Is Andrew Ference the right Captain, right now?

I will make this post short and sweet. For weeks now we have heard speculation that Andrew Ference is going to be the captain on a intern basis until one of our young stars steps up and is ready to take the reigns. My question is, 'Is Ference the right Captain?'

Not trying to sound insensitive to all he has done or who he is, Andrew is one of the last people who I would put in as captain and here are my reasons why....

1) He may be a fitness warrior but so was Horcoff and was he the right captain? Some will say yes, I would argue that he was the most experienced for the job after Ethan was done and not much else was a option at the time.

2) Speaking of experience, what experience does he have with his teammates as a veteran? Sure he is a veteran to the league but not to Edmonton and it's not like he is respected already as a Edmonton Oiler. I understand picking a veteran of the league on a team that is real young and there is no leaders but is not leadership what our young stars have been developing?

3) What does a captain do? It's not just on ice and locker room stuff, it's the intangibles. Does he know our city, will he organize events on behalf of our team players? How could he? He doesn't know enough about our culture or team. (Not that our culture has been great but it is improving)

4) Sure he appears good right now as a on ice player but media likes have penciled him in as a top 2 d-man on the Oilers and question is..can he even perform at that level skill wise? Maybe, maybe not! We won't know until the season moves into full swing. Why take a chance on naming your captain when he may stink out the joint or be a d-man that fans make their new scape goat? (He may do all right in the end , we won't know until halfway through a season even.

5) Lastly, why name a captain who is only a stop gap? If your going to name your captain and he is here now, make that decision to crown him when the time is right. I think IMO it is not beneficial to name a good leader a captain just because of that personality. I highly doubt Ference plays better or this team plays better because a 'C' goes on his jersey.

My suggestion you ask? I think you alternate your captain and wait to name him by Dallas seeing who will step up to the plate by the new year. Let's see who really shines in that all around leadership role. I would not be surprised if Gagner were to be picked but it would be the wrong decision IMO. For my monies worth I would pick Eberle still,  as Hall is not always a calm factor out there on the ice like a captain should be (In tradition anyway) but Hall sure appears like he wants the job and looks determined to take this team by the horns and run with it. Not sure why but I get this feeling that Eberle may one day be that key trading piece the Oilers trade out of town but let's hope my gut is wrong. I think the answer is in the writing and Dallas has it pencilled in as Hall! 

Question though 'Is Andrew Ference the right Captain, right now?'

Will be tweeting more on Oilers Training Camp , so follow me on twitter for updates.

For Oiler and Baron news and 2013/14 NHL draft watch

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MSM Goes on the Eakins Diet?

This morning, the interweb lit up with tweets from the first day of the Edmonton Oilers training camp. I figured the most entertaining news would be that one of the players puked on one of the machines, or was overweight, or something else along those lines. But it wasn't. 

The big news came in... and it was about the food the Mainstream Media (MSM) were served at the arena. 

The norm is coffee and donuts. But not today. 

The half asleep MSM showed up to fruits and vegetables mandated by the new Oilers coach Dallas Eakins. (see pic below)

We all know how much of a health nut Eakins is, but this was just awesome. Doesn't matter if the MSM was truly sad or not, this was damn funny. Can you imagine the look on Terry Jones' face?

Read some of the tweets below to see the reaction the new Eakins diet caused. 

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@TSNRyanRishaug: Mandated by the head coach.. Media food is veggies and fruit. Usually donuts and coffee. 

@TSNRyanRishaug: I like, respect my fellow media members here in Edmonton a lot, But sharing finger food at 9am? We’re drawing straws for Timmies donut run

@GenePrincipe: New coach, new food? Dallas Eakins mandated fruit and veggies instead of donuts for the media.Going to be a long year.

@Sun_Tychkowski: I don't care what kind of shape an NHL coach is in. Ken Hitchcock never ran a triathlon in his life and his teams do OK.

@TSNRyanRishaug: People are kind of walking awkwardly around the table, peering at the veggies, unopened.. I think a full scale media revolt may be coming.

@TSNRyanRishaug: It’s getting a little better. They just added yogurt.. I believe it may be flavoured. And coffee!

-WRITTEN BY SMOKIN' RAY BURNT-

Oilers Lines For Tonight's Game vs U of A

FORWARDS

Fyten-Roy-Platzer

Kessy-Petryk-Chase

Baddock-Schaeber-Abney

Gernat-Ewanyk-Bilckie

DEFENSE

Davidson-Nurse

Leach-Klefbom

Marincin-Betker

GOALIE

Bunz first half

Rimmer second half

Lines courtesy of Bob Stauffer

A Look At What Could Be Opening Night 2013-14

Hello Jambalya readers, as you know the hockey season is coming, and there will be tons of talk like, "how will Eakins help this team?", and "will we be over .500?".

But, I'm not writing this to talk about that, I'm writing this, to talk about who could be the opening day lineup for the 2013-14 season.

Forward line guesses

1st line guess

LW Perron C Hall RW Eberle

LW David Perron, Perron's skill will fit nice with Hall and Eberle who are already highly skilled forwards.

C Taylor Hall, This line has Hall at centre because of the fact Hopkins could be hurt for 10 games or so, (give or take) Hall is also at centre on this line because Eberle is a first line player and he has more chemistry with Hallsy than Gagner. Yes, I do know Hallsy is not very good away from the puck, but he has outstanding speed that will help him with back checking.

RW Jordan Eberle, Eberle is a good little forward that has great skills that would blend well with anyone especially with Hall and Perron in this case.


2nd line guess

LW Hemsky C Gagner  RW Yakupov

LW Ales Hemsky is another highly skilled forward who will hopefully bring leadership to Yakupov and if he can pass more, he might be valuable in the long run on this line.

C Sam Gagner I don't think has the defensive game to play 1st line minutes, so thats why I slot him here. He will finally have the contract stuff off his back and hopefully plays well because of it. 

RW Nail Yakupov, His shot, his skating, and his puck skills will hopefully work well with Hemsky this season. Hopefully they can find some offensive chemistry.

3rd line guess

RW Omark C Gordon LW Smyth

LW Ryan Smyth, Captan Canada, gritty, heart and soul and finally Symtty, these are all words associated with Ryan Symth, and coming in to probably his last season, I have him playing 3rd and 4th line minutes mainly because he is old and just here to finish his contract.

C Boyd Gordon, Maybe a bit of an overpayment, but still a good signing. Gordon is a good player that is two way.

RW Linus Omark, He was signed recently and it could be because the Oil want three scoring lines, or just for depth. Any such way, I have him here to add some scoring on this line.

4th line guess

RW Jones C Lander LW Joensuu

LW Jesse Joensuu, He was a first round pick, Lowetide says he is "very similar player to Temmu Hartikanien" which means he is a big grinder who will chip in a few goals, but is pretty slow.

C Anton Lander, He is a a good PK player which with Horcoff gone, he fills. He will chip in maybe 9 goals. He is a bubble player.

RW Ryan Jones, Jones cheats for offense and will probably be talked to by coach Eakins over the season. But I have him slotted here because he is a NHL player compared to others who might fill this role.


Other players that could be in on opening day.

Andrew Miller, Will Acton, Ryan Hamilton and Mike Brown.

Player to watch on offence: Taylor Hall who had 50 points last season and I Think will have 70 - 80 points this year keep your eye on him.

Defence pairing guesses

1 pair guess

LD Smid RD Petry

LD Ladislav Smid, He is a good heart and soul player who will block shots. Sometimes he will make a dumb play, but he's been improving every year. He is a good shutdown guy who logs PK mins and also can be trusted late in a game.

RD Jeff Petry, He was not as good as some people would have thought last season, but I think he will bounce back and not score on his own net vs the Wings and cost us a game (yes i'm still hurt over a regular season game.)

2 pair guess

LD Ference RD J.Schultz.

LD Andrew Ference, Ference was a good signing. Maybe not because of his contract, but because he is a solid veteran D man and will help J.Schultz when it comes down to those tough times.

RD Justin Schultz, Schultz is our best defence if not now then in the very near future. He had a pretty good season with points (27 points) but, I think he is going to get more. If he really wants to be good this season, he will need to improve without the puck.

3rd pair guess

LD N.Schultz RD Belov

LD Nick Schultz, He is a defensive defence man who should bounce back after a lackluster season. If he doesn't improve, I wouldn't doubt it if the Oilers look to move him. 

RD Anton Belov, Some say he was the best D man in the KHL last year. He has some grit to him and will be good guy to keep your eye on. Not sure how he will adapt to the smaller ice surface though. Should be interesting.

Other D man that could be in on opening night

Phillip Larson, Oscar Klefbom and Denis Grebeshkov

Goalies

Starting goalie:

Deven Dubnyk, He had an up and down season last year. He won us some games and he lost us some games. One thing I do notice is that he usally lets in one bad goal every game. Duby is the postion I am most worried about. He is 27 years old he has never had a better save % better than 2.57. But saying that, he was on the terrible Oilers team. All and all this is the season where we find out if he is an average goalie or above average goalie.

Backup goalie

Jason LaBarbera, Jason is a proven backup who might actually challenge Dubnyk if he faulters. Chances are that doesn't happen, but if they do, LaBarbera would love to step in. 

Remember, this all could change if RNH comes back early or if more injuries happen from now until the regular season starts. but if nothing does change, these are my opening night lines.

This was written by NHL rumors guy AKA Noah Fuchs

It's Over, It's Done / Young Stars Is Finished

Well, this years version of the Edmonton Oilers Young Stars team, wasn't that good. In fact, they stunk. 

The Oilers lost 5-2 in the opening game to the Calgary Flames. They faired miserably and it didn't look like this was going to be a promising tournament. With no big stars on the team this year, the Oilers had a hard time keeping up with the skilled forwards the other teams had. 

Then the Oilers lost the second game to the Winnipeg Jets 7-2. An equally terrible game, but the individual talent started to come out a little more.

Today's third and final game saw the Oilers jump out into a lead and they looked like they could actually win this game. I was wrong. The Oilers ended up losing 5-2 to the Canucks rookies. 

0-3 to finish the tournament. Oh boy...

However, not all was bad. Let's look at some highlights. 

GREG CHASE - My only recognition of this kid was the fact his old man used to work for the Team1260. I had no knowledge of what this kid could do until this tournament. Chase is a hell of a player. He's very gritty and he's got some nice hands. He pretty much did what was expected of him and I'm pretty sure he gave the Oilers management a huge grin all week. I can see him playing in the NHL one day. He has all the tools to become a regular NHL player. I'm glad he's part of the Oilers system. 

MARCO ROY- He showed us that he can be a decent two way player. I liked his overall game. He seemed to make the right choices for the most part. I kind of wish there was more games left so I can see him a little more. 

KALE KESSEY - Fantastic hitter, reminds me off a Raffi Torres. Hitting guys is obviously his bread and butter. A few times this week he seemed to try and emulate Ryan Smyth with his work in front of the net. He's a big guy who's mobile. I hope he can continue to develop. I liked what I saw. 

JUJHAR KHAIRA - I liked his overall play. He definitely has the ability to be a good offensive player down the road. I'd like to see him work on his positioning and he also needs to get more comfortable with a run and gun attack. He looked confused sometimes, but was glad to see he isn't shy to try and make plays. 

KYLE PLATZER - He had a knack of being in the mix of the offensive play. I thought he was decent in the last two games. Good knack for being in the offensive play. 

BRANDON DAVIDSON - Good all around defenseman. Accurate shots and well placed. Good coverage on the forwards coming back in the zone. He must be a leader behind closed doors, as he was the Captain for two games. 

DARNELL NURSE - He wasn't very good (as I had expected). Nerves maybe? Whatever it was, the kid definitly has talent. He will be a gamer. But clearly, after watching him these past few days, he has a long way to go before he cracks the Oilers. 

OSCAR KLEFBOM - For the most part he sucked. I'm sure a lot of that was because he was playing his off side, but for all the hype from Craig MacTavish and the Oilers, he disappointed. He looked like he was a step behind. He says the right things, but acting them out is what he needs to work on. He sat out today's game, I expect he will be playing and making an impact versus the U of A. 

TYLER BUNZ - The best of the shitty goaltending. I suspect he will get the start for the game against the U of A, but does he really deserve it? He did make some big saves during his start, but it's the soft goals that have me worried. 

-WRITTEN BY SMOKIN' RAY BURNT-