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Igrid Kaveelaars knew.The wife of Edmonton Oilers coach Dallas Eakins could see her husband was ready to return to work shortly after last season ended.A 28th place finish will do that.A week to 10 days go by and my wife said, Youre ready to go back to the rink now, Eakins said, I am. You want to get back in there and get back in the fight.Edmonton hasnt qualified for the playoffs since the 2005-06 season, but Eakins believes there a positives heading into the upcoming campaign.Weve added size, weve added depth and weve added some people who can make plays. You start putting your lineup on the board and these are established NHL players that give you some comfort, Eakins said. With the additions of those players and then with all of our other guys getting another year of experience, its a step in the right direction.Here are some things to keep in mind before Edmontons season begins with game against Calgary on Oct. 9:NOT STATISTICAL ANOMALIES: The debate that has ceaselessly raged between advocates for hockey analytics and those that disbelieve can be distilled to one fundamental question: Are these numbers fact or fiction? In the case of the Oilers, though, the numbers cannot be parsed into anything other than hard evidence of a woefully subpar squad. At the end of the 2013-14 season, the Oilers ranked last in goals-against average (3.26), and were tied for 22nd, 16th and 13th, respectively, in goals per game (2.43), power-play success rate (17 per cent) and penalty-kill success rate (82.1 per cent).NET LOSS: The Oilers employed a revolving door in goal last season, as Richard Bachman, Ilya Bryzgalov, Devan Dubnyk, Viktor Fasth, Jason Labarbera and Ben Scrivens each stated their case to be Edmontons top goaltender. In a combined 90 games with the Oilers, the sextet combined for 29-44-9 record and 2.85 goals-against average.BOLSTERED BACK END: In an attempt to address the defensive decencies, Edmonton traded for--and subsequently signed to a two-year, $9 million deal-Nikita Nikitin, and signed free agents Mark Fayne (four years, $14.5 million) and Keith Aulie (one year, $800,000).FORWARD REFORMATION: General manager Craig MacTavish added forward depth in the off-season by trading for Tampa Bay right wing Teddy Purcell, and signing New York Rangers left wing Benoit Pouliot. Purcell and Pouliot add size a€” both are 6-foot-3 a€” and some offensive production. Purcell recorded 42 points in 81 games, while Pouliot finished with 36 points in 80 games.WHOS ON SECOND?: In a division and conference in which quality depth down the middle is imperative in order to be successful, MacTavish has said second-line centre is a concern for Edmonton. Third overall pick Leon Draisaitl, Mark Arcobello and Anton Lander competed for the job during training camp and preseason, but MacTavish noted the position (has) the most question marks. The onus is going to be on (the) current group of players to show an ability to be competitive for a playoff position. The only is going to be on Arcobello, (Lander) and (Draisaitl) to show theyre ready to play. Nick Pope England Jersey . Its the second of three meetings between these teams this season. Vancouver was a 2-1 winner on home ice December 22nd. Kyle Walker England Jersey . Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks were proof of that on Wednesday night. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/. Samir Nasris 88th-minute equalizer at Etihad Stadium will be of little consolation to City, which is now six points behind league leader Liverpool and four points behind second-place Chelsea. Third-place City has a game in hand but the surprise result against Sunderland, coupled with Sundays 3-2 loss at Liverpool, may be a setback too far in its bid for a second championship in three seasons. Phil Jones England Jersey . LA (SportsNetwork. David Beckham Jersey . Although Olivetti, a qualifier, had 13 aces, he failed to force a single break-point chance on Gasquets serve and lost his own three times. Gasquet next plays third-seeded Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, who won had 18 aces in a 6-2, 6-4 win against seventh-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France.NEW YORK, N.Y. - NHL general managers made some progress toward implementing a coachs challenge system, but could not finalize plans to do so at their annual Stanley Cup final meeting. At this point the issue is trying to define what cases would be subject to challenges and how the process would work. Because of that, GMs sounded optimistic something would be agreed on, but there was no certainty about whether it would start next season or in 2015-16. "It would be related to a coachs challenge and so instead of jumping right into it, maybe everybody understands when the coaches are going to challenge," Jim Rutherford of the Pittsburgh Penguins said. "So maybe just try it internally for a year. These are real tough changes so you want to get it right." Coachs challenges and the possibility of expanded video review dominated Wednesdays meeting several blocks from Madison Square Garden on the day of Game 4 of the Cup final. One thing that seemed clear was that goaltender interference would not be part of any such changes because theres so much room for interpretation. "I think Commissioner (Gary) Bettman says it best: You want certainty, you want black-and-white where we can say, This is it and, This is not it," Don Maloney of the Phoenix Coyotes said. "Goals going over the line, thats certainty, black-and-white. When you start talking about goalie interference for example, now you start talking about judgment calls. ... Thats when it gets grey." What coaches might be able to challenge includes goals scored on plays that shouldve been offside, the puck hitting the protective netting, the wrong player getting penalized and the puck going over the glass for a penalty. Rutherford stressed that coachs challenges wont be there next season, while Maloney said he wasnt quite sure if it was too late for that possibility. That just added to the lack of clarity ouut of Wednesdays meeting.dddddddddddd Discussions also centred on cracking down on embellishment, and changing the draft lottery for 2015-16 and beyond to be more like the NBAs that allows the first three picks to be attainable. Any draft-lottery changes would not go into effect until 2016, leaving the much-anticipated Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel 2015 event subject to the same system there is now. GMs gave their approval on those competition committee recommendations, including allowing a more liberal definition of kicked-in goals, expanding the trapezoid, doing a dry scrape of the ice and changing ends before overtime, and making some faceoff changes. Consensus wasnt so clear on expanded video review out of Torontos situation room or coachs challenges. One problem is the possibility of delaying games, which Major League Baseball is dealing with in its first season with replay beyond home runs. "We dont want games to be 3 hours long, 3 1/2 hours long," Maloney said. "I find myself going to football games with the stoppages there, I really cant stand it." One thing GMs did seem to agree on is the desire to have more correct calls. "Thats all were concerned about: making sure we get it right," Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers said. "And then if we do further reviews, weve got to make sure that when we do the reviews, its black and white. Theres still a lot of grey areas in all of this stuff." The discussion will continue. The NHLs board of governors convenes later in June and must approve any changes along with the NHLPA executive committee. "Were on the right track. We just have to make sure what were doing is giving us the results we expect," Maloney said. "The coachs challenge, expanding video replay — those are the big topics right now and were still searching for ways to help the game, not hurt it." ' ' '