Covered In Oil embargo: The screwballs have spoken

The Covered In Oil embargo -- the Edmonton Oilers' "one-strike nuclear solution" (SNN Sports). The unfortunate part is that David Berry has apparently decided to take a break from the site.

Obviously, this is one of those chattering-class issues, but what the hell ... our man Andy Grabia from The Battle of Alberta gathered up a list of sites that covered this off -- the resulting good karma must be why his Red Sox forced a Game 7 in the ALCS -- so please click through for the symposium.

(Update, 4 p.m.: Puck Daddy has weighed in: "... the Oilers are embarrassingly behind the times when it comes to new-media acceptance. The times, in this case, being circa 1999.")

The Battle of Alberta reminded everyone that the Oilers have a history of coming down hard on fans who express themselves freely.

Hot Oil puts it squarely on the Oilers for not having a policy and for having a double standard.

David Staples at the Edmonton Journal obviously read his Virginia Woolf: "Having their own places to write (what) they like ... is worth far more than a spot with your name on it in the press box." (Easy enough for him to say, though. He has a job.)

For Washington, D.C.-based On Frozen Blog, it's a whole different world.

From Here Come The Bruins: "News flash: People who work really hard to give your team FREE publicity are not a detriment to your organization."

Barry Melrose Rocks had fun with the notion of what this does with outsiders' perception of Alberta folk -- who are among the best folk around.

Empty Netters (which is a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog), Pension Plan Puppets, The NHL Arena Program, Earl Sleek at The Battle of California, Cycle Like The Sedins, Five Hole Fanatics, Going Five Hole and Strange Deadfellows and Wrap Around Curl each showed support. This take from a BoC commenter was pretty choice:

"It's amazing how removed from reality these guys can be. Don't actively piss off your customers, especially the most loyal and vocal ones. Hockey is such an insular community -- sometimes it seems like about 50 different guys just swap jobs every few years. And now they can't even see their own antiquated bull----."

A final word should go to Eric McErlain over at Fanhouse, since he's in public relations and also helped Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis come up with a blog policy for his team's press box two bloody years ago.

"As a PR professional in the business for almost two decades, I will say this -- anybody in the sports business who doesn't know how to deal with bloggers in the year 2008 just isn't doing their job ... Understanding how to deal with bloggers should be basic blocking and tackling for a PR person, not something you deal with in a huff while hurling threats at a person who's just trying to do their job -- and promote your product at the same time.

"Here in Washington, we've been fortunate in that Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Capitals, has been quick to embrace new media and has directed his PR staff to do the same. The result speaks for itself -- despite being what many might call a non-traditional hockey market -- there are now more Capitals blogs around than I can keep track of on my own, providing a wealth of analysis and commentary that this town's two newspapers never could on their own."

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.