After a week of lead-up, the 25th anniversary of Wayne Gretzkys Edmonton exit is finally here. But while it was the end of an era in Edmonton, it was not the end of a dynasty (a point that countless TSN.ca users have vehemently made over the past week). The Oilers would get stunned by Gretzkys Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs and watch, stunned, as their provincial rivals the Calgary Flames lifted their one and only Stanley Cup to date. One year later, however, the dynasty would get its extension. After a regular season buoyed by a Hart Trophy performance from captain Mark Messier, the Oilers attended to unfinished business. After sweeping Gretzky and the Kings in the Smythe Division Final, the Oilers topped Chicago to take their sixth Clarence Campbell Bowl in eight years before dispatching the Presidents Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the Final. The next two seasons would see the Oilers in the Conference Final, but 1992-93 would see the official end of the Oilers dynasty, kicking off a four-year run of early tee-times. So, what happened? The Gretzky trade is seen as many as the first straw in the unraveling of the Oiler dynasty, but in truth the beginnings can be traced to Gretzkys final season in Edmonton when Hall-of-Fame blue liner Paul Coffey withstood a contract dispute with owner Peter Pocklington, eventually forcing the team to deal him to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Edmonton got a solid return on Coffey with Craig Simpson. The Oilers also got blue line depth in Moe Mantha and Chris Joseph as well as forward Dave Hannan, but it was Simpson that paid immediate dividends, scoring 43 goals in 59 games for the 1987-88 Oilers. The next big move was Gretzky, of course. While the idea of "fair value" in trading possibly the greatest player of all-time cannot really be assessed, the Oilers did get a lot for Gretzky. Jimmy Carson - who still holds the NHL record for career goals before a players 20th birthday - was coming off a 55-goal season and would score 49 in his lone full season as an Oiler. Even the return on Carsons request to be dealt bounced the Oilers way with three crucial pieces to the 1990 Champions in Joe Murphy, Adam Graves and Petr Klima. Martin Gelinas would play 20 NHL seasons and over 1,200 career games. Adversity would hit the Oilers again in 1990-91 as Messier spent a large part of the season battling injuries and the dynasty was forced out. Jari Kurri found himself in a contract dispute with Pocklington and spent the entire season playing in Italy. The team performed well and made the Conference Final, but the writing for the glory days was on the wall. The levees broke in the following offseason as Kurri, Messier, Glenn Anderson, Grant Fuhr and Steve Smith were all dealt away between May and October and Graves would sign with the Rangers. Once again, the Oilers - despite trading their core - received value. Dealing Fuhr (who had lost his starters job to Bill Ranford) and Anderson netted them Vincent Damphousse, a 23-year-old with five years of NHL experience and three 25-plus-goal seasons under his belt. Kurri would net them Scott Mellanby, who would go on to a 22-year NHL career that would see him captain two different teams. Smith netted them enforcer Dave Manson and a pick that the Oilers would use to select Kirk Maltby, while the return on Messier would include Bernie Nicholls. The 30-year-old was a ways off from his 150-point days, but had still put up over 25 goals and over 70 points the previous year. Replacing a championship core that had been together for over a decade was a difficult ask for the Oilers, but the pieces they got in return - especially Carson, Simpson and Damphousse - seemed to be a good start on paper to keeping the team competitive. The undoing of the Oilers, apart from trading away the championship core was a combination of a decline of bad luck and impatience. Carsons early exit was not something the Oilers banked on and their handling of the three firsts was somewhat imprudent. They dealt the 1989 first prior to draft day, selected long-time NHLer Martin Rucinsky in 1991 but dealt him after just two games in an Oiler uniform and got just two games out of 1993 first-rounder Nick Stajduhar. Klima and Graves helped greatly in 1990, but they were both out of Edmonton within three years of their acquisition. Simpsons output stayed productive after his record 1987-88 output, racking up between 29 and 35 goals in each of the next three years, but he would be slowed by injury shortly thereafter and would have his career cut short after a back injury as a member of the Buffalo Sabres. Damphousse - like Carson - was a star in his debut Oilers season, scoring 38 goals in 1991-92. But like Carson, he would last just one year, getting dealt to the Montreal Canadiens for Shayne Corson the following summer and becoming a key piece in the Habs 1993 Cup run. Compounding this was the teams dry spell on the draft floor. The Oilers did not draft, develop and - most importantly - keep a high-calibre player between 1983 (when they drafted Esa Tikkanen) and 1993 (when they drafted Jason Arnott). As for the core of the dynasty, they would get their last hurrah – just not in Edmonton. The 1994 Cup Champion New York Rangers would boast seven players that had won Cups in Edmonton: Messier, Graves, Tikkanen, Anderson, Craig MacTavish, Kevin Lowe and Jeff Beukeboom. The Oilers would rebuild and revive in the mid-to-late 1990s with the likes of Doug Weight and Bill Guerin and later with Ales Hemsky and Anson Carter, but it was clear that the dynasty days were a thing of the past. http://www.giantsrookiestore.com/Giants-Roger-Lewis-Jersey/ . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. http://www.giantsrookiestore.com/Giants-Bobby-Hart-Jersey/ . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. http://www.giantsrookiestore.com/Giants-Phil-Simms-Jersey/ . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. http://www.giantsrookiestore.com/Giants-Andrew-Adams-Jersey/ . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Fog prevented downhill racers from getting their Olympic dress rehearsal. http://www.giantsrookiestore.com/Giants-Orleans-Darkwa-Jersey/ . Breaking three of his own world records on his way to winning in Paris, Chan silenced the critics and left the audiences standing in appreciation and awe. KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii -- Theres never a good time to get hit by a car while riding your bike. But three days before the Ironman World Championship, when youre the defending champion, is a particularly bad time.Yet thats exactly what happened to Australian Mirinda Carfrae last year. The three-time world champion and course record holder was biking through the busy downtown in Kona when a car pulling into a parking lot hit her.There were people stopping and looking. The lady who hit me knew who I was. She was crying, and Im trying to hold it together, then Im crying, Carfrae, 35, said in an interview this week. So Carfrae just got out of there, kept riding, and it seemed like everything was going to be OK.She started the race anyway. Of course she did. She had spent her whole year preparing for it.She made it through the swim, but right away, she struggled to maintain any kind of power on the bike, with her hip, glute and shoulder still in pain from the accident. She found herself slowly slipping farther and farther behind. And not even halfway through, she stopped, quit and climbed into a sponsors car.It was probably a good month of just sadness, she said of the aftermath. But it comes along with all this, when you care so much about something and you put so much into it.And knowing that I had to wait a whole other year to get back here.It was devastating, said Carfraes coach, Siri Lindley, herself a world champion at the Olympic distance back in 2001.The two have worked together for nearly 11 years. That means they know each other very well. And what they eventually decided was that there were two upsides to Carfraes crash and DNF -- both of which they think will ultimately help her as she goes for another Ironman world title this Saturday.One upside to the accident was that Carfraes husband, Tim ODonnell, had a breakthrough that same day, taking third in the mens race and finishing as the first American. Carfrae was at the finish line to greet him, something she could not have done had she still been racing.I got to be there for him, and hes always there for me [at the finish], she said.The other upside is a little more abstract. Carfrae, whos been racing triathlons for 16 years, has been at the Ironman World Championship in Kona every year since 2009. Shes won three times and placed in the top three six times. Shes one of the most consistent racers in the famously brutal conditions. (A 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112 hot and humid miles on the bike, and then a marathon run through lava fields.)Its hard to keep the fire burning through all those years, so Lindley and Carfrae had talked about taking a year off from the world championship and using that time to build up a longer training block, without the stress of such a tough race on the body.Last year wasnt necessarily supposed to be that off year, but they got the break they were looking for anyway.Lets assume it happened for something greater ahead, Lindley said. Maybe this year was supposed to be the year to take off, but we just didnt get the message.Looking back now on last year, leading into the race I certainly didnt feel as excited as I had previously or I did this year, Carfrae said. Being forced to not finish the race might have been a blessing. She laughs. Well, well see what happens.And its not like Carfrae spent the last 364 days just brooding and crying. Sure, she spent some time doing that, but then she got on with things.First up, a few weeks after the race, was a team meeting.dddddddddddd Carfrae, Lindley, ODonnell and ODonnells coach, Mark Allen, met at the couples house in Boulder, Colorado, to hash out a plan for how both the triathletes could find a way to excel in the same sport and at the same race. In 2014, ODonnell had a terrible race and Carfrae won. The next year, Carfrae had the accident and felt worn out going into the event, but ODonnell had a great race.After five bottles of wine, the four of them had worked out all the details of how both athletes could succeed -- down to exactly where the two were going to stay in Hawaii and when they were going to get there. (They flew in separately this year so Carfrae could get to Kona a few days earlier.)Once that was settled, Carfrae got back to training and, most important, to having fun. I wanted to freshen things up, Lindley said. During the winter, Carfrae focused on short and fast training, and on different kinds of workouts. She and ODonnell went to the Bahamas for the unique Island House Triathlon, an event that pits Olympic racers against Ironman champions over multiple days.Then, in June, she raced Ironman Austria, where she won in a course record of 8:41.She wasnt sure [about Ironman Austria], because wed been doing so much differently, but I knew it was going to be great, Lindley said.This year has been more low-key than the ones following Carfraes 2013 and 2014 wins. Shes had fewer demands on her time and fewer sponsor and media obligations pulling her in every direction. In the triathlon community, shes largely taken a back seat to the woman who won in Carfraes absence last year: Switzerlands Daniela Ryf.Ryf had an amazing 2015. In August, two months before winning Kona, she won the 70.3 (half-Ironman) world championship. She went undefeated in eight races last year and won the Nasser Bin Hamad Triple Crown series -- which included a $1 million prize.But this year most of the triathlon press outlets have picked Carfrae as this weekends likely winner, primarily on the basis of Ryfs exhausting racing schedule, which included back-to-back Ironman races earlier this summer. On Saturday, though, Carfrae will inevitably be far behind Ryf after the swim and bike (Carfraes weaker events) and will have to make up time in the marathon, which can be challenging. Plus there are a lot of other women waiting to pounce if they have the opportunity.Carfrae is determined not to give them that opportunity. Shes being extra careful this week and will likely have a motor-scooter escort as she bikes out of town. Shes also going in with the goal of not necessarily winning -- you can never predict what will happen in Kona -- but having her best race ever.Basically, Ive had two years of preparation for this race, she said. And all that work isnt going to go to waste.This is her eighth year coming to Kona, her eighth year of preparation. Shes seen other competitors come and go, and she knows what it takes to win. She also knows shes going to take a year off soon so the couple can start a family. But, in the meantime, shes still having fun.Its triathlon, its sports. S--- happens, Carfrae said. Besides that one day, the rest of this past year has been good to her. She and ODonnell are healthy, fit and happy. They built a new house; they traveled. They get to do what they love. I cant complain, she said. Jerseys NFL China Cheap Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap China Womens NFL Jerseys Jerseys NFL China Discount NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Womens Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Throwback Cheap NFL Jerseys China Discount NFL Jerseys Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Cheap Jerseys Throwback Cheap NFL Jerseys China Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale Jerseys 2018 ' ' '