The Edmonton Oilers are spending time looking for a head coach, when they ultimately should be spending the majority of their energy and time trying to upgrade their on-ice talent (or frankly lack there of).
It is a fact that Tom Renney is gone, and misses the role of head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. You know something isn’t right when the last two head coaches (Pat Quinn included) were bitter about leaving and feel they weren’t given enough of a shot to develop the youthful base.
Renney’s quote to the Canadian Press has significant meaning.
“I believe I coached with tomorrow in mind as opposed to today and that might have hurt me.”
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we look into the Edmonton Oilers parting ways with their head coach (and what needs to change for the Oil to turn things around), we check out the latest NFL bounty news, and we run down the problem with umpires in the MLB.
In the GABBYs: Bikini hockey, Jamaican hockey, Matt Bonner, Coors Field, Ozzie Guillen & Stephen Strasburg. The Punchline this week is Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jason Peters!
The Edmonton Oilers have decided to fire Tom Renney as their head coach.
The Oilers were 32-40-10 last season under Renney’s leadership, and only moved up on place in the standings, from 30th place to 29th place.
There is talk that the Oilers are set to name former Calgary Flames head coach Brent Sutter next. I’m not so sure if this is the right move.
Despite only two losses at the most recent World Hockey Championships, Team Canada failed to get the job done in Helsinki under Sutter’s guidance. Being eliminated from the quarterfinals is simply not good enough.
Sutter, who seemed to advise the Flames to move toward a youth movement, would be in the position to teach young players in Edmonton. But I see some issues too. Under Renney’s guidance, the power play significantly improved. What the Oilers need is strong teaching by a coach on even strength, without any loss to their improvement when they have the man advantage. Easier written than executed.
Calgary was a much better team than Edmonton on even strength this year, but that reason was because of Miikka Kiprusoff, not Sutter.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame – lots of overtime and lots of fighting to kick off the NHL playoffs, the Oilers win the draft lottery & discuss the future of their coach, the Maple Leafs apologize and a number of top players head to the World Championships. Also – the head of the MLB players union talks steroids and the Hall of Fame.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Thierry Henry, the NFL, Lamar Odom, Lingerie Football and Dwyane Wade. The Punchline this week involves Augusta and an attempted cup of sand!
This week on the show we start out with the topic that’s on everyone’s mind – the feud between the Pittsburgh Penguins & the Philadelphia Flyers (and to a lesser extent, the Pens & the Rangers). We also look at a couple of fines handed down to coaches this week (including Edmonton’s Tom Renney) and we run down the upcoming match-ups in the first round of the NHL playoffs.
In the GABBYs: Mike Smith, Ray Whitney, Joey Votto, Alistair Overeem, the Orlando Magic & fans of the University of Kentucky. The Punchline this week is the Baltimore Orioles!
The Edmonton Oilers lost another game Monday night. This one was a 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
After the game, Oilers Head Coach Tom Renney showed that he might be over his concussion he received in Toronto early February, because he was fuming afterwards.
According to the Canadian Press, Renney was very critical of the Oilers work ethic, penalty killing, overall attitude and desire not to lose.
The Oilers are presently in 14th place in the Western Conference, 29th place in the National Hockey League and 19 points back of the Colorado Avalanche for a playoff spot.
The comments were accurate, but was the timing appropriate? Should he have expressed his frustration earlier in the season when the Oilers were still in contention? Or, is Renney trying to salvage his job, as in my opinion there is no guarantee he’ll be back next season?
On another note, TSN’s Ray Ferraro stated during last night’s broadcast that goaltender Devan Dubnyk will be given significant playing time for the rest of the regular season as the team will try to determine what to do for next season. I think Dubnyk has had his chance and the team should be looking in a different direction for the most important position in hockey.
The Oilers next play the Columbus Blue Jackets, the league’s 30th ranked team, Wednesday night.
This week on 15MOF, we’re talking coaching injuries in the NHL and long goal droughts (Scott Goalmez!), the NBA’s Tim Tebow and we discuss whether or not we will ever see the “super fight” between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao!
In the GABBYs: Paul Pierce & Kobe Bryant, Tomas Holmstrom & Nick Lidstrom, the Penticton Vees, Gisele Bundchen, Kevin Love and Tiquan Underwood. The Punchline this week is soccer player Adriano!
The Edmonton Oilers go into the NHL All-Star break a pathetic 14 points back of the Minnesota Wild for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
On Tuesday, Cody Hodgson scored the shootout winner as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in a shootout.
The Canucks were leading 2-1 late in the third period before Taylor Hall scored the game tying goal on a tip from a Corey Potter shot from the point.
Despite the loss, Devan Dubnyk has been excellent the last two nights, where the Oilers got three of a possible four points. He has made 80 saves on 83 shots. Still, I cannot get over his several terrible performances throughout the year that have partially put the Oilers in the very awkward position that they’re in.
Tom Renney very seldom starts the same goaltender on back-to-back nights, but made the right call Tuesday night in Vancouver, because Dubnyk had a career performance against San Jose Monday night. (Although, the Sharks didn’t have that many quality scoring chances). Also, Nikolai Khabibulin had one of the worst games of his career in Edmonton’s 6-2 home loss to Calgary Saturday night. Just how bad has Khabibulin been? Well, he hasn’t won since December 22 and against Calgary on Saturday, he gave up so many soft goals it was incredible.
