What could be less interesting than preseason hockey? How about preseason hockey against the Islanders? Still a bit too meaningful for your tastes? How about playing it in Saskatoon? Now you feeling the love for the game tonight? Totally.

Fresh off assigning 5 players to Springfield and releasing another altogether, the (3-1) Oilers play the (1-3) Islanders tonight in the fine city of Saskatoon. In a game that is being called “Better hockey than the Blades, but only slightly” excitement is high in Saskatchewan today. It’s great to see the NHL moving preseason games around Canada, building the brand, selling new fans on the game and giving young Canadians from coast-to-coast priceless memories like “remember the time Islanders Prospect Greg Maudlin played 4 minutes in a preseason game in Saskatoon, registering no shots, no points and no penalty minutes? Wasn’t that awesome?”

We kid of course, an NHL game is a fantastic experience regardless of teams or point in the year in which it was played. Case and point we have watched replays of the entire Oilers preseason twice so far. Twice. Though we know it doesn’t mean anything.

Sigh.

It’s amazing to us how quickly our fellow Oilers fans have embraced the return of Comrie. Two months ago you could have made your fortune selling Mike Comrie branded punching bags around town. Now it seems like it is a contest for who can lay claim to loving all things Comrie the most:

“Oh I love Mike Comrie the most. Even when he bounced in ’03 and everyone hated him I secretly still liked him. I have kept his jersey in the back of my closet these past 6 years and sometimes when things weren’t going well I would go put that jersey on and climb into bed with a bottle of Drambuie. Then Mike and I would remember better days as I cried myself to sleep.”

“No I love Mike Comrie the best. When I heard that he was coming back to town I took all of my furniture out into the yard and lit it on fire. Then I went down to the Brick, applied for seven different Brick cards and bought all new stuff. Because at that point of the year it was the least I could do for MY MAN.”

“I love Mike Comrie so much I have invested heavily in cloning Hilary Duff and in a few short weeks I will be wearing her cloned facial skin as a mask. Then I will go find Mike and tell him that I love him, and force him to get marry me in a rushed civil ceremony. Then, when he says “I do” I will tear off my cloned Hilary Duff face, look him square in the eye and say “I love the Oilers Mike. But I have always loved you more.”

No one –we repeat no one- loved MC a few short weeks ago, but it is nice to see his bandwagon filling up fast. Hopefully this love from the fans will continue into the regular season and the newest Oiler can contribute like he has so far. As Gregor recently pointed out, “(Comrie) has matured, and he wants to write another chapter in what might turn out to be one of the best fairy-tales we’ve seen in Edmonton in a long time. ”

It sure is shaping up to be an extremely interesting story line, capable of putting preseason hockey on the tips of tongues all around town. We just want to get to the regular season already. And the quickest way to get there is by playing out the remaining games in short order. So lets get it going.

Oilers.
Islanders.
One game closer to the start of the regular season.
It’s go time.
(Sorta)