as we are finally seeing condos being built in the core. (I’m happy that the city is finally starting to build up a little – the sprawl of this city is kind of disgusting). Building the arena downtown can only help – particularly since the current proposal is to build it in an area of downtown that isn’t exactly bustling at the moment. You have to go west of city hall to really see active part of downtown. Thousands of people pouring into downtown to watch the latest hockey game or concert — sounds like a good plan to get people downtown. The inevitable businesses that pop up around and in the facility will help draw people to arrive downtown early and have them stay late.
To be honest, I am a little biased. And I don’t know all the issues. I do however, have a hard time believing that this isn’t a good idea for the city. Many articles have pointed at other cities and the success of downtown arenas there — places like Vancouver and Columbus and Denver and … well I forget all of them, but there’s quite a few. I don’t know all the information, but maybe someone can point out to me why a new downtown arena in Edmonton can hurt us.
Heraldk
The Ryan Smyth Trade
Feb 28th
Ugh. I hate think that we’re giving up on the season. Last year’s playoff run was so much fun that I was really hoping we’d be able to get at least one playoff series this year. However, with the Ryan Smyth trade that happened earlier today before the trade deadline, Kevin Lowe is throwing in the towel for this season. The oilers *might* still make the playoffs, but that’s looking pretty unlikely given how they played tonight against Phoenix.
Reading the Edmonton Oiler forums is mildly entertaining though. People are so attached to Smytty … and I admit I was too. But fans are so betrayed that Smyth was traded … but what they don’t realize is that Kevin Lowe was put in a rather awkward position. The Oil weren’t in good shape to make the playoffs, and the contract negotiations with Smyth weren’t going so hot. So what do you do? Keep him for the rest of a season that is unlikely to be a playoff year, and chance that he won’t re-sign at the end of the year? Or get what you can get for him and attempt to sign him in the offseason if you’d like to (or go after a higher impact guy if one is available). Seems like a pretty clear decision to me!
The age of franchise players is almost over. The number of players who actually stick with one team their entire career are diminishing quickly. Smyth is really one of the last of his kind … so I’m sorry fans — you’re gonna have to get used to this.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, we can take a look at the trade. I think Kevin Lowe got an amazing deal. He picked up two players who were drafted in the first round, and a first round pick in the upcoming draft. That means we get THREE first round picks in the upcoming draft! Sounds like we’re in the position to either get some really good young talent, or trade some young talent for some current talent. As much as I hate the idea that my dear Oil are giving up on the year, I can’t complain about this trade that much.
Heraldk
Insane
Jun 20th
I’ve been pretty busy since I got back from Italy, so I haven’t had much chance to update here, and those times that I have had a little bit of time I ended up playing poker or doing chores around the house. So … updates here have been pretty scarce.
Anyways, what’s happened? The Oilers! Man, they put in a good run didn’t they? Just one game away from the stanley cup and they came SOOOO close. A couple bounces didn’t go our way and we didn’t capitalize on a 5 on 3 powerplay which really was what killed us. But the whole post-season was an enjoyable run, and I’m so very happy they managed to be able to make the run they did. Maybe they’ll make it next year?
Poker. I tried playing some no limit, but I think I need to do some reading on it. I had a couple of fantastic days early on winning over $140. Now I’ve lost it all again. Hmm … I need to learn some more about no limit I guess!
My research continues slowly. The team is ramping up for a poker competition happening at AAAI (which I am going to, as it happens). So there’s some stuff I’ve got to do for that. Also, my thesis really needs writing so that’s starting to get more of my attention. I leave for Boston to attend AAAI on the 15th of July and I get back on the 27th. A few of my friends are going to spend a week in New York while we’re in the area, so that should be fun.
I do plan on finishing my Italy journal entries, but they take awhile to type and when I’m not home for long before I have to head for bed nightly I’m gonna need a little while to get myself back into the blogging routine.
Anyways, more updates to come. Oh, and new photo will be up on my photoblog soon.
Heraldk
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