Strudwick signs with Oilers

From Copper & Blue:

Strudwick is from Edmonton originally, and brings size (6'4", 225lbs) and pugilistic ability to the table (10 majors, only 4 minors last season). He hits and blocks shots and brings no offense whatsoever.

Right now, I'd peg this signing as a Matt Greene replacement, and Strudwick should have no difficulty whatsoever filling in against the 4th line filler of the league. By all accounts he's a character guy. Still, there's some upside to this trade. The Oilers have acquired this sort of player in the past, the utility forward/defender with little offense, and it usually goes one of two ways: Scott Ferguson, or Steve Staios. It seems much more probable that Strudwick's performance as an Oiler mirrors the first, but it isn't impossible that it mirrors the latter.

Read the entire post from Copper & Blue here.

This is hardly a significant signing by the Oilers. Strudwick has been brought aboard to merely provide depth on defense. If he is given the opportunity to provide something more, then the Oilers will probably be golfing come April.

NHL Morning Papers (Sunday Edition)

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun says John Ferguson Jr.'s days as Leafs' GM are numbered.
• You can find Bruce Garrioch's Sunday rumors column here.
• Although his overall numbers aren't overly impressive, Thrashers' goalie Johan Hedberg has turned his game up a notch as of late.
• "This is a game of mistakes, but when you have 4-5 huge mistakes in a game, you’re not going to win," said Bruins' winger Glen Murray after the Bruins were defeated 7-4 by the Habs on Saturday night. Bruins' coach Claude Julien and Habs' coach Guy Carbonneau were going at it late in last night's game. Aaron Ward returned to the Bruins' lineup last night after missing a couple games due to a concussion. Here is Kevin Paul Dupont's usual Sunday morning notes column in the Boston Globe.
• Bucky Gleason of the Buffalo News says he expects Brett Hull to turn the Stars around.
• The Hurricanes just held on for a 2-1 victory over the Panthers on Saturday, in what was Glen Wesley's 1400th game in the NHL.
• The Panthers were unable to score on a number of late 5-on-3 chances that would have sent the game to an extra frame. Amid speculation that he may be on the trading block, Panthers' forward Olli Jokinen has become a bit frustrated with all the rumors. George Richards of the Miami Herald has an interesting take on all the Jokinen rumors.
• Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette commends Steve Begin on his mastery of the pest role. Here are some notes from around the NHL courtesy of legendary Gazette writer Red Fisher.
• It took him four tries but Martin Brodeur finally got that elusive 500th career victory last night in his team's 6-2 win over Philadelphia. As Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger explains, if you think Brent Sutter has become discouraged by his team's play, then you don't know Brent Sutter.
• If you picked one player to score the overtime winner between the Rangers and Penguins, Jason Strudwick would have been your last choice writes John Dellapina of the NY Daily News. Larry Brooks of the NY Post is critical of Brent Sutter's "calling out" tactics in his Sunday Slap Shots column. (Writer's note: What's wrong with Sutter calling out his veterans whose performances are making them vastly overpaid? All Sutter wants is consistent hard work and production. His expectations are not unreasonable, and it will benefit Jersey in the long haul to no longer have the inmates running the asylum.)
• Greg Logan of Newsday says that Josef Vasicek has been a very pleasant surprise for the Islanders so far this season. Logan also has an interesting piece on the leadership that Bill Guerin has added to the Islanders both on and off the ice.
• Last night's embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Maple Leafs was the first loss on the road for the Senators. Ray Emery says he if he were the coach he'd be sticking with Martin Gerber too right now.
• It wasn't one of the Flyers best games last night, as they lacked solid performances in all aspects of the game.
