That old saw about people in glass houses could get a good workout Sunday night in Anaheim.

After a summer of swapping niceties, Kevin Lowe brings his Edmonton Oilers to California to face Brian Burke’s Ducks with the NHL likely hoping the two general managers will leave the fighting for the ice.

Kevin Lowe is trying to take the high road after a summer of trading barbs with Anaheim GM Brian Burke.
(Jimmy Jeong/The Canadian Press)

The source of the discord was Edmonton’s signing of Anaheim’s Dustin Penner to a restricted free agent offer sheet that jumped the forward’s salary from $450,000 US to $4.25 million.

Burke called it “an act of desperation” by a GM “fighting to keep his job.”

That was July.

In early October, he ramped it up again by suggesting Lowe had run the Oilers into the sewer. The Oiler boss responded by telling the Edmonton Sun that Burke was “an egomaniac” and a “blowhard.”

Lost in all of this is Penner’s return to the site of his rookie season heroics, during which he scored 29 goals and 45 points in the regular season and eight points off three goals in the playoffs. Oh, and his name is on the Stanley Cup.

This season, Penner has only two goals and three assists and is seventh in team scoring, as the Oilers struggle along at 4-7-0, a record that includes just two wins in their last nine games.

That might lend credence to Burke’s comments, if his own club wasn’t in its own funk. And that’s where the tossing rocks at glass walls comes in.

The Ducks are 4-7-1 overall, with all four of those wins at home. They’ve also been shut out three times this year, most recently on Thursday against the hardly awesome Phoenix Coyotes.

Over the last three games, the Cup champs have found the net just three times.

“I think the biggest thing is for us not to panic and start pointing fingers,” said Chris Pronger, a Ducks defenceman and former Oiler.

“We’re all making mistakes out there. It’s a fine line between winning and losing.”

Coach frustrated

Edmonton has enough to worry about without paying attention to the struggles of another club, or the rantings from above.

On Saturday night, the Oilers lost 4-1 to Los Angeles despite peppering the Kings with 15 shots in an aggressive third period.

That left Oilers coach Craig MacTavish frustrated.

“We’ve got to elevate our game and start turning these games where we play pretty well and lose into wins,” he said.

Lowe staying low-key

Anyone expecting more sparring from Lowe, by the way, may be disappointed.

“In some respects, Brian has tried to make it personal,” the GM said on Saturday. “But I’m not going to comment on that publicly.

“[Burke] is certainly entitled to say what he wants to say. But there’s people in this business who feel that any news is good news for the National Hockey League, and I think Brian subscribes to that theory.”

With files from the Associated PressContinue Article

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Tags: Feuding, aside, Oilers, Ducks

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: News, Fun and Games