Monday, July 12, 2010

Oilers Jambalaya Moves On Up / www.oilersjambalaya.com


Well we finally caved, opened the piggy bank and stepped into the future. Welcome to OilersJambalaya.com.

After much thought and debate we figured what the hell, let's do it.We have expanded over time and we will continue to grow, so the next logical step was to shorten the url. 

We thank you for following us in the past and also into the future as we continue to cover the Edmonton Oilers, OKC Barons and the Stockton Thunder. This is just another step in making this a top notch Oilers website.

The changes are not yet over...

WOoOOOooOoOO!!!! http://www.oilersjambalaya.com/

PS: Let's not forget to change the links and the rss feeds if you have us in your blog rolls.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Building Up The OKC Barons With Talent

After much complaining and belly aching by mostly myself, it appears that the Edmonton Oilers seem to be finally focusing on the OKC Barons team. ABOUT TIME I SAY!

I'm a strong believer that the Edmonton Oilers really need to help the Oklahoma City Barons get going properly as this is the 1st season ever for this franchise. This is the most important year for the Barons. This is where a fan-base is won or lost so it's important to establish your brand and market it properly. Sure having a new team in town will bring in some fans right off the bat. We seen that with just the logo's being discovered to the actual revealing of the logo, jersey and brand. The excitement that day was off the hook.

But then the fizzle fizzled, and in order to progress properly, you need to keep that fizzle. You need to have fans and media excited and buzzing. You need to find a way to keep fans entertained. I'm not really talking about promotions and the other stuff. I'm talking a solid on ice product. The OKC Barons need a competitive team right out of the gate and with a little hard work, it can be done.

However to this this day the Oklahoma City Barons are without a GM, Head Coach and a coaching staff. They basically have been at a stand still for a while now and it's getting imperative that they need to decide on who's General Manager very, very soon.

But in the meantime Tamby has been doing some great work in signing some very skilled AHL veterans. Here is what he has done so far.

On July 2nd the Barons/Oilers acquired 27 year old Defenceman Richard Petiot. He played last season with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL.  In 80 games he had 8 goals, 29 assists for 37 points. He has played in 13 NHL games posting three assists. If Petiot plays in OKC he will make $125,000 and if he plays with the Oilers, he makes $550,000.

Then the next day they picked up 29 year old Left Wing, Alexandre Giroux from free agency. Giroux played with the Hershey Bears in the AHL collecting 103 points (50G, 50A) in 69 games. He also played in 9 games with the Washington Capitals scoring 1goal and 2 assists. His one year deal is worth a whopping $500,000 regardless of where he plays. NHL and AHL payment is the same. He better be worth the cash. I would assume he's the "name" guy for the Barons. Unless of course they send down Eberle or Paajarvi to start the year down there.

Next on July 7th the Oilers/Barons picked up 31 year old center Brad Moran. Last season with Skelleftea HC in the Swedish Elite League, Moran scored 40 points (14G, 26A) in 55 games. Not bad. His contract is for one year and he will bring some leadership to a new Barons lineup.

Ben Ondrus was signed next on July 9th. Last year the 28 year old Right Wing scored 17 points (10G, 7A) in 57 games with the Toronto Marlies (Also was the Captain). In 11 games with the Maple Leafs, Ondrus was held pointless but had 34 penalty minutes. His contract is a another one year deal by the Barons/Oilers. He will be paid $130,000 in the AHL and $550,000 in the NHL.

Yesterday the Barons/Oilers came to terms with forward Colin McDonald and defenceman Jake Taylor. Both of these guys were with the Springfield Falcons last season and will be playing in OKC for sure. Hence why the press release states that these two are the first official signings for the Barons. Make no mistake, every player that I have mentioned in this article will be with the OKC Barons at the start of the season. These are all Barons signings even though Giroux has a 1 way deal. If anything, the better players will be the call ups and nothing more.

Basically Steve Tambellini has created a pretty solid complete line for the Barons. That's a good start. Expensive line, but a good start. Over the next few weeks we will see more guys get signed and the OKC Barons roster will start to take shape.

But seriously Tamby, focus on getting that General Manager for the Barons. One would think a GM and Head Coach are the most important pieces, no?

-Written by Smokin' Ray-

Friday, July 9, 2010

Edmonton Oilers Rookie Development Camp 3 on 3 Tournament LIVE *TweetCast*

Welcome to the final day of the Oilers Rookie Development Camp 3 on 3 Tournament. This Tweetcast is set up to get the reactions of a wide range of people.

It will pick up the following hashtags; #Oilers, #OilersCamp, #OilersJambalaya, #OilFieldHockey.

Include those hashtags in your tweets and it will be included in the Tweetcast.