• The Penguins couldn't capitalize on their two-goal lead and ended up losing to the division-leading Rangers in overtime. The Penguins better turn it around soon if they wish to duplicate last season's point total writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• The Lightning defensemen have been responsible for a lot of the team's offense, and coach John Tortorella says that is partly due to the added responsibility of Lightning players (both forwards and defensemen) to play the other side of the puck.
• It has been a long time since somebody shutout the Senators, and that made Vesa Toskala's performance an even bigger story on Saturday night after the Leafs handled the Senators 3-0 on home-ice. "Bryan McCabe was a horse out there," said an impressed Mats Sundin after last night's shutout.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• Last night's shootout victory over the rival Sharks made it four wins in a row for the now-streaking Ducks writes Dan Wood of the Orange County Register.
• It took the Flames a while, but they finally cracked the Garon Code and defeated the struggling (or maybe just plain bad) Oilers 3-1 at Rexall Place. Owen Nolan is hoping to build on his one goal and one assist performance from last night and turn his game up to another level.
• The Blackhawks just flat-out own the Red Wings this season after defeating them for a fourth straight time on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the Hawks youngsters have played so well that they are now being matched up against opposing team's top checking lines and top defensemen.
• Terry Frei of the Denver Post gives you his take on a number of current NHL issues in this morning's paper.
• The Blue Jackets have to make sure their penalty killing is in top form tonight as they face the Red Wings. Here are the Jackets' projected lines for tonight's contest.
• Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News says the Stars' number one goal is to wins the fans back.
• The Red Wings were playing in front of their first home sell-out of the season, but the fans took to booing after watching the Wings give up three short-handed markers and lose to the Hawks for the fourth time this season. "I don't have any explanation -- I don't know what to say about it. It was same situation in St. Louis and today it was a similar situation -- not too many saves; however, they score four goals on 15 shots, whatever. Very disappointed," said Wings' netminder Dominik Hasek after last night's performance.
• The Oilers could only muster 16 shots on Miikka Kiprusoff last night and were defeated by the Flames 3-1 on home-ice. (Writer's note: You will read this column and come across the many reasons why the Oilers' players believe they can't score. Unfortunately, the main reason is because they just aren't a talented enough team to generate consistent offensive opportunities). As John MacKinnon of the Edmonton Journal explains, the Flames have been lacking consistent goaltending all season, but when you only get eight shots on goal through two periods, that goaltending doesn't even become an issue. In other Oilers related news, Derek Van Diest of the Edmonton Sun provides readers with the story of Liam Reddox.
• The Kings faced Ilya Brygalov yesterday afternoon and they were shutout by the newest Coyote 1-0.
• Mikko Koivu will be lost to the Wild lineup for one week and maybe more after taking an inexplicable two-hand slash to the leg on Friday night.
• The Predators were not unhappy with the way they played last night, they just couldn't capitalize on their scoring chances and ended up losing to the Blues 3-2 in a shootout. "It was nice to get one point tonight, but we should have had two," said Predators' defenseman Shea Weber who returned from injury last night.
• The Coyotes responded well to their closed-door meeting on Thursday night with a solid, hard-working performance that led to a 1-0 victory over the Kings.
• It as a playoff atmosphere last night in the Shark Tank as the Ducks defeated San Jose in a shootout 2-1 write David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News.
• The Blues were very impressed with the play of Hannu Toivonen on Saturday, as the youngster turned aside 35 of the 37 shots he faced.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.

