Academic review suits Oilers fans

As Chris Pronger continues another bid to reach the Stanley Cup finals, this time without the Edmonton Oilers, the city of Edmonton has become a study in frustration.

Picking up on the public mood, Bill Foster, a professor at the University of Alberta’s Augustana campus, planned to attend an academic conference in Victoria this weekend to present a paper on the much-maligned former Oiler.

Foster’s paper, titled “A One-Pronged Attack,” examines the hostile public reaction in Edmonton to Pronger’s controversial move to the Ducks last July.

According to a University of Alberta news release, Foster said he wrote his paper because he “was very interested in what I was hearing fans say about the trade -- about the effect it was having on the Oilers and the effect they perceived it to have on the city.

“Pronger’s decision was being perceived as a huge slight against the city, and I had never really seen that reaction to a player’s decision before.”

The paper is effective in demonstrating conclusively just how the long the winters are in Edmonton -- and how they frequently leave university professors with far too much time on their hands.

Trivia time

In Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals against the Carolina Hurricanes, Pronger became the first player in NHL history to do what?

Week 16 power rankings

This was the week L.A. became a Lakers town again. At least until next week ...

1. Alex Rodriguez. You can’t buy love. But with 12 home runs and 31 runs batted in in the Yankees’ first 16 games, you can certainly rent it.

2. Ducks: Anaheim and L.A. teams continue to own Minnesota in the playoffs. Yeah, say old-school Rams fans, keep rubbing it in.

3. Lakers: Sun finally breaks through the clouds as they reclaim the keyboards of the city from the Clippers. Uh-oh. Here come the Suns.

4. Kobe Bryant: Wins second consecutive NBA scoring title. That and $3.50 will keep you in the playoffs long enough for a cup of coffee.

5. Mark Buehrle: Sammy Sosa walks to spoil White Sox pitcher’s perfect game. New steroids investigation immediately ensues.

6. Vince Young: Big rookie season results in “Madden 08” cover. Tennessee Titans fans run for cover.

7. Jason Schmidt: Dodgers find revolutionary cure for shoulder inflammation: It is called “Mark Hendrickson.”

8. Jason Hart: Clippers fans sign his yearbook, “We didn’t get to know you very well this year, but you seem like a really nice guy.”

9. Jerry West: No longer stuck inside Memphis with the Lakers blues again.

10. Joey Crawford: Loses key late-season encounter with Tim Duncan. Eliminated from playoffs by David Stern.

Now he tells us

Lottery teams angling for better position in the Greg Oden sweepstakes weren’t the only ones tanking during the NBA’s regular season.

Perhaps because of some of those we-win-by-losing performances, fans turned off down the stretch, with ratings for TNT’s NBA telecasts dropping 22% from last season among men 18 to 49 and ABC’s sliding 12% in the same demographic.

TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley offered his explanation for the poor ratings.

“For some reason TNT felt like we had an obligation to show the Sacramento Kings every two weeks,” Barkley told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Everybody wants to say all these teams are great. That’s not true. A lot of these teams stink.”

Scoop of ice cream, scoop of mashed potatoes ...

With most of the stinkers gone fishing, TNT will plant “in-car webcams” in the vehicles of Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson as they drive to work throughout the playoffs.

Finally, we might actually hear what Barkley really thinks.

TNT also created a MySpace page where the TNT crew will describe what happens off-camera.

“One of the biggest topics of conversation is what our second meal is going to be,” highlights supervisor John O’Connor was quoted saying in USA Today.

That might be small potatoes with most studio crews, but with Barkley involved, it’s very big news.

Trivia answer

He scored a penalty-shot goal in a Stanley Cup finals game.

And finally

PGA Tour player Boo Weekley, to ESPN.com, on the FedEx Cup playoff system:

“I’m trying to understand it, but I ain’t figured it out yet.”

mike.penner@latimes.com