Oilers Up, Kings Down and Cross Ex-Coaches

See that smile on Taylor Hall? Well, remember that and forget about the child actor at the beginning of "Jerry Maguire."

Taylor Hall's face is all you need to know about what pure joy looks like. And that is what you get when you watch the Edmonton Oilers. Hall starts the play, makes the smart pass and moves into the what I call the Luc Robitaille zone to take Jordan Eberle's pass.

That's how you draw up an entertaining brand of hockey. Not bad for a team most projected to be among the worst in the West this season. And frankly, they may still be. In a flash quiz, I would be hard pressed to name two defensemen beyond Ryan Whitney and Andy Sutton. That's normally not a good thing, for either the person taking the quiz or the team that is the subject of the quiz.

Edmonton's joy may be short lived this season, so catch the Oilers while they are on the upswing. I was reading a recent ESPN post about candidates for the Jack Adams award. And, yes, they would be first to admit their trophy tracker is more entertainment than anything else. But Tom Renney was not mentioned among the five favorites based on play so far this season.

But Renney has this team playing fast and staying true to their defensive responsibilities. It all may go south as soon as I put this post online, but I hope there are a few more nights where the Oilers have fun and skate circles around their opponents, up and down the ice.

And now for Jonathan Quick, who needs to be not so quick to put himself out of position. He spends a lot of time trying to go post to post while in the butterfly position. And he has begun to stray a bit from the net at inopportune times.

Phoenix took advantage of a few mistakes and one bad bounce off of Jack Johnson's stick to win on Saturday night. And on Sunday, the young Avalanche, another team projected for a gloomy winter, skated with energy and came away with a victory at home.



So, to summarize, I spend the last four days admiring young teams with plenty of upside, I saw the Kings look less than regal in two losses, I saw the Rangers take the third period off against the Senators on Saturday and then shoveled some snow. Winter in October. What a concept.

Tonight, the Sharks and Rangers (MSG) goes on the Lounge's big screen starting at 7 pm. Jets at Panthers (Center Ice/Fox Sports Florida feed) go on the medium screen at 7:30 and the Predators-Blackhawks (Center Ice/Fox Sports South) goes on the iPhone. Nothing like hearing Terry Crisp, the color man on the Predators broadcasts, heating up like a microwave after a bad call to test the speaker on my smartphone.

I'll send you out with a sampling of Crispy on the bench, and throw in some bonus Jacques Demers clips (yes, yet another coach who now is on TV and is the sole reason why I want the Canadiens on RDS to be part of the Center Ice package. You can have your English, you can have your French, but I want Demers, who hard to understand in any language).

More later today.