Morning Musings: NHL Schedule

After commending the NHL for not competing with the NFLover ratings on Sundays, I have to say that I don't understand what the league is doing with the rest of its opening week schedule. Last night, for example, the league only scheduled one game. One game! It was a Tuesday night, with the only prospective competition being MLB playoffs (Although baseball's first round ended Monday, the NHL television schedule is completed mid-summer). While I realize that MLB playoffs garner much attention, Tuesday is a day without NFL or college football. Additionally, the NBA has not even started its regular season action. For some reason, the NHL decides that one game on a Tuesday and twelve games on a Wednesday makes more sense than six games each night? If MLB playoffs were the reason for the light Tuesday night schedule, then how does one explain twelve games the next night, where MLB, in theory, could have been playing the latter games of a 1st round playoff matchup. If the league expects to succeed in the United States then it just cannot have one game on Versus on a Tuesday, between non-draws like Carolina and Toronto. It's as simple as that.

On to the morning papers:

• After losing to Washington over the weekend, the Hurricanes looked like an entirely different team Tuesday night handing the Leafs an embarrassing 7-1 defeat. Cam Ward exacted his revenge on the Leafs after they embarrassed him last season with 4 goals on 19 shots in late March.
• Damien Cox of the Toronto Star says the Leafs have already hit rock bottom and it's not even Halloween yet. Mats Sundin called the Leafs' effort "unacceptable." Coach Paul Maurice said all the Leafs were poor across the board.
• Jason Blake is going to fight his cancer head-on with determination he has demonstrated his entire life. Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun has a must-read article on the inspiration that Jason Blake will provide to many in his fight against cancer.
• Paul Ranger has become a horse on the Lightning blue line with the loss of Dan Boyle writes Erik Erlendsson in this morning's Tampa Tribune.
• A real sellout is expected for the Blues' home opener tonight; instead of last season's ticket giveaway, this year the tickets have actually been purchased. Paul Kariya faces off versus his former Predator teammates for the first time since signing with the Blues this off-season.
• As David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News explains, it appears that Sharks' coach Ron Wilson has reverted back to his old lines for tonight's game against the Blackhawks.
• Brooks Orpik has the tough task of shutting down Saku Koivu tonight as the Penguins take on the Habs. Even with lingering foot pain, Sidney Crosby is not going to pass up the chance to face the Canadiens who were his favorite team growing up.
• Keith Ballard is doing a great job of demonstrating why he is one of Wayne Gretzky's favorites in Phoenix. Coach Gretzky thinks newest Coyote Freddy Meyer fits into the team well because he adds speed and energy.
• After all their team building, the Flyers get a chance to get back on the ice tonight when they face off against the Canucks at GM Place.
• As Alan Panzeri tells us in this morning's Ottawa Citizen, Martin Gerber's new mask has arrived, freshly painted, however the Swiss netminder doesn't think he is going to put it to immediate use because of the team's success when he wears his plain black helmet. Gerber seems to have finally adjusted to the added pressure that goes along with playing in Canada writes Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. Meanwhile, John Paddock has no immediate plans to break up the Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson line (a.k.a. the Pizza line).
• There is no guarantee that newest Isle Bryan Berard will be in the lineup versus the Rangers tonight writes Greg Logan of Newsday.
• John Dellapina of the NY Daily News provides readers with Rangers' coach Tom Renney's explanation about why he will most likely go with Jason Strudwick in the lineup tonight over Paul Mara. Larry Brooks of the NY Post is critical of Renney saying that he believes the coach is using Jason Strudwick as a crutch.
• Mark Everson of the NY Post admires Devils' coach Brent Sutter's movement away from matching lines but says that utilizing John Madden in a checking role right now may give the Devils their best chance to win because of the struggles of their other offensive forwards. The Devils spent much of their Tuesday practice focusing on defensive positioning writes Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star-Ledger.
• The Predators realize that facing the Blues no longer means an easy two points. Here are notes about both teams heading into tonight's game.
• Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette previews Carey Price's much awaited season debut in Pittsburgh tonight. Price admits he'll be a little nervous, but the cool netminder says "it's just another game."
• Pierre-Marc Bouchard is striving to be more consistent this season writes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune.
• After scoring two easy tap ins on Saturday night, it comes as no surprise that Dustin Brown loves playing with Anze Kopitar.
• Richard Zednik is back from injury and should add some much needed speed to the Panthers top line.
• The Oilers aren't exactly excited to see Derek Boogard for the first time in 2007/08. The Oilers hope to improve on their recent record against the Wild writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
• The Red Wings are disappointed they will be playing in front of their third below capacity home-crowd tonight when they host the Flames. In other Wings' news, goaltender Dominik Hasek has a sore knee and may have to miss tonight's game.
• The Stars expect Mike Ribiero to make his season debut tonight against the Kings writes Mike Hieka of the Dallas Morning News.
• When Ken Hitchock arrived in Columbus he was not happy with the team's fitness scores and he takes pride in the team's improved fitness since his arrival. The Jackets expect to have Mike Peca in their lineup for the first time this season when they face-off against the Coyotes tonight.
• Milan Hedjuk has made a point of making Jaroslav Hlinka's transition to North America a lot easier.
• Jonathan Toews will make his NHL debut tonight in Chicago writes Chris Kuc of Chicago Tribune.
• The Flames are hoping to make up for their lackluster performance at the Joe Louis Arena in the 2006/07 playoffs tonight when they visit Detroit. Craig Conroy of the Flames calls tonight's game versus Detroit "huge."
• According to coach Bob Hartley, Thrashers' star forward Marian Hossa is "very doubtful" for tonight's game against the Sens after injuring his groin in practice on Monday. Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution opines that the Thrashers' slow start can be attributed to a lack of effort.
• The Ducks will finally raise the Stanley Cup banner tonight writes Dan Wood of the Orange County Register.
• According to Bruins' coach Claude Julien, forward Marc Savard "is probably out" for tonight's game against the Ducks.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.