Craig MacTavish News

Maybe it wasn't all Craig MacTavish's fault after all. A quarter of the way through the season, the Edmonton Oilers are starting to fall into some eerily similar patterns that plagued them last year.

When GM Steve Tambellini and Kevin Lowe were forced to let Craig MacTavish go due to after a few seasons with little to know success, many in the organization looked like they were ready to ask the tough questions.

"We went through an incredible month here battling H1N1, concussions to major players like Souray, Staios and Hemsky.

It's rather incredible that the ever-morphing prospects list of Team Canada's men's Olympic hockey team now includes Dustin Penner.It must.

Brian Burke could have a Monster issue on his hands next summer. The Maple Leafs GM has to wait until January before he can hold talks on a contract extension for rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson, but he might want to get the framework in place, because if Burke is going to live by the sword, he had better be prepared to die by it, too.

In 1979, after years of resistance by NHL players, the NHL made helmets mandatory for players entering the league.

Edmonton Oilers forward Dustin Penner. Photograph by: Bruce Edwards, edmontonjournal.com His late grandfather, Isaac Penner, would surely have been proud to see it happen again on Thursday as Dustina s improbable resurgence continues practically unabated.

Hockey fans of a certain vintage a ' i.e. those who can remember when there were ties in the game a ' are familiar with the period in the early- and mid-1990s, when collecting players from the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty became something of an obsession around the NHL.

When general manager Brian Burke announced the list of 34 players that would be invited to the U.S. Olympic team's summer orientation camp, he braced himself for the inevitable backlash.

The phone rang and it was Dustin Penner at the other end of the line. Actually, as it turns out, it was Ron Burgundy.

Well, it was a helluva season while it lasted, wasn't it? For nine games they were the new improved Edmonton Oilers under Pat Quinn.

Ladislav Smid was in the third grade when he last found himself masquerading as a forward.

"I am more tenacious on the puck and not moving around depending on who I am playing with.

Giving up four straight goals in just over 15 minutes should have amounted to a wholesale collapse.

Edmonton's Dustin Penner scores his second goal against Minnesota's Marek Zidlicky and Josh Harding on Friday.

It's the hot topic in Edmonton. Even here at the bleacherreport.com, Anothony Ta put an interesting perspective together about the rumors surrounding theA most unlikely of trade casualtiesa 'Oilers forward Ales Hemsky.

The Oilers lack a true superstar. Hemsky, while close, simply isn't that guy. In addition, Edmonton's No.

Grant Fuhr calls it ''the big sell.'' It's a coach's ability to convince his team to change their style of play for the playoffs something the Edmonton Oilers have done successfully enough this spring to carry them into the Stanley Cup final.

It didn't take long for Ryan Smyth, the heart and soul of the Oilers for 12 years, to tear up.

He is the brains of the operation -- of Operation NGP -- but playing alongside Sam Gagner and Robert Nilsson has also given Fernando Pisani more offensive opportunities.