I'm the meanest man that ever had a brain, All I scatter is aches and pains. I'm carbolic acid, and a poison face, And I stand flat-footed in favor of crime and disgrace. If I ever done a good deed -- I'm sorry of it. - "Mean Talking Blues" Woody Guthrie

Woody was a mean man. Mean with his lyricism. Mean with his poignancy. He was one wicked songwriter. The man that referred to his guitar as a weapon, had a seedy past -- one that he was seemingly proud of -- but he also realized the mean talk came with a price. Metaphorically speaking, the last game between the Barons and Marlies was even keel, until the mean talk, carbolic acid, and poisonous face appeared in the final three minutes of a lopsided OKC victory. Tanner House can appreciate that sentiment.

It's Victoria Day in Canada which means that summer is quickly apporaching for those in the Great North, and that playoff hockey is inching closer and closer and closer to an end. But before that end arrives, there is a lot of hockey to be played as the Oklahoma City Barons travel northward (via a chartered jet) to Toronto to face the Marlies in Game 3 of the AHL Western Conference Finals.

We discovered that the Marlies are a good team. They have offensive weapons, solid goaltending, defensive pairings that rival the best in the entire league, and the ability to be outplayed in the exact same fashion with which they themselves play. As fans, and followers of the game, we recognized how even these two opponents were. After all, they split both regular season games, two seasons in a row. And again, in the postseason, the stakes get higher, but the split continues.

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Cam Barker was terrible for the Edmonton Oilers, and even though there was some talk of him being the team's third-best defenseman when he was sitting out because of injury, by the end of the season he was sitting out because of being a crappy defenseman, so we can be pretty sure that he's not coming back. There's no room for him, and there's no reason to make room.

But was he really the absolute nadir of NHL defenders? Might it be possible that there was someone somewhere in the NHL who played somewhat regularly who was actually worse? Might that player have played for the Edmonton Oilers? I think that the answer to all of these questions could be "yes" and that the answer to two of them should be "yes". In the poll below, I've put up ten candidates (they all played a minimum of twenty games, so if you've got a alternate suggestion in the comments, make sure he qualifies), and after the jump we'll compare those players statistically.

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First, a quick apology for the delay in preparing the last few articles. Time for writing has been scarce the last few weeks.

In my last article, I looked at the development of the current crop of Oiler forwards over the next two seasons. In the following paragraphs, I will apply the same analysis to the team's blueline and goaltending assets at all levels of the organization.

First, let's look at the assets the Oilers currently have for their blueline. Under contract for next season are Ladislav Smid, Jeff Petry, Nick Schultz, Ryan Whitney, Corey Potter and Andy Sutton. The team also holds the rights to impending RFA's Cam Barker and Theo Peckham.

It goes without saying that many of us would be shocked to see Cam Barker play another game in an Oiler uniform, and considering the contractual commitment that would have to be made to qualify him, let's assume he is not tendered contract and is permitted to walk away as a free agent. Theo Peckham is a slightly more interesting case in that he is young and has in the past shown some level of promise. That said, his play was abysmal this season and if I'm making the decisions here (which is the premise of this initiative), I see if I can trade his rights at the draft for a mid-round pick, and if not, I would let him walk away as well. There are simply too many players coming up through the system to employ a player whose skill set is so redundant (and relatively unimpressive).

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I like to think that the Oklahoma City Barons found a heart. That Tanner House suddenly decided it was time to crash the net. That Teemu would use his extra hand to stiff arm opponents. That Taylor Chorney remembered which team he played for. That the coaching staff mustered the courage to admit they were handed an embarrasing defeat, and change what went wrong. That Yann needed to be stingy. To question the heart of a team is to question the individuals on that team, and the very root of who they are professionally and maybe even personally. And to say that the Barons found their heart, after getting lambasted for three straight periods on Thursday evening, is exactly how I'd describe the 5-1 rebound punishing the Barons put on the Toronto Marlies. My, what a difference 24 hours makes.

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The longer it took to make an announcement, the more sure we were becoming that Edmonton Oilers' head coach Tom Renney would not be back behind the bench for the upcoming season. Finally Thursday afternoon the Oilers sent out a tweet saying "Edmonton Oilers General Manager Steve Tambellini announces the club will not renew the contract of Head Coach Tom Renney." You have to hope that this was not how Renney found out his fate, but this is how announcements are made in this day and age.

Tambellini followed the tweet up with a short press conference where he did not announce who the next head coach is, but many out there would have you believe that ex-Flames coach Brent Sutter is soon to be named. There has also been no announcement as to the status of Steve Tambellini's new contract, nor the rest of the coaching staff. There is a possibility that associate coach Ralph Kruger is hoping for a promotion within the organization and he could even have already been promised something. This would be why Kruger was so quick to dispel rumours that he was about to take a coaching job in Europe.

There has also been the suggestion that Oklahoma City Barons head coach Todd Nelson could be up for the job of Oilers' head coach. To this point, Nelson has only been an assistant coach in the NHL but Nelson does have a relationship with several of the players and he is known to be a player's coach. Then of course, look how far he has taken the Barons.

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There's a long black cloud a hanging in the sky, Honey. There's a long black cloud a hanging in the sky, Baby. There's a long black cloud a hanging in the sky. Weathers gonna break and hells gonna fly. Baby, sweet thing, darling.

"Black Wind Blowing" - Woody Guthrie

Game one was an apparition for Oklahoma City. As they stared down a two goal deficit to end the first period in game one, the reflection in the mirror was not something they liked. And it got uglier. Three goal deficit to end the second, and a five goal to end the third. The ghostly image in front of them was, as the Woody Guthrie song mentions, a black wind blowing. Blowing fiercely enough that it embarrassed the Barons. But did it ignite a change or a run for cover tendency? Game two is tonight -- we will know soon.

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There's no denying how good the Oklahoma City Barons have been this season. Young NHL prospects, strong veteran presence, AHL-best goaltending, first place in the Western Conference, a birth in the West Finals of the Calder Cup Playoffs - yet none of those things were even visible last night in downtown OKC. The Marlies crushed the Barons 5-0 out of the gate. The Barons seemingly had no answer for the multi-talented Marlies. Game one is over, but we learned a lot about each team.

I mentioned in the game preview that I thought both teams would come out slow, kind of sluggish, taking the wait-and-see approach towards sizing up the competition. Indeed the Barons somewhat did that. With only one sizable scoring chance in the first five minutes, via Mark Arcobello to Tyler Pitlick, the Marlies took an early lead.

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The final ten days on the Canadian junior hockey season start tonight when the Memorial Cup gets under way in Shawinigan. The Memorial Cup, which has been awarded annually since 1919, was originally dedicated to the memory of those who had died during World War I. Recently it was rededicated to honour all who have died while fighting for Canada.

This season the host Cataractes will be joined by teams from Edmonton, London, and Saint John as they battle for title of Canadian Hockey League Champions. Not only did each of those teams manage to win 16 games to capture their respective league titles, each was also the regular season champion as well. That combination, which hasn't happened since 1979, should lead to some terrific hockey over the next week and a half.

For Edmonton this is the first time the city has been to the Memorial Cup since 1966 when the Oil Kings won their second title defeating the Oshawa Generals in last of a stretch of seven seasons starting in 1960 when they competed for the title every year. The format has changed since then and this year's Oil Kings team is an reincarnation of that old squad but the ultimate goal and the trophy remain the same.

After the jump you'll find a look at each of the team's in this year's tournament and a couple numbers that might be of interest as well.

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