Canadian Sports Fan Blog

The Edmonton Oilers continue to be the NHL’s free spot on the bingo card.

They played infinitely better than in their previous two desultory losses in Denver and Phoenix, pouring 39 shots at Jonas Hiller and getting two short-handed goals within an eight-minute span in the middle period, but still fell 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night at the Honda Center.

Todd Marchant handed the Oilers their 11th straight road loss and gave the Ducks a franchise-record 11th straight home win by deftly tipping James Wisniewski’s long slapper past Jeff Deslauriers’ glove in the third period of a game that neither Oilers coach Pat Quinn nor Ducks coach Randy Carlyle will be using to reinforce how to play defence.

But the fans loved it.

“What can I say? Wiz was trying to hit me in the high slot for a tip and it found its way in,” said Marchant, who was matched most of the night against the Oilers’ top line of Ryan Potulny, Dustin Penner and Robert Nilsson.

Click here to read the full article – By Edmonton Journal

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Michael Peca, a two-time Selke Trophy winner, announced his official NHL retirement Tuesday, ending a 13-season NHL career that was highlighted by an Olympic gold medal in 2002.

Peca, who turns 36 in March, had 465 points (176 goals, 289 assists) and 798 penalty minutes in 864 regular-season games with Vancouver, Buffalo, the New York Islanders, Edmonton, Toronto and Columbus. His feisty, two-way game was underlined by winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward in 1997 and 2002.

“The game has given me everything I’ve got,” Peca told ESPN.com Tuesday from his home in Buffalo. “I’ll be forever thankful for the time I spent in the game. I don’t think a day will go by where I won’t spend at least a few moments of the day reminiscing about the time I had.”

Click here to read the full article – By Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com

It wasn’t ideal, but Devan Dubnyk will take it.

So as Jeff Deslauriers was getting shelled Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks, Dubnyk was getting ready.

“That’s my job as the back-up,” Dubnyk said. “It’s certainly a tough game to jump into, but I was excited to get in my first one and get a feel for it. It certainly wasn’t a great outcome, but I had fun out there.”

He was the only Oiler that did — apart from possibly Colin McDonald, who scored his first NHL goal in the 7-3 loss to the Canucks.

Dubnyk gave up three goals on 24 shots in his debut.

Click here to read the full article – By Edmonton Sun

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At times, it was more paint-by-numbers than a work of art, but at the end of a long night, Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin battled through some adversity to pick up his 300th NHL win.

Khabibulin gave up four goals for the fourth straight start–two in exhibition play and the first two league games–but survived a shootout on Tuesday as the Oilers outlasted the Dallas Stars 5-4 at Rexall Place.

Click here to read the full article – By Jim Matheson of Edmonton Journal

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Dustin Penner apparently lost just enough weight to fit under the radar.

Because the six-foot-four winger has been as anonymous as an Oiler his size could manage in a hockey-besotted community like Edmonton during training camp, a time when every line combination is dissected, each utterance from the coach heeded as if delivered on the mount. The scrutiny and criticism he endured over the past two seasons has abated, suggesting the new coaching staff is not alone in offering a fresh start.

“I’m happy for him, how his training camp has gone,” said linemate Andrew Cogliano. “He’s been in the (background)a bit more and that’s good for him. The last two training camps he’s been out front, in the media, in some issues. I think it played with his head a bit. He wasn’t very comfortable.”

Indeed, the target placed on Penner’s forehead after his first Oiler season, then tattooed onto the spot during last year’s lousy 17-goal campaign is barely visible anymore. There have been no scathing media attacks on his waistline, no demands from outraged fans that he step up to earn his $4.25-million US salary by laying claim to the first line left-wing spot which has been occupied for the past two weeks by J.F. Jacques. Even as Penner settled into a third-line role for opening night against the Calgary Flames, alongside Cogliano and Gilbert Brule, there are few suggestions he is poised to under-achieve.

Click here to read the full article – By Dan Barnes of Edmonton Journal

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Ales Hemsky expects to be ready once the puck drops on the season.

Yesterday the winger was back on the ice with his teammates in preparation for Saturday’s opener against the Calgary Flames. He had missed practice the day before with a sore groin.

“I think I tweaked it in our last game,” Hemsky said. “I came to the rink (Tuesday) and I was pretty sore. I said I would try it and was still pretty sore. I didn’t want to push it too hard, I knew I had another five days before our first game, so I took the day off.

“Today it was still pretty tight, but it feels pretty good, so I’ll be good to go.”

Click here to read the full article – By Derek Van Deist of Edmonton Sun

The first thing you should know is that the Dany Heatley trade to Edmonton is not officially dead. At least not yet.

It’s true that Dany Heatley did not waive his no-movement clause when requested by the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, but that isn’t to say it’s not still possible for him to waive it on Wednesday. He has, technically speaking, not issued an outright refusal to move.

Click here to read the full article – By Bob McKenzie of TSN.ca

Dany Heatley could be traded before July 1, but it’s going to take a significant offer from the New York Rangers or the Edmonton Oilers — the two clubs seemingly most interested in the goal-scoring winger – to get it done.

Sources say the Ottawa Senators do not have a trade offer from those teams, or anyone else, that is deemed worth of acceptance and the list of suitors looks as though it’s getting shorter rather than longer. The St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings appear to have pulled out of the sweepstakes, leaving the Rangers, Oilers and Sharks as considerations.

Click here to read the full article – By Bob McKenzie of TSN.ca

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