GENE'S BLOG: An Ear For The Gear

I was in the room Monday morning waiting to talk to Sam Gagner. I just wanted to catch up a bit and ask him about getting back in the lineup and his connection to Jordan Binnington (more to come on that Thursday in St. Louis). I'm always looking for little storylines and angles that aren't necessarily specifically about hockey but are related to hockey.

As I briefly waited, Sam was chatting with Brad Harrison (known as Harry to the players and fellow staff) about his gloves. They were going back and forth before Brad, Edmonton's assistant equipment manager, hopped on the phone to make a call. I joked it looked like a high-level meeting. It was between two long-serving members of the NHL and the Edmonton Oilers.

It was about Sam's gloves or Ryan's gloves or both Sam and Ryan's gloves. Gagner was trying to order new pairs of gloves, not of his but rather McLeod's. Have I lost you yet? If I haven’t, full credit to you for following along. Despite the fact Sam has played 1,037 NHL games, he doesn't have his own gloves.

He's had lots of gloves over his time in the game, but since he last played in Winnipeg, the Jets colours don't match up to Oilers colours. When he arrived in Edmonton, he needed to get the right glove and colours to match. No problem. They have to be made and ordered so that can take some time. In the meantime, as he waited for those, he had to wear someone els's gloves, so he decided to go with McLeod's choice of hand warmers and protectors.

The younger Oiler had enough extras to service both his need and Sam's for gloves. However, as the first-round pick from 2007 awaited his order, something strange happened along the way. The 34-year-old started to like the feel and comfort of McLeod's gloves better than his own. Plus, he started off hot to begin the season.

In case you had forgotten, on November 2 vs. Dallas in his first game of his third stint with Edmonton, he scored two goals. Two games later, he had an assist. Suddenly what felt good also was producing good results.

As luck would have it, McLeod changed his mind on gloves, so his stock was passed over to Gagner, which held him over until the Monday morning meeting with Harry. As Brad shuffled off, he received a return call from the manufacturer about an order.

The request might have gone something like this: "Hey there, it's Harry, how are you? Can I put in an order for Ryan McLeod's gloves but for Sam Gagner? Yes, you heard me right."

It would have been an interesting conversation, kind of like the one Corey Perry would have also had with Harry or head equipment manager Jeff Lang. The newest Oilers forward is no stranger to the NHL. He's played 1,277 games, but like Sam, while he may have a lot of gloves, he didn't have Oilers gloves. His plan was to try on various teammates' gloves before making his decision.

The final choice was Dylan Holloway's. Like Gagner with McLeod's, Perry found a certain comfort level with his younger teammate's handwear, so he went with it. Perry's new set of gloves were set to arrive last week.

There is more to the equipment story for Corey. As one eagle-eyed Oilers fan noticed during his first game in Edmonton on January 27, Perry wasn't using his own sticks. Instead, branded on the graphite shaft was the name Anderson, as in Josh Anderson.

The two were teammates in Montreal for one season in 2020-21. While he waited for his sticks, he started using Anderson's sticks and – stop me if you've already read this in my blog – but like Gagner with McLeod's gloves, Perry with Anderson's sticks started having success.

Now that was three seasons ago but here we are in 2024 and Perry still orders the same stick as his former Montreal teammate but leaves Anderson's name on it. He could put his own name on it but has decided to keep the name the same. Yes, Corey Perry isn't using Josh Anderson's sticks anymore, but he is using Josh Anderson's name on his sticks and is going to stick with it.

The Oilers support staff does wonderful work for their players, particularly Lang and Harrison, who always have an ear for the gear.