Christmas Day aka Opening Night for the Oilers

After a very long off-season for the Edmonton Oilers and her fans, we are ready for hockey in Oil Country.  It's game day!!  Three Oiler draft picks (Eberle, Paajarvi and Hall) will take to the ice in their first NHL regular season game.  I hope fans keep their expectations in check and not put too much pressure on the kids or the team.  This is the start of a rebuild.  Yes it is exciting.  Yes we have hope.  But be patient.  This is not a contender.....yet.  Let's face it, this is a team that will struggle at times during the year.  If they can't win, please let it be entertaining!! 

There still exists major problems in goal:  Khabibulin has not looked very good in the preseason and they will start the year with three goalies once again.  Boozy has not played since November and is recovering from surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back.  And he looked okay in one preseason game but absolute shyte in the other.  Khabby needs to be solid and give this team a chance to start the season on a winning note. The kids should rejuvenate Hemsky, Horcoff and Penner.  This team will score goals.  I think they will need to score quite a few each night since the goaltending is questionable to start the year.  

Lineup to start the year (I don't think Jones will dress, they'll want Smacintyre in the game to smack some Lames around):

Hemsky - Gagner - Penner
Hall - Horcoff - Eberle
Paajarvi - Brule - Cogliano
Stortini - Fraser - MacIntyre (Jones)

Whitney - Gilbert
Smid - Foster
Vandermeer - Peckham (Strudwick)

Khabibulin (Dubnyk/Deslauriers)

I predict an Oilers victory tonight over the Lames.  It will be 5-3. 

Update:  As per Dan Tencer, Jones will play tonight in place of MacIntyre.   Honestly, I do not understand this at all.  Why have MacIntyre on the team if you won't play him against teams with heavyweights and teams who have pushed our Oilers around in the past?  Waive him!!

My Thoughts on the Possibility of a Barons TV Deal

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing announcements by different teams in the AHL and the CHL for radio and television deals that they have gained. That got me to thinking about if the Barons might be able to secure a television deal to go along with their radio deal with KXY. It would seem that the chance of getting one for this season is pretty far gone, but that leaves plenty of time to look at getting one for next season. There are a few options the Barons have to look at. There are three really good non-cable possibilities for the team to look at; KOCB, KAUT, and KSBI. KOCB is the CW affiliate, KAUT is the MyNetworkTV affiliate, and KSBI is an unaffiliated station. Of those three, KSBI is the best choice in my opinion. KSBI is able to be seen in almost the whole state of Oklahoma, thanks to them having 12 translator sites within the state. With the station not being affiliated with any network, they wouldn’t have to deal with any programming conflicts. The Barons also already have a working business deal with one of their owners, Aubrey McClendon, who is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Chesapeake Energy, the Barons founding partner. And in what is probably the strongest case to make for KSBI, they have plenty of experience in broadcasting sporting events. In the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first two seasons, KSBI broadcast 17 games each season with Fox Sports Oklahoma broadcasting the remainder of the games. They lost the rights to show the Thunder games this year after the Thunder decided to sign an exclusive deal with Fox Sports Oklahoma. If the Barons want a really good opportunity to expose the team and the AHL to the state, and KSBI wants a very good alternative to fill the void left by the Thunder, showing the games on KSBI is the way to go.

Videos from Barons Preseason Game

I can't thank Eric(a.k.a @AHLBarons) enough for taking these videos from the only Barons preseason game against the Texas Stars. Again OilFieldHockey.com and OilersJambalaya.com have brought you another first in from Oklahoma City.

Shawn Horcoff Named Captain of Edmonton Oilers

As per the Oilers twitter account, the Edmonton Oilers have named Shawn Horcoff as the new captain.

Like I figured a month ago, Horcoff was the obvious choice.

Good for Shawn!

PS: I still would have liked Sam Gagner to have it, but I'm cool with Horcoff.

-Written by Smokin' Ray-

2010/11 NHL Predictions by Paq Twinn

Its been a while since the OJ faithful has heard from me. This will change. I will be contributing on a regular basis here at Oilers Jambalaya. So allow me to reintroduce myself, I am Paq Twinn. I am a life long Oilers fan and love the Oilers, win, lose or draw...wait, I keep forgetting that draws are not possible anymore. I believe that Tambellini had a successful summer and I am very excited to get this season going.

So without further ado, here are my predictions for the 10/11 NHL standings.

EASTERN CONFERENCE
1.Washington Capitals
2.Pittsburgh Penguins
3.Buffalo Sabres
4.New Jersey Devils
5.Philadelphia Flyers
6.Tampa Bay Lightning
7.Boston Bruins
8.Montreal Canadiens
9.Ottawa Senators
10.Florida Panthers
11.New York Rangers
12.Carolina Hurricanes
13.New York Islanders
14.Atlanta Thrashers
15.Toronto Maple Leafs

WESTERN CONFERENCE
1.San Jose Sharks
2.Vancouver Canucks
3.Chicago Blackhawks
4.Detroit Redwings
5.Anaheim Ducks
6.St.Louis Blues
7.Los Angeles Kings
8.Phoenix Coyotes
9.Calgary Flames
10.Nashville Predators
11.Edmonton Oilers
12.Colorado Avalanche
13.Dallas Stars
14.Minnesota Wild
15.Columbus Blue Jackets

The Final Four
Washington vs Pittsburgh
San Jose vs Chicago

Stanley Cup Finals
Pittsburgh vs Chicago.

Stanley Cup Champion
Pittsburgh Penguins

Well there it is. Feel free to laugh, point fingers and snicker when it all goes awry.

-Written by Paq Twinn-