Oilers Beat Canadiens To A Move At The Deadline

Edmonton had to stare down Montreal at the trade deadline and still managed to keep the other shoe from dropping. That kind of tug-of-war tells you the market was hotter than most fans realized, and the Canadiens were at least kicking the tires hard. The real story is not just that the Oilers acted, but that they apparently had to hold off a familiar rival to do it. In this league, if one contender wants a player badly enough, somebody else always wants him just as much.