Another Former Oiler

You may not recognize #85 for the Oilers, but that's ok. That's Liam Reddox as a young player with the Oilers who now plays in the Swedish Elite League for Växjö Lakers. I'm not sure what has happened to the Oilers, but they have signed a number of highly-skilled, young players such as Linus Omark, Robbie Schremp, and Lam Reddox only to discard them after a few seasons in which they rarely got a chance to put their talents on display. Today, we'll see why Liam Reddox has added his name to this list.

With Sparta Prague leading 5-3 over Reddox's Växjö Lakers in Champions League play on Thursday, Reddox shows he still has big-league hands, stick-handling, and hand-eye coordination. Check out this video of one of the guys the Oilers used to employ as a checking forward.

Let's go step-by-step on this one. First, he avoids the fly-by check at center ice which was, at best, one of the weakest attempts at checking I've seen. Nevertheless, Reddox then turns up ice and completely blows by 28 year-old Jan Svrcek like he's not even there. He puts a good shot on Rostislav Stana who kicks the puck out. However, the puck hits Reddox in the arm, and he taps it out of mid-air into the yawning cage behind Stana.

I'll be the first to admit that Reddox got a little lucky there. But as the adage goes, "you have to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good". The move around Svrcek was solid, and the hand-eye coordination by Reddox is all skill.

Växjö ended up losing 5-4 to Prague in the game, and currently sit in third-place with six points in Group G in the Champions League standings. They trail KalPa Kuopio by a single point and Sparta Prague by three points. They have a three-point cushion on Germany's Adler Mannheim.

Kudos to Liam Reddox for the highlight-reel goal!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!