The tournament will start at 9:00am.

GOILERS!!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Full Recap Oilers Rookie Development Camp Day 3

You know me (Smokin' Ray) and trying new things. Today we have a special guest article by Steve Schulte. Enjoy...


Rookie Camp Day 3:

Started the day a little later than I had planned but still with plenty of time to get to the rink. En route I ended up following a van covered with Oilers stickers and flags all the way from millwoods till I needed to get gas at a Shell Station. My gameplan was to try to watch all the second rounders from this year in detail as well as Petry and Bunz, this proved difficult so I’m just going to write all my observations.

The session started out similar to the Monday session, skating coach Steve Serdachny started the boys off with a few laps to warm up. During this time I had to take notice of the fact that Marincin had incredibly skinny legs and would need to bulk them up if he wants to skate at an NHL level. What I also noticed was how ahead of the pack Petry was when it came to skating, smooth stride and he looked generally comfortable.

Serdachny had them do a drill where they would cross each line on one leg and then switch to backwards and forwards respectively. Pretty much the whole team with the exception of MPS had trouble with this exercise to the point where I believe it was Lander really struggled.

Continuing with goofy drills Steve now had the players doing one leg, with the other one on top of a puck. Here was the first wipeout of the day which came ironically from one of their best skaters, Taylor Hall had a fall, which is ok because I happen to fall for Hall, Yeah I did.

The next drill was hard to watch for some players but a pleasure for others, the object was to skate from one end of the ice to the other while stickhandling two pucks, Eberle, Pitlick, MPS, and Hall did this with ease, except the first run MPS lost a puck into the corner, they followed this up by doing it backwards.

Last drill without being able to shoot a puck, all players were spaced out around the whole rink, and had to skate around and jump over their sticks, my observation here was Petry in front of me looking sexy again, and Brandon Davidson (6th round pick) struggling mightily, also M&M (Martin Marincin) tripped over his stick once, hilarity ensued.

The next thing was Sillinger explaining the plan for the next drill, there were 28 players on the ice and 27 of them were taking a knee, the one not taking a knee was good old Steve’s favorite prospect Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, nothing interesting but I found it weird, picture is on my twitter account.

We now enter my favorite drill of the day, players were paired off about 4 meters from a goalie, had to do a little lap mixed of forward and backward skating and then fight to take the shot on net, I didn’t see the person that MPS knocked off the puck to score but it was a thing of beauty, I think he can keep up with the physical game if we see things like that occur.

Players left to flood the ice after about a half hour, I heard Sillinger tell a cameraman that tomorrow we would be in rink A for the 3 on 3 tournament, which is good because it has more seats.

Buchberger takes over running the session, lots of shooting and puck work, at this point I turned my attention to T. Bunz, love his Tigers pads. Practicing two on one drills Bunz shows incredible lateral movement and sound positioning, and in two series Pitlick hit the post and was just caught on a glove save, he has a sweet shot.

A couple three on two drills but nothing very interesting, weird thing I noticed, Cornet looks a lot like MPS, however skill wise they are on different plateau’s as Cornet doesn’t really impress me.

Coaching staff treat the fans to a 4 on 4 session, was not expecting this. Notable players on each team, Grey: Hall, MPS, Lander, Marincin, Petry. Blue: Eberle, Pitlick that midget walk-on, Jones’s. Guys next to me bet on each team with eachother, I assumed the one to pick Grey had easy money but he ended up losing. At this point I was pissed I didn’t bring a notepad to record who scores because I have a terrible memory, but the midget walk-on of who’s name escapes me cherry picked hard and blew one past Pitton.

Final thing they did, also to the delight of the fans was a quick shootout, notably MPS, Eberle both missed, Petry sniped one home and when Mr. Taylor Hall put it in the net the place went a little crazy.

Not the best write-up but what can you do I’m not a blogger, I’d like to thank the guys at Oilers Jambalaya and Oilfield Hockey for letting me do a short piece.

Also as some of you know I am a comedian and am performing in a show Monday July 19th at The Comic Strip in West Ed, Tickets are 7.50 a piece however I have lots of giveaways, if you would like to attend message me on on the twitter account provided below. Final note, if you are going to the Baseball game tonight and sitting in the prospects section come say hi, I will be wearing a shirt with abs on it as I am still trying to get my Hartikainen picture.

Thanks:
Steve Schulte
Twitter.com/steve_schulte
Youtube.com/thaseron

Oilers Rookie Development Camp Day 3 LIVE TweetCast

Welcome to the Oilers Rookie Development Camp Day 3 LIVE TweetCast. The action starts at 10:00am and runs till 12:00pm.

Thanks to @Steve_Schulte and @Gelsomino for the updates from the arena.


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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.