Despite Versus’ “grassroots” marketing firm being busy emailing every hockey blogger on the planet to promote their Pens/Rangers matchup for Oct. 23, the journalists of the NHL know the big story that they want to tell for Tuesday:

Ryan Smyth and his Colorado Avalanche head into Edmonton.

It’s the first time Captain Canada has visited the old stomping grounds wearing his shiny, new Avs jersey (and contract), and the news articles are everywhere. So rather than just select a key story or two to share with you, I thought I’d put every last one I see on this thread.

Frankly, I’m sort of curious how many freakin’ stories the media can generate on this subject before it’s over.

• Globe & Mail, Eric Duhatschek, “Edmonton Forging New Image”
• Edmonton Sun, Terry Jones, “No Cryin’ Ryan”
• Globe & Mail, Allan Maki, “It’s Nice to Be Back in Alberta”
• The Province, David Pratt, “Note to Oilers fans: Treat Smyth Like He’s a Stranger”
• The Denver Post, Adrian Dater, “Emotional Homecoming for Avs’ Ryan Smyth”
• Canadian Press, Dean Bennett, “Ex-Oilers star Ryan Smyth returns to Edmonton to play as member of Avalanche”
• CanWest News, Jim Matheson, “Avalanche of Tears Almost Assured”
• The Denver Post, Terry Frei, “Smyth News Conference Today Obliges Media Crush”
• ESPN, Scott Burnside, “You can take Smyth out of Alberta, but you can’t take Alberta out of Smyth”
• Edmonton Sun, Derek Van Diest, “Oilers Will Try to Remain Out of Circus”
• The Edmonton Journal, Jim Matheson, “Ryan’s Return”
• Rocky Mountain News, Rick Sadowski, “Smyth Returns to Former Stamping Ground”*
• CanWest News, Dan Barnes, “Oilers Haven’t Been Able to Replace Smyth”
• The Associated Press, “Smyth Returns to Edmonton to Face Oilers”

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*Don’t blame me - the RMN had published “stamping” ground in their headline at the time of this posting. Maybe it’s a Colorado thing…?!