This has been a great

month especially if your like me a fan of the Edmonton Oiler's. First of all not only does the NHL come back but today City council approved of the new downtown arena! The vote was 10-3 in favor of the project getting under way in August.

What always bugged me about when the Oiler's played in November the Canadian finales Rodeo would take over Rexall place every year and send the Oiler's on a long road trip where they'd lose about 80% of their games. They are one of the few teams that face this dilemma as far as I know. Thanks to the NHL lockout the Oiler's obviously didn't need to face this but coming up in March the Oiler's are being kicked out of Rexall for 10 more days because of the Brier, which means the Oiler's will have 7 games on the road, which they will probably win about 2 of those. Most road trips are 2-4 games for most teams. Add the CFR in there and that's 2 long road trips or probably about 18 games on the road. They might win 5 of those 18. That a loss of about 25 points the Oiler's would guarantee to lose. When the Oilers finally escape being held hostage to these events maybe they can play meaningful games at the end of March. The new downtown arena will open September 2016 for the 2016-17 season. It's an exciting time to be an Oiler fan and I'm looking forward to the new arena.