My only pic, 
, Snapped w/my camera
The Oilers held their skills competition this past Sunday @ Rexall, and some friends and I went to check it out. It was a lot of fun, I haven’t gone to one in a few years, and I thought it was nice how they had these junior Oilers on the ice with them, and they would do the skills comp before the Oilers did them. I don’t know if they did that before, but if they did I don’t remember, and it was definitely a nice addition. In fact, one of the young goalies’ mom was seated near us, and it was a lot of fun to listen & watch her get so much more worked up than most were for the actual Oilers!
But, people did get worked up for the actual Oilers, and that’s what’s so impressive really. The house was packed, and all that was happening was a little skills competition – it was mostly a family event – there wasn’t even any beer sales (something that irked my brother, lol)! They had Bob Stauffer and others on the ice with mics, talking to the players, and I think Eric Cole summed it up nicely when he said he’d be interested in seeing how many people would show up to an event like this in Carolina 
Sheldon Souray, who set an NHL record hardest shot at the event with 106.7 mph btw, gave a nice thank you to the crowd as well, telling how blown away he and the others were by the response to the event as well. What was a little funny though, was how right after he had genuinely thanked us for being there, about 1/4 or more of those in attendance bolted for the doors – probably to get a jump on traffic, but still – just before the cool little ‘pond hockey’ 3-on-3 game at the end. The timing of thanking so many people for simply showing up, and then immediately after doing so, a big chunk of those people stand up and leave before watching what was really the big finale, well, that was pretty funny! Hopefully Souray didn’t really notice
I’m glad I didn’t place any bets on anything – other than Souray winning the hardest shot, he was the favorite going in – by the way, as I was totally surprised that Cogliano didn’t win the fastest Oiler, and actually a little dissapointed that Hemsky wasn’t in on the action. Oh well, the Oilers are an entertaining team without Hemsky as well, and they didn’t dissapoint.
So yeah, a lot of fun at the Oilers Skills Competition 2008-09, and I think it was a good enough show to convince me to comeback next year. At only $10 a ticket, anyone reading this should too, its a really fun, and totally affordable way to spend a chilly January afternoon. Just remember to stick around for the 3-on-3 game at the end, it was really great!
-Kimo
