Praise be to McJesus and …….. Babcock?

Huzzah! If you haven’t heard, Bob MacKenzie just tweeted that Mike Babcock has been given permission to speak to other teams. I actually think I just heard silence for a moment in the City of Edmonton. Can you imagine next season with McJesus and Mike Babcock? It may seem far fetched, but so did the Oilers winning the lottery. I’m guessing Nichols and company have at least an 11.5% chance of landing this seasons biggest free agent.

Two days ago, I posted a poll over at Oilers Addict asking who fans would like to see as their next head coach. 41.73% (237) of respondents voted for Babcock. 41.2% (234) voted for Todd McLellan and Todd Nelson received some love with 12.15% (69) of the vote. As luck would have it, both McLellan and Nelson have been interviewed for the position and now Babcock will be able to talk to his old Team Canada buddies about coaching the Oilers. It appears a very strong possibility that fans will be happy with the outcome, however the coaching situation plays out. It is far from a sure thing, but I never thought the team would be in the position to: draft McDavid, remove Kevin Lowe from hockey ops, or hire a real general manager. Stranger things have been happening.

Nurse and McDavid

Darnell Nurse didn’t dress for OKC last night, so we wait for his debut. Maybe tonight?

Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters open their OHL Championship against the Oshawa Generals tonight at 5:35pm (Mountain Time) in Erie. It will be interesting to see if McDavid can keep up his historic scoring pace against the Generals.

The Oilers Rig and the Really Long Run to End MS

Last night, I met Dave Gordon of The Oilers Rig in person for the first time. Like me, he lives with multiple sclerosis every day. When we met he handed me a cheque for $1000 from The Oilers Rig to support my run (www.reallylongruntoendms.ca). It is pretty overwhelming to have someone you’ve never met in person support you in that way. The money donated by The Oilers Rig was generated through an event they hosted at Brewsters in March. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone at The Oilers Rig and for everyone who supported their event in March. I am 15 days away from the run and I’m still in disbelief at the support I’ve received.

At the event last night, Dave and I discovered that our Johnson MS Bike team, the Battered Piles, was sitting in 9th place for donations out of all the teams with $13,300 raised so far. However, the money I am raising from the Really Long Run to End MS will also be put towards the Battered Piles total after May 23rd. As of typing this, my run has raised $13,090, which would give us a grand total of $26,390! The reason I am telling you this, is I want to finish in the top 10 of all the Johnson MS Bike teams and I figure if we get over the $30,000 mark we’ll be able to do just that. So if you want to sponsor Dave in the MS Bike, click here to give Dave a donation. If you want to support me in my 82 km one day run from Leduc to Camrose, click here and make a donation. All the money is going to support our bike team in the Johnson MS Bike and in turn the MS Society of Canada. Help Dave and I put the Battered Piles in the top 10!