Let's talk about hockey, because other sports make me sad. Who's up for some rankings? But first, I wanted to touch on something Pierre brought up a few days ago when he quoted a GM : “This is the most competitive balance I’ve ever seen in our league”. For the uninitiated, “competitive balance” is the term the league seems to prefer to “parity”, for reasons I’m not quite clear on. When they talk about it, it’s always as a good thing. I’m not so sure, and made the case almost a decade ago that ...
Keeping you up-to-date with all the latest pro hockey news in Manitoba.
Don’t look now, but Northeastern is first in Hockey East...
This past weekend's games featured a pair of game misconducts that were out of the ordinary...
We're one month into the season already, and there are some storylines that are appearing in each division. Week Five's games may give us more insight as to which teams have a legitimate shot at representing Canada West in Elmira, Ontario in March, but we're only 48 hours into November so there's still time for teams outside the playoff picture to make changes. The Mount Royal Cougars got a chance to kick back, do some scouting, and watch the other eight teams battle this week, so let's check ...
Welcome to my weekly monthly very occasional NHL Grab Bag, a feature that, it may surprise you to learn, has tended to focus on the NHL. In theory, I should continue that trend this week. But that would involve a level of dishonesty, because I’d be implying that hockey’s been the top sport on my mind lately. And as all my fellow good Canadians know, that’s just not the case. No, we’re all about the Toronto Blue Jays up here, as they sit one win away from an unlikely World Series championship. ...
The further we get from the Mikko Rantanen shenanigans for last year, the less I understand it. This week, the Colorado Avalanche extended Martin Nečas — the prize for relinquishing Rantanen to Carolina — in a major way, eight years and $92 million ($11.5M annually). The 26-year-old Nečas has been tremendous in an Avalanche sweater: 44…
Recap of the game.
Baseball season is over, trees are bare of leaves, and that means hockey season is in full swing. It’s been a mediocre start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, whose win over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night moved them to 6-4-3 on the season through their first 13 games. The team knows they need…
Another sport rarely takes precedence over hockey on a Saturday night in Canada, but that was the case on November 1 as the Blue Jays faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series. The fans in attendance at Rogers Place for the Oilers vs. Blackhawks game wanted to root for the…
Before the 2025-26 campaign began, I wrote about what a successful season could look like for Vasily Podkolzin. I mentioned that success for him would include being a leader in hits on the Edmonton Oilers — which he currently is with 46 hits — and also surpassing the 30-point plateau. I wrote that surpassing that…
After a disastrous finish against the Rangers on Thursday night, the Edmonton Oilers were looking to rebound (again) against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers cleaned up against Chicago in 2024-25, but the Blackhawks are having a much stronger start to the season, and it was going to take a clean effort if our boys…
The pitchforks have been out this season for Evan Bouchard. The mistakes have mounted, and it all came to a head Thursday night against the New York Rangers. After the loss in which Bouchard’s play cost them, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch was blunt: “If there’s accumulation of mistakes that are costing us regularly, then…
Keeping you up-to-date with all the latest pro hockey news in Manitoba.
Edmonton Oilers fans who cheer for the Toronto Blue Jays got at least some good news Saturday night, as Evan Bouchard’s overtime goal would secure them a win over the Chicago Blackhawks. While the Blue Jays would lose Game 7 of the World Series to the L.A. Dodgers in the 11th inning, the Oilers’ extra…
Amidst another sleepy October for the Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is providing the team with the consistency and the offensive spark at the top of the lineup that they desperately need. On Saturday night, he will pass Ryan Smyth for second all-time in games played for the Oilers with 972. As the last holdout from…
On November 1st in 1959, Jacques Plante took a wrist shot in the face from Hart winner Andy Bathgate. Seven stitches and 21 minutes later, Plante returned wearing a mask to the chagrin of Canadiens coach Toe Blake, forever changing the face of NHL goaltending.
Plante had been using the homemade mask during practices but no goalie ever wore one in a game. Despite Blake's protest, Plante
The Edmonton Oilers have hired Andy Salggert as their Director of North American Recruiting, the team announced Saturday. Slaggert, 58, has spent the last 32 years with the NCAA’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish, serving as an assistant coach between 1992 and 2017, and working as their associate coach since 2018. His long resume of work…
Recap of the game.
Tonight, the Oilers are back at Rogers Place for a matchup with a Chicago Blackhawks team that looks a whole lot different than the version we saw last season. Edmonton won both meetings in 2024–25 — one in overtime and one by a 3–0 shutout — but picking up a series sweep against this Blackhawks…
Stuart Skinner stood in front of reporters as the Chicago Blackhawks rolled into Rogers Place and declared that the Edmonton Oilers are fine. He’s happy with how his game has been growing this season. Everything’s trending in the right direction. No need to worry. The question is whether anyone should actually believe him. Skinner has…
First time in his career he’s been named a Star of the Month.
On this Daylight Savings Time weekend, the Chicago Blackhawks have been rolling back the clocks 18 years with their better-than-anticipated start. Back in 2007-08, those young Hawks were not the dynasty team they’d become yet. But this year’s team and that team won five of their first 11 games, as the 07-08 Hawks took big…
Guests: Danielle Bain at 28:33 and John Matisz at 1:26:38.
Some rookies start the NHL campaign red hot, like Montreal Canadiens’ Ivan Demidov, who is atop the rookie points leaderboard, but more often than not, it takes rookies time to settle in and adjust to the speed of the game at the NHL level. Having said that, the Edmonton Oilers have two rookies — a…