After the Oilers first 8 point game by a single player since 1989, how could Sam Gagner not be the story of the week? Scoring 4 goals and notching 4 assists, Gagner's 8 point game against the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night, Gagner has tied records held by two elite former playrs; Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. I cannot wait to hear what either of those players will say about their records that have not been touched in 23 years.

Of course this was supposed to be Gagner's breakout year, but 5 goals and 22 points in 43 games were not the most encouraging stats by a log shot. Gagner had been playing more and arguably better minutes that Ryan Jones, but was no farther on the Oilers stats list. Now, after a single game, Gagner may have brought many of the fans he had once polarized if only for a short time. Likely, Gagner's name has been removed from many lists of must trade players, but there are however those who will now believe that it is absolutely now that you look to move Gagner if he doesn't fit into the long term plan. Gagner's father Dave Gagner had a similar start to his career in the NHL, and Sam is only 22, so there are many possible outcomes to Gagner's future career.

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Sam Gagner attempted 8 shots, missed once, had one blocked and put six on goal. He scored on four of them. His average shot distance on his four goals, according to the official scorer, was 19 feet.

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Sam Gagner joined a club so rare that it's got only eleven members. Eight points in one game has been accomplished just sixteen times in NHL history and the club is a mostly illustrious group: Maurice Richard, Bert Olmstead, Darryl Sittler (he scored 10), Tom Bladon, Bryan Trottier, Anton Stastny, Peter Stastny, Wayne Gretzky (twice within 40 days), Paul Coffey, Bernie Nicholls, Patrik Sundstrom (I said mostly illustrious), Mario Lemieux (three times, including twice within 75 days) and now Sam Gagner.

Gagner's perfect evening was the like manna for a team that's wandered in the wilderness for over five years, and though Gagner has been passed over by fans and included in trade rumors as recently as this weekend, few Oilers were more deserving of something like this. Gagner's never wavered in his loyalty, passion, energy or attitude since coming to Edmonton as an 18-year-old. He's played every role asked of him by three different coaches and has changed positions and linemates wherever and whenever necessary.

Sam Gagner goes down in history with some of the all-time greats and he's just 22 years old. The best is yet to come.

We're either really lucky or really good. Since inception, The Copper & Blue has managed to add an outstanding list of writers, Derek and Ben notwithstanding.

Recently, the opportunity to add four new writers to the staff presented itself and we jumped at the chance. These four weren't just any regular joes we picked up from the gutter along Whyte - these four were the brains behind the always-outstanding Driving Play - JaredL, Chase W, Triumph44 and Matt.

The fellows, a combination of Devils and Flyers fans, will contribute the outsider's view on the Oilers and the Northwest Division as well as bring league-wide analysis to the site on a regular basis. We're very excited to bring their work to our audience, and we're waiting with bated breath to hear their collective take on the Wild.

Please welcome them to the fold because if they're like most of our previous additions, they're about to move on to bigger and better things.

Follow Driving Play on Twitter @drivingplay

Follow the writers @jaredlunsford @chasew12 @triumph44

Jordan Eberle was the lone member of the Edmonton Oilers who received the call to Ottawa for the 2012 NHL All Star Weekend, but as the team's leading scorer he was the most deserving. Although Eberle was picked late in the fantasy he was still picked before Logan Couture. Coutrure of course has won a car and did not have Alex Ovechkin pointing, laughing and tweeting photos of his selection. Still, it is for the best that Eberle did not have to deal with this.

Eberle of course has had quite the history in the Nation's capital in his short career. Eberle was drafted in Ottawa, was a World Juniors star in Ottawa and now we wait to see what he can do there as an NHL All Star. Eberle will play on Team Chara but Eberle was selected by Joffre Lupal. "I'm actually kind of happy Chara didn't pick me because I didn't want to go up and get the jersey from him." Eberle told the Oilers' Tom Gazolla. "I'm like up to his hips. He's a big man, especially when you see him off of the ice. But I'm happy.It would have been kind of neat to go last and get a car and get to donate some money, but it is what it is."

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The Edmonton Oilers have recalled Teemu Hartikainen, Lennart Petrell, and Taylor Chorney from the Oklahoma City Barons to replace Josh Green, Ryan O`Marra, and Colten Teubert who were all demoted after last night's game. It's a move designed to give the whole team a kick in the pants by targeting the players on the margins that you can actually target, but at least in this case there's some chance that the team is marginally better off because of the move.

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It was a freak accident, a one in a million chance, but still another star Oilers player has succumb to injury. Taylor Hall slipped on a puck during warmup, slid into a corner taking down Ladislav Smid and Corey Potter attempted to jump over it all. It was a traumatic injury for the entire team. For Potter, it was the horror of knowing that he injured a teammate and that it could have been much worse. For Hall's teammates, it is knowing that once again another Oiler is on the injured reserve.

This accident of course sparked discussion on helmets and NHLers. Many players opt not to wear helmets, part of their personal protection equipment during warmups because it's not mandatory and because when these players were younger, they saw their hockey heroes skating without helmets. Now however, with the speed of the game faster, shots faster and harder and hundreds of pucks flying around during warmups, goaltenders wear their full equipment, but many skaters do not. Hall's injury is sparking discussion once again that helmets should be worn by players at all time on the ice.

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The universe is guided by some basic laws and the rest is random chance and luck. Fate, karma and kismet are just the human mind's biases at work. Sometimes though, it's nearly impossibly to conceive the outcomes of random chance and luck. The outcome is so perfectly matched to the situation, so perfectly suited a necessity, the belief there must be some intervening force at work is easy to hold on to.

News of Daniel Carcillo's season-ending knee surgery, is one such outcome:

Carcillo will have season-ending surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered Jan. 2 against the Edmonton Oilers. Dr. Michael Terry said in a statement that "this decision was made today after much evaluation and consideration of various options. We anticipate a full return in six months."

While it seems like karma, remember that plenty of dirty plays, though few are as dirty as this, don't have such a great karmic comeuppance. Players like Matt Cooke escape retribution for years and no great intervening force slams down on them like the fist of an angry god. Sure, Brendan Shanahan stepped in, reviewed the hit and suspended Carcillo for seven games, but it wasn't enough. Carcillo's hit was the perfect example of a non-hockey play and was easy to make an example of, yet Shanahan chose not to.

But for once, Oilers' fans got lucky. Luck and physics came together in a most harmonious manner and combined to punish Carcillo appropriately.