DAY 15

Dinner for 10 at Vivo Ristorante, one of Edmonton’s best new restaurants. It will be in their private room and will include all of your food and beverages. The winning bid, him/her, will be bring along five friends, and the other four chairs will be myself, Jason Strudwick and two of his recent former teammates. It will be a secret who shows up, but recent is a pretty big hint. You will be picked up at home and returned safely after the evening by our friends at Budget Car and Truck Rental.
Strudwick and I had a similar dinner, but smaller, last year and it was great. I can guarantee you will hear some great stories, many of them "off the record" and there is a good chance this will turn into an all-night affair.
 
You will also receive Strudwick’s signed jersey from Sweden this year. I can guarantee you that will be a limited-edition jersey.
Bidding will start at 2 p.m. and end at 5:45 p.m. Strudwick will join me on air from Sweden today to  give you an idea of what type of stories, jokes, chirps you will experience if you win. You can call 780.426.8326 to make a bid or email gregor@theteam1260.com
Thanks again for your generosity.

GAME DAY


GAME DAY PREDICTION: On November 25th the Oilers ended a lengthy losing streak in Minnesota with a convincing 5-2 victory. They’ve only won two of eleven games since, but they will give you an early Christmas present tonight; A win. They will end their five game home-losing streak to the Wild with a solid 4-2 effort.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Nugent-Hopkins will score a goal. He’s gone five games without a goal, 2nd time this season, and he’ll light the lamp in the first period.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: With ten minutes left to go the crowd will start to chant, "Gary, Gary, Gary," in honour of commissioner Bettman when they realize this is the last time they will be subjected to watching the Minnesota Wild three times a year at Rexall Place.

LINEUP


"He is doubtful. I talked to him after the morning skate and he isn’t feeling very well. We’ll see how he feels after his nap, but right now he’s doubtful," said Tom Renney regarding the health of Ales Hemsky. Either Sam Gagner or Lennart Petrell will skate with Horcoff and Smyth, with Renney suggesting Gagner is more suited for that spot.
If Hemksy plays then Petrell will sit, as Renney wants Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk against the Wild.
The Wild have lost five straight (two in SO) after winning 12 of their previous 14. They are banged up. Latendresse, Setoguchi and Koivu didn’t play on in Calgary on Tuesday, but Koivu did skate this morning. Either way this is a game the Oilers need to win.
After Christmas they have a cross-coutnry seven-game road trip to Vancouver, Minny, NYI, Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis and Dallas. If the Oilers don’t win tonight, they could find themselves completely out of the race when they return to Rexall on January 11th.

GREAT LINE


I asked an unnamed Oiler about his thoughts on the Kronwall hit last night and if he thought it was cheap?
Unnamed Oiler: I didn’t see it.
Me: He crushed Kesler
Oiler: It was on Kesler, well then I liked it and it was clean.
It is nice to see there is still a healthy rivalry in the Oiler room v. the Canucks. We don’t see or hear that often enough.