The Fifth Liners

The Edmonton Oilers hold a proud hockey history and fans in this part of Alberta still love their team, but this year has been nothing short of a horror show! All looked promising at the end of last saw season when former GM Steve Tambellini was given the the chop and was succeeded by head coach Craig Mactavish, who in turn appointed young Toronto Marlies coach Dallas Eakins as the new coach of the Oilers. A new era seemed to be born and many experts expected bug things. Tragically we are STILL waiting for the results to come and even with no less than three 1st overall picks, their play just isn't coming together. So far Edmonton are 14th and last in the Western Conference, they have only 11 wins and a whopping 18 loss! Depressingly this over 17 goals more than the Nashville Predators but they have three more wins. But the real question here is what is cause of this continuing slide? The answer is not an easy one, continuing injuries haven't helped their cause, in particul...

Ilya Bryzgalov has finally found a new home after reaching a verbal agreement with the Edmonton Oilers for a one year deal. After enduring a tough 2012-13 season where he was released from his multi year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers, the Russian goalie will be keen to make up for lost time! Curring Bryzgalov has features in over 425 NHL games and has recorded a win-loss record of 208-149-45. His career NHL goals against average stants at 2.55 with a save percentage of .913. The goaltender also has 30 career NHL shutouts since being selected 44th overall by Anaheim in 2007!

Mike's question this week focuses on our friends in the city of brotherly love, as it was asked "The Flyers glory days seem to be long gone. What can they do to be a serious cup threat again?" Well the answer to this one will be require some serious thought- right let's go to work! The Philadelphia Flyers are a team with a famous history with the 'Broad Street Bullies' team including Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz, Joe Kelly and Bernie Parent which brought them back to back Stanley Cups in 1975 & 1976, to the Eric Lindros years from 92 to 98 where he continually led the league in scoring. Their last cup final appearence came back in 2010 where they were narrowly beaten in six games by the Chicago Blackhawks. But last season was one to forget for the men in orange as they finished fourth in the Atlantic Division and 10 in the Eastern Conference, missing the playoffs for only the ninth time in their history! Also things werent helped by the poor net minding ...

Roberto Luongo will officially be the Vancouver Canucks starting goalie for the 2013/14 NHL season- after the dubious decision to trade away Cory Schneider for 1st round draft prospect Bo Horvat at this years NHL draft has been seen by many as either clever bargaining or outright insanity by GM Mike Gillis! Now I've beaten up on Bobby a few times in this year I have no doubts if I ever return to British Columbia- he will be on the look out for me! So he will be staying for the foreseable future, it would be nice to see what backup options could aid him this season since the only other goalies on our roster come in the form of Swede Eddie Lack who has yet to make an NHL appearence and equally unexperienced Joe Cannata . So who would make good back up in net this to rest our worrying minds? Here are the best UFA goalies currently on offer, Tim Thomas: The 39 year old is now officially a free agent after his release from the New York Islanders this year. Thomas is a Stanle...