AnySportAnyTime

Old folks who’ve been around sports for a long time can surely remember Bill Hunter, whose energy put Edmonton on the road to the National Hockey League before Peter Pocklington or the 37-member ownership group or Daryl Katz had ever indulged in such a thought.

I bring him up tonight because I just watched the Edmonton Oilers play badly and win. It’s a big step forward.

Last year’s team, in fact most Oilers teams in recent years, used to play just well enough to lose.

One game in particular brought Hunter back to mind: the Oilers were outshot, outhustled and out-coached. But they scored on every close call at the other end and the goalposts behind Edmonton goalkeeper Ken Brown — a long, long time ago — seemed to be six inches wide.

“You’ve got to be a pretty good club to win when you stink like that,” Hunter said in the dressing room.

Point made.

Not that the Oilers are a good team yet, and not that they’re close to becoming a Stanley Cup contender any time soon, but the positive signs are clear, even if Sunday’s points came at the expense of a Florida team that remains in its ongoing rebuilding stage.

While Edmonton seems to be headed in the right direction, the Calgary Flames seem to aiming in the wrong direction entirely. Getting Tanguay and Jokkinen from the discard pile hasn’t helped a great deal in the early days of the regular season and the longer they stall, the less chance that they’ll ever emerge as the linemates captain Jarome Iginla has come to require.

Edmonton’s three new favourite sons did nothing remarkable last night, apart from Taylor Hall’s fluky assist on a flukier goal by Shawn Horcoff.

Truth is, only Paajarvi was credited with a shot on goal. Eberle was totally invisible, except for the penalty he drew against a careless Florida player in the early going. Hall was almost as unimportant and Paajarvi made himself noticed only when he took a solid body check in the third period.

In summary, last night’s 3-2 victory was a kind of warning: there will be many nights like this against teams better than the Panthers. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Put a checkmark — not an X — beside these Oilers.

It’s typical of the Edmonton Oilers that they don’t tell the media or the public very much about what they’re doing or why they’re doing it.

General manager Steve Tambellini has steadily refused to discuss the Sheldon Souray situation in detail.

Were there any trade offers? No direct answer.

Was there any talk with Souray about bringing him back to training camp and getting him in shape to play in Edmonton or to be traded? No direct answer.

The silence makes it difficult for outsiders — and we’re all outsiders — to understand or to judge what’s going on.

But this move, sending Souray to the Hershey Bears on loan, seems positively inspired.

His evident misery won’t rub off on the Oilers youngsters in Oklahoma City. He will get a chance to play himself into condition and perhaps some NHL team will make a trade offer that would benefit the Oilers.

It’s obvious that a happy, healthy Souray would have helped Edmonton this year. Of all the problems that existed at the end of last season, the biggest remaining one concerns the blueline corps.

But the Washington Capitals, who have incredible influence at Hershey, are in a similar situation. If something happens to one of Washington’s starting six defencemen, they’ll have Souray available.

And the Oilers will have the trade opportunity that they’ve wanted for so long.

Oilers insiders don’t like to talk about this on the record, but several of them said last season that new captain Shawn Horcoff was almost a disciple of departed captain Ethan Moreau and his first lieutenant, Steve Staios.

Which creates an interesting question: will Horcoff be a leader in welcoming the youth and talent and enthusiasm of all the new Edmonton Oilers kids, or will he do subtle things to keep the youngsters on a nervous edge the way that last year’s so-called leaders did?

The Horcoff I remember came from university in Michigan and made it clear he just wanted to play in the NHL. No price was too high, no effort was too great.

From then until last year, or perhaps the year before, it was fair to criticize quite a bit about Horcoff performance – he  isn’t a great shooter or a terrific playmaker — but you could never blame him for lack of professionalism.

I spoke to him on the radio once, shortly after it had been announced that he would join Team Canada in a world championship tournament. He hadn’t heard the news yet, and his response was touching.

Were there tears of happiness in his voice? I thought so.

He always answered questions. He made himself available to staff members and others, including the sort of hangers-on who often annoy professional athletes because they don’t know when to quit.

Horcoff also accepted his own part in what went wrong and shared the praise willingly with teammates when things went right.

This is a bright, warm guy — well, he was anyway.

I still puzzle when I hear a young player say that the dressing room in the last year or so was something of a swamp for new guy, but they still miss the old leaders.

By Christmas, if the dressing room is as welcoming as the Oilers’ private quarters used to be, Horcoff will deserve whatever credit he gets as a leader who deserves the captaincy.

If not, we’ll understand that the egos and prima donna behaviour that existed all of last season rubbed off on him and will be hard to remove for the rest of his career.

Now that he’s officially on waivers, the countdown has started to get Sheldon Souray out of Edmonton and away from the Oilers.

Whoever gets this veteran defenceman for the upcoming NHL season will be taking a major step forward, I figure.

Look at it this way: doctors say he is healthy and he has a lot to prove after his time in the Great White North.

Critics admit Souray is a talent, but they ask “so what?” They point out he was hurt most of the time he spent as an Oiler and he was obviously part of the unpleasant dressing-room picture that drew so much attention last year but still hasn’t been fully and openlydiscussed by the team.

It is known that Souray, Ethan Moreau, Steve Staios and Shawn Horcoff made it known all last season that they, as respected NHL veterans, deserved at least a little in the way of special treatment.

Still, I’m confused when a youngster like Sam Gagner makes a statement that the dressing room was not a happy camp last year and then says in the same conversation that the team will miss the leadership of Staios and Moreau in particular.

But, back to Souray.

He’s big and strong and physical. When he gets it just right, he can probably shoot the puck through a carwash without getting it wet.

Every team in the NHL can use those skills, although some critics say Souray gets lost in his own zone too much of the time.

Last year was a good example. Before Souray got hurt, his blueline partner, Tom Gilbert, had the worst plus-minus on a team full of losers who turned the “minus” factor into an art form.

After Souray left, Gilbert took responsibility for himself on the ice. As a result, he became something of a leader.

As a guy reads this again, it’s obvious that Souray has flaws, including the big mouth that got him into the doghouse in the first place.

But he can shoot the puck as hard as anyone, skates well enough to join the rush when called on and is strong enough to keep the front of his net clear when he feels like it.

I think, with so many things to prove, he’ll use the shot and his strength and his speed a lot more this year. I think almost any club would benefit from getting Souray, big contract and all, especially if the new bosses could make realize that silence can be golden.