The Edmonton Oilers fell 4-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.
Now the real test is on. My question is how will they respond to a loss and a complete lackluster type of performance.
This is how Tom Renney and the coaching staff will make their money this season. There is no question that last night’s performance was one of the worst by the Oilers all season long and now they will have to regroup for the following four games on the road trip–against four teams from the original six–the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks.
You cannot blame the loss of Devan Dubnyk, but he let a couple of softies get by him and does not play the puck as well as Coyoyes’ netminder Mike Smith.
I felt the best player on the ice was former Flame Daymond Langkow, who has personal experience on beating up on the Oilers over the last few years.
Is it time to panic? Heck no. Edmonton still leads the Minnesota Wild by a point for first place in the Northwest Division. But I poor performance like this one, will not lead to a negative trend for this young hockey team.
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
From every angle possible, it is a great time to be an Edmonton Oilers fan. The kids are producing. The veterans are producing. The entire team is buying into Tom Renney’s defensive-minded system and Nikolai Khabibulin has been completely spectacular.
On Saturday night, the Oilers (8-2-2), visit the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena (CBC, 8pm). Edmonton is currently tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Western Conference. They have also only given up 18 goals all season long, five fewer than second place Dallas at 23 goals. The recent play of Khabibulin led Brad May of Rogers Sportsnet to say last night that Khabibulin right now “is the best goaltender in the NHL.”
The Coyotes meanwhile are trying to get to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third year in a row. The last two seasons they have lost to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. So far in 2011-12, they are 6-4-2, and tied with the Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings for fifth place in the Western Conference.
The Coyotes’ top player this season is Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta native Ray Whitney, who leads Phoenix with five goals, seven assists.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
The Edmonton Oilers are moving into unfamiliar territory in franchise history.
Oilers’ head coach Tom Renney is having his hockey club play unflappable defense.
On Saturday night at Rexall Place, Nikolai Khabibulin recorded a shutout as the Oilers limited the New York Rangers to only 19 shots in a 2-0 victory.
The Oilers got their goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who doesn’t look to be going back to the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League anytime soon, and defenceman Corey Potter who scored only his second career regular season goal.
Potter, who signed a one year deal with the Oilers from the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1 has been a pleasant surprise. Originally drafted in the third round by the Rangers in 2003, they decided to develop Marc Staal, Michael Del Zotto and Daniel Giardi instead.
With the win, the Oilers move to 3-2-2, and a tie with the Anaheim Ducks for eighth place in the Western Conference. Rangers’ coach John Tortorella said his team “sucked from head to toe” Saturday night.
Well folks, the World Junior Hockey Championship is now under way and Canada got started with a 6-3 win yesterday over Russia. Click here for more details.
In the football world, I got the New York Jets/Chicago Bears game completely wrong. I was expecting a ton of defense and the game to be low scoring. Instead there were a ton of points on both sides with the Bears coming out on top 38-34. Even though the Jets lost however, they’re going to the playoffs because Washington beat Jacksonville 20-17 in overtime.
The San Francisco 49ers were eliminated from the playoffs after losing 25-17 to St. Louis yesterday. This morning, the 49ers fired Mike Singletary as their head coach. Jim Tomsula, who was previously San Francisco’s defensive line coach, will take over the reins when San Francisco hosts Arizona next weekend. The 49ers got off to a brutal 0-5 start. Staying with the NFC West, how lousy is the division. If Seattle beats St. Louis next week, they will host a playoff game despite finishing with a record of 7-9.
Well, folks. The youtube sensation, Linus Omark rocked Edmonton Friday night with an absolute bang.
It was fun. Very fun indeed. Let’s just hope this Swedish sensation is here to stay, and Tom Renney finds a place for him in the lineup when Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky return from their respective injuries.
On Sunday night, the kids had problems getting going and ran into a hot Roberto Luongo. But on the bright side, the Oilers only lost 2-1 to probably the best team in the Western Conference at the moment.
On the dark side, there are still a lot of inconsistencies– one of them is lack of shooting the puck on net for long periods of time. The last two games, the Oilers have had a total of two shots on goal in the third period. Simply inexcusable during the final twenty minutes.
It amazes me that I am discussing this–especially about a guy who was -29 a year ago.
But Shawn Horcoff has been an instrumental leader in 2010-11. He may not post a 73 point season like he did in 2006 ever again, but his leadership presence has been invaluable to date for the Oilers’ young guns– especially his linemates Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall.
There is a reason why Tom Renney made Horcoff captain, and I believe it was mainly because Renney had a year under his belt as the Associate Coach of the Edmonton Oilers so he could witness first hand the positive qualities Horcoff brought to the dressing room.
On Tuesday night at Rexall Place, Horcoff injured his MCL and is expected to miss the next eight weeks.
This could be a major blow to a franchise that is only five points back of the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference playoff chase.
The Edmonton Oilers are spending time looking for a head coach, when they ultimately should be spending the majority of their energy and time trying to upgrade their on-ice talent (or frankly lack there of).
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