Monday, January 17, 2022

Finally the leaders of the team step up

Over a month ago before this skid turned into a train wreck, I had hoped the Oilers leadership group would hold a team meeting and work this out on their own. It was needed, and today, that meeting happened before practice. 
The Oilers spent today going over battle drills. 2 on 1, 2 on 2 and 1 on 1. They made a conscious effort to really battle hard. At one point Koekkoek got a hard shoulder in on Sceviour and tempers boiled over. Sceviour smashed his stick over the boards in frustration. Which is good. This is exactly what the team needs today to move forward out of this slump. 
Coach Tippett had this to say, "That's not something that I design, that's something that they design and that's the way they want it. To me, that's good leadership."

McDavid and Nurse battled hard against each other, then Draisaitl and Keith matched the intensity. It paved the way for the rest of the players and set the tone. 

Despite all the rage for firing coaches and trading for goalies, this is a very, very good sign for fans of the Oilers. All I can say, it’s about damn time! 

***This is a must listen from Perlini. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

The Kane saga takes a left turn

Tim Peel reported a bit ago that former Sharks forward Evander Kane will be signing with the Edmonton Oilers in mere hours. 


EDIT: David Pagnotta tweet was from a fake account. I own that mistake and deleted it. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

NEW EDIT: The real David Pagnotta tweets this. 



The words from Kane’s agent. 



What in the actual hell is going on? Your guess is as good as anyone’s right now. 

Stay tuned for more developments as they happen. 

Former Referee Tim Peel, new hockey insider?


This just came in. Former referee Tim Peel tweeted this. True? Could be. Guess we will find out shortly. 

Crazy times to be an Oilers fan this year. 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

One thing this Oilers team doesn’t have

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Accountably. 

I’ve been waiting for someone on this hockey club to stand up and be accountable this year. Nobody has. Not one. 

Character drives a team. The great leaders like Messier didn’t put up with nonsense. If he was terrible, he owned it. He wasn’t afraid to step up to a microphone and admit when he could be better. He was also never afraid to let the boys have it if they weren’t pulling their weight. I know players like McDavid, well this isn’t their strong suit. But right now, it would be a good time to have him or Draisaitl or Nurse or whomever, step up, own what’s going on and rectify some of the damage that’s been done. 

Coach Tippett came out and said that goalie Mikko Koskinen wasn’t very good last game. Let’s be honest, he was horrible. Justified words from the coach? Yes, it was. However, Koskinen had his own reply. 

”It’s not nice being thrown under the bus. I have to be better but at the same time we scored 7 goals in my last 6 losses. I can’t score goals.” 

Shots fired. 

While I’ll agree with Koskinen on his observation, he should have just owned his own failures. That’s more respectable than saying what he said. 

As of right now the leaders on the current Oilers are McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse, Nugent-Hopkins and Keith. Tippett has said Keith finds himself more comfortable on the team and in recent weeks he’s become more of a leader in the dressing room and on the bench. Awesome. However, public accountability goes a long way to ease the pain the Oilers fans are currently feeling. Would we feel better if McDavid said, “I haven’t been playing to the level I know I can play. I know I can be better. I know as the captain it’s my job to help carry this team to get out of this slump. I called a players only meeting and we are going to sort this out.” At least if this was said, we would all be a little less pissed off right now. 

Speaking of players only meetings. It’s about time one is called. I figured when they went on the first skid that one would have been called then. But alas, there wasn’t that we know of. 

So what now? 

Smith is back and will start tonight vs the Leafs. McDavid, Ryan and Barrie are out and have been placed in Covid protocol. Nugent-Hopkins is still out as well. 

Tonight will be a tough game, and even more so without these 4 guys. 

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

What possibly caused the WJHC to be cancelled? I would hate to be these people

The power of social media is crazy. Soon after the IIHF cancelled the World Junior Hockey Championship, reports started to surface about why this could be happening. 

The Covid cases didn’t come from Edmonton. They came from Red Deer at the Cambridge hotel where the affected teams were staying. 







Major fail for the hotel and the IIHF if this actually happened. From how most understood it, the teams were supposed to be in a contained bubble. Apparently this didn’t happen. 

More to come on this story I’m sure. 

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Oilers Jambalaya is in no way, shape or form associated with the Edmonton Oilers or the Bakersfield Condors. This is a fans blog for fans. We happen to love those teams, so we write about them.