Showing posts with label Brent Huska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brent Huska. Show all posts

Monday, November 27, 2017

Get Over It!



Seems like almost daily that the fans of the Edmonton Oilers break down about what could or should have been. Now, I don't know about you, but that type of thinking would wear me down a lot and I would become even more depressed than I already am. Why subject ourselves to what ifs? 

We can't change the past, no matter what. So, why are we dwelling on trades and transactions that are long and over with? I can see the appeal. You see something that's going well and you wish it to be happening here. But, if we rewind the clock, people were happy to ship Hall and Eberle out of town as two examples. 

It was a general consensus that Hall had ran his time down here. People laughed and made jokes about how upset and sour he was to leave here. Taylor Hall was the laughing stock of the Oilers on his exit out of Edmonton and still was up to the start of this season. 


Some, claimed he was a cancer in the dressing room and that's why he was traded. Some, claimed his style of play would have him injured for most of his NHL career as the Oilers were better off not having that style of player here. Some, just thought he was a puck hog. 

No matter what your thoughts were on Taylor Hall at that time, you fast forward to now and you'll find fans missing and craving his goal scoring in Edmonton. You'll find people wanting to turn back time and not make that deal. And now, the same could be said for Jordan Eberle. 

Eberle was a bum in the playoffs, they said. Eberle has no heart and doesn't compete like an Oiler should. Eberle was renamed Eberlazy. Once again, those fans fast forward to today and they don't understand why he was traded. 

I think at times General Manager Peter Chiarelli and his staff actually read too much into the hype the team gets from MSM, bloggers and the casual fan. I firmly believe that the Eberle deal was made to appease the fans and critics. In my mind, it made no sense to trade him at the time he did. It made no sense to give away the goals he produced. But, should have, would have, could have, he's gone now. We have to live with that and accept it. 

Same could be said about Pouliot. He was a bum too right Oiler fans? Yet, here we are, desperately needing his strengths of killing penalties. 

Hindsight is always 20/20, but at the end of the day, decisions get made and love them or hate them, they happened. 

It's time to let it go and get over it. I know I have. 

Written by Brent Huska

Did You Miss Me?




So, here we are. Enjoying the Oilers win on the weekend. Everyone is happy. The suicide hotline has open lines for the first time in a long time. Fans going to work on this fabulous Monday morning with not a worry in the world. But, how long can this last? 

I've always been an optimist when it comes to the Oilers. They are my team. They make me happy. But for some folks, it's not the same for them. We tend to get very emotionally charged for games and the happenings that surround the team. While I can fully understand that, I just don't let myself get sucked in that far. 

But, wait! I've been gone for 2 years. Surely I must have left cause of the negative energy surrounding the team, right? Actually, no. I had to stop writing due to real life changes. Life became busier and I just couldn't focus anymore on Oilers Jambalaya. It wasn't the team, the fans, or anything else. I just had no time at all. But that's changed. 

I'm in a better place in life where I can spend a few moments a day and reflect on the current state of the Edmonton Oilers. I've missed this blog and I've missed the readers. The dot com name expired and before I could renew it, someone bought the name and now wants $100 for it. So I decided on using dot ca now. Sucks, yes. But I'm not paying someone $100 for a name that is 100% useless to them. They can hold it for life. I really don't care. 

Which brings me to now. I'm back and it feels good. Ive decided to just roll with my real name instead of the alias Smokin' Ray Burnt like I had done in the past. Not sure why I used an alias when I started Oilers Jambalaya, but I did and always regretted it. So with the new start to this, I'm making the change and I feel better about it. 

Stick around and make sure to bookmark
OilersJambalaya.ca 

Written by Brent Huska

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

What's In A Name? The Real Smokin' Ray?


I'm sure some of you have noticed that my friends that know me outside of the Oilogosphere, call me Brent once in a while. Well that's my real name. Brent Huska.

WHAT?!?

When I started up the blog, I needed a name to use - using a real name never occurred to me for some reason- so I went with Smokin' Ray Burnt. I've been known as SRB for quite some time, long before blogging about the Edmonton Oilers.

I am a musician in my spare time and if you know the blues genre, everybody has a cool name. So I chose Smokin' Ray Burnt.

Here's how I came up with it.

Ever since I was a little gaffer I've been called Burnt by my immediate family. Brent... Burnt... I guess you can see the connection. So in reality, I didn't make Burnt up. It was given to me whether I liked it or not.

While I was in my 20's, I wore 77 for a slo-pitch team and Derek, one of my buddies from back home, started calling me Ray Burnt in reference to Ray Bourque. Not sure why, - remember this was a ball team and not a hockey team -but he did. The Ray Burnt part stuck with me after that season and beyond.

Shortly after I was called RB by Derek, I started to record some of my blues music and I was going to post it on various music sites to get my music out to the masses. Like I said above, every blues guy has a cool name and I needed to come up with something catchy. BB King isn't BB King. BB stands for Blues Boy King. That's catchy. I needed that too. I smoke, so naturally I came up with the name Smokin' Ray Burnt.

Long story short, I put out some music and the name stuck, and to be honest, I really like the name. It has staying power and people seem to remember it.

Shortly after all the music stuff happened, I started posting on the Oilers message boards and at OilersNation.com and I stayed with the Smokin' Ray name. It became my posting handle. Everybody has one.

Once I decided to go ahead and create OilersJambalaya.com, I also decided to continue to use the SRB name. I was hoping some people would recognize the name from those sites and it would draw readers to this site. I wasn't trying to hide anything, I just took a name and I ran with it. For the most part it's worked.

There is some people who have known my name for a long time like David Staples, Scott from OilFieldHockey.com and Eric Rodgers as examples. It's funny, cause even they know my real name, and they still call me Ray.

I figured at some point a fake name would get me into trouble. Like the time David invited me to a game and I had to go to the Edmonton Journal office to get my tickets. I walked up to the security office and asked them if they had any ticket pick ups for Brent Huska. Nope. Oh... I mean Smokin' Ray Burnt. He just snickered and shook his head and passed me the tickets. I'm so glad I didn't have to prove ID. Haha!

So now I'm at a crossroad. Look around the Oilogosphere and you will see that there is a small handful of people that don't use pen names and I'm thinking that maybe I should too. It's not like I'm ever going to get accredited, but if I ever did, I sure as hell couldn't use SRB.

Plus, I have nothing to hide. I write from my heart and I'm just your everyday normal guy who's slightly obsessed with the Oilers. It doesn't matter what name I use, I'll still mouth off my opinions.

MY QUESTION TO YOU: What should I do?

Should I continue on as Smokin' Ray Burnt like you know me now?

Or go by the name I was born with, Brent Huska?

Or Does it even matter at all?

Voice your opinion. Vote in the poll above or comment below. Or just tell me to shut up.

-WRITTEN BY SMOKIN' RAY BURNT OR BRENT HUSKA???-

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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.