Weekend Update: The Oilers Should Not be Playing This NFL Schedule

Another week on the books already, and not much to show for it. No, this ridiculous schedule of one or two games a week is just, it, well, its horrible! Without frequent games to watch and report on, I don't have excuses to get out of helping people move furniture, or for not staying late at the office. No, this week I've had to do plenty of favours, put in full days at the office. Even worse, I've had no excuse for feeling tired - it definitely wasn't from staying up late to see the shootout results. Oh well, somehow I've survived.

Fewer games seems to also mean less Oilers news to talk about. We do have some stories though, so let's get started.

The Oilers continue to be community minded both through their Winner's Choice Community Foundation Lottery but also through their involvement in reading programs. This past week the big three participated in the Share a Book program, reading and talking with youth in the community. I do see this partly as a PR gig, and partly as a serious attempt at doing some good. I find it interesting that they choice to use Eberle, Hall and Paajarvi for this event when there are several other very well known players on the team. Perhaps the team chose to use the younger players because the target audience was such a young group of kids, and the younger players might be less intimidating. Either way I enjoy hearing stories like this.

Other Oilers news, Colin Fraser and Steve Smith received their Stanley Cup rings this week. Awesome for them, but hopefully the next Stanley Cup rings handed out to Oilers players are the result from an Oilers Stanley Cup win.

Otherwise the Oilers winning start has been derailed with a loss to the Minnisota Wild on Thursday Night. All good things do come to an end, we knew that the Oilers wouldn't got 82-0 despite some positive thinking around here. Again, due to the lack of games this week, we have to go back toa very ugly win on Sunday against the Pathers to remember the good times. Hopefully the Oilers are using the extensive time between games to practise and get to know eachother. We all know the schedule will be picking up shortly.

The Oil Kings have been riding a 5 game winning steak going into Friday night's game, where the new third jersey was unveiled. Sadly, that winning streak came to an end with a 7-1 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers, but its good to see a positive start to the season none the less.

In and around the NHL, the first suspensions have been handed out with the same punishment for two completely different reasons. New York Islanders' Wisniewski was suspended for two games for his obscene gesture towards the New York Rangers' Sean Avery. Both are effective agitators; you know that neither of them were innocent and that both of them have prior history. The Chicago Blackhawk's Hjalmarsson was also suspended for two days, but for his excessive hit on the Buffalo Sabre's Pominville . Some feel that the 2 game suspension was too litte, just right, and even too much. I feel this was on the just right to too little side, and its just a good thing that I don't hand out punishments in the NHL. Yes, Pominville put himself in the situation through making a foolish mistake but Hjalmarsson didn't have to use excessive force, these are still colleagues out there on the ice. We all know that this is just the beginning of the season. There will be plenty of suspensions and missed calls as the year goes on.

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Let's have a look at some of the blogs you may have missed this week that I think you should have a look at:

A New day for the Cult of Hockey - COH Staples

Boom! Suddenly Edmonton's downtown arena project has a lot more momentum - COH Staples

Kirk Maltby, former Oiler, retires - COH McCurdy

Paradise City - BDHS

The Girl Who Gave Me Beer and Took Me Home - BDHS

AHL Salary Charts - C&B Reynolds

Oklahoma City Barons Increase Payroll - C&B Reynolds

Tom Renney's Line Changes Strategy: Rawhide and Alberta Waltz - C&B Zona

Tending the Farm: The Barons Get Down - C&B Livingston

The First Paydat - ON Gretz

Kurtis Foster: Courage In The Game of Life - ON Brownlee

Finger for Souray: A Deal That Makes Sense For All Sides? - ON Willis

Team Togetherness: What's it Worth? - ON Brownlee

Expectations: Ales Hemsky - ON Willis

No arrests in minor hockey league brawl, just embarassing letter - PD Wyshynski

Trending Topics: Blame hockey fans for NHL suspension culture - PD Lambert

Jersey Fouls: Habs FrankenJerseys; clever meets stupid in San Jose - PD Wyshynski

Video: Carolina coach miffed after Foligno headshot non-call - PD Leahy

Why Wayne Gretzky's son chose baseball over hockey - PD Wyshynski

As Ondrej Pavelec mystery unravels, Thrashers make goalie move - PD Wyshynski

Hockey Players Are Great Guys - GHL

Top Ten: Hockey's Worst Teeth - GHL

James Duthie's Crazt Tales - GHL

Video: Tomas Kaberle and Luke Schenn hand deliver Leafs season tickets - DGB

Other ways NHL teams are watching the bottom line - DGB

And check out the Copper and Blue on Facebook

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Alright things to do in Edmonton this week, of course I suggest that you take in an Oil Kings game, or either of the two Oilers games. There is also the WWE in town on Tuesday at Rexall Place if you are looking for some live entertainment. Musically, Bullet for my Valentine, Lights, Anberlin and Coheed and Cambria are each playing the Edmonton Events Centre on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday respectively. The other big event would be the Trailer Park Boys at the River Cree Casino. As always there are some smaller club shows happening pretty much all of the time, just another thing that I think makes Edmonton great.