Given the rough past few days that our beloved franchise has suffered through, I felt a breakthrough coming on strong for last night’s game versus the Dallas Stars.
The Oilers were a dominant team in Dallas the last time the two teams met, I thought. Why, when they come to Rexall Place, the Oilers would show them the what for. We had a parlay to play for.
And, we were gonna be paid in fifty cent pieces. Remember?
Again, the Oilers outshot the Dallas Stars en route to a defeat. And, I’d say that they also had a pretty legitimate shot at winning this one too. Like most Oilers games so far this year, there’s some light to take from the game, but at the end of the day the defence is too thin, the bottom six is suspect, and I can’t get no satisfaction between the pipes.
But this game was a little different. Read on, gentle reader.
THE GOOD
Let’s start with a little Ryan Jones
Ryan Jones – Not the fastest, not the best, doesn’t score the prettiest goals, but he’s got my vote as one guy that trucks up and down the ice on every shift. You’ll find him here scoring Edmonton’s first goal of the game. Powerplay be damned, Jones scores his eleventh goal of the season on a shorthanded tally. Andrew Cogliano picks himself up an assist, and the Oilers put one up on the board against the Pacific Division leaders. Jeff Petry also had himself a tally late in the second, a pretty big feather for a defenceman who’s on the big club on spot duty and playing in just his eleventh career NHL game. Good show, Petry.
THE BAD
Remember how I was complimenting Taylor Chorney a little bit not long ago? I don’t want to say that he was the ‘proximate cause’ of why this goal happened, but him getting run over in the neutral zone might have helped a little bit.
Can’t really fault Khabibulin on this one, and Dallas takes the lead here for good. James Neal makes it a two goal lead for Dallas on a (gasp!) powerplay goal, and you have your game all wrapped up in one little deep fried Oreo.
BUT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO WIN!
Out of all the games that Edmonton has lost this year (and there’s been a couple or more), this is one game (against Dallas, again) that they should’ve won. For about 55 minutes of this game I was satisfied with what I’m used to seeing from this club, and I believe they deserved the W. Unfortunately, wins aren’t calculated on empty beer bottles and hope, and again the Dallas Stars and the elusive Kari Lehtonen chalk up the win for Texas.
There’s a pretty good shot that the Oilers could’ve walked away with the W if not for James Neal’s goal in the third.
TAKE OFF YOU HOSER
At least this didn’t happen.
You wanna talk about a hose job? I’d be right irritated if I was Matt Greene too. I don’t have the extended replay vision copy that some of those fancier sites seem to have pieced together, but Martin Hanzal’s stick is a good eighteen inches to two feet above that crossbar when he swats that baby into the net. That counted, and the Kings allowed just fifteen shots that entire night and lost the game. The goal you see in this clip ended up being the game winner for Phoenix. Incredible.
Also worth your time – If you’ve been under a rock for the last day or so, you’d see that the Detroit Red Wings have put in a waiver claim for Evgeni Nabakov, formerly of the San Jose Sharks and the KHL. Detroit will have his services should Nabakov get past the rest of the league who might swipe a pretty capