Week of January 3, 2007, Issue #585
FRONT
In The Box
David Young and TB Player / inthebox@vueweekly.com
2006 ended badly for the Oilers with four losses in a row. The team dropped three of those games after Christmas with a 7-4 loss to the LA Kings, a 6-2 loss to Vancouver and a 4-2 loss to the Calgary (aaargh) Flames. 2007 already looks better. The Oilers started this new year on Tuesday with a 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers and Ed Beeeellllfooooour. Happy new year, hockey fans and casual observers, from TB and Dave—your guides to all things Oily.Y? Because they love you
After 22 seasons, 1 514 regular season games, 692 goals, 196 playoff games, three Stanley Cups, an Olympic gold medal and 106 game winning goals, the Detroit Red Wings decided to retire Steve Yzerman’s number 19. The ceremony took about an hour and a half. Then the Wings beat the Chris Pronger-less (too bad) Anaheim Ducks. After the amazing career Stevie Y had in the NHL, it was a little disappointing that the hockey legend’s last NHL moment was spent skating off the Edmonton ice after our Oilers bounced his Wings out of the first round of the playoffs. I did say “a little disappointing.” Cheers, Stevie Y. Maybe the Oilers can also see one Ryan Smyth spend his entire career with one NHL team as well. DY
Unrelated milestones… or, the delicate art of the non sequitur
Tuesday’s win over Florida was the franchise’s long-awaited 1000th win after 27 years, five Stanley Cups and one Wayne Gretzky. That makes the Oilers the third fastest club to hit that mark in NHL history, trailing Montreal and Philadelphia. And on Coronation Street Monday night, playboy capitalist Mike Baldwin died after the fictional character was on the program for 30 years, 25 girlfriends, four wives and three sons. DY
Canada vs Russia. Again.
Canada’s Junior Mens hockey team will again play for the gold this Friday against old-time rival Russia. Canada has won the last two gold medals, both times beating Russia in the finals. The last two times that Russia won the gold, they beat Canada in the last game. In fact, if you count Russia and the Soviet Union as one and the same, these two teams have met thirteen times in the gold-medal game, with Russia holding the slight advantage at 7-6. Canada has twelve gold medals altogether, Russia fifteen. Both sides also have eight silver and 5 bronze medals. The only time neither team has medaled in the entire history of the World Juniors was 1987, when both teams were disqualified after the famous “lights out” bench-clearing brawl. The puck drops Friday morning at 10:30. Don’t miss it. TB
No, we don’t want Tom Poti back
The Oilers pulled a do-over Tuesday morning, re-acquiring enigmatic centre Petr Nedved off re-entry waivers from Philadelphia. This makes Nedved the third member of the current roster to leave the Oilers organization and return. Marty Reasoner was traded to Boston at the deadline last year and re-signed as a free agent this past summer. Jussi Markkanen was traded to the Rangers in June 2003 and then re-acquired by the Oilers in March 2004. Petr Nedved, coincidentally, was acquired from New York in the same deal. DY
Mojo 1 - Curse 0
Tuesday’s long-awaited win (after a four-game stinkfest) was a battle of the Mojo (Oilers playing in the third jerseys) pitted against the Curse (Oilers on Pay-Per-View). The team was a pretty impressive 4-1-1 in the Todd McFarlane-designed science fiction outfits and a crappy 1-3 on Pay television up to that point this season. The Mojo won out with the big win over Beeeeeelfoooooour and the Panthers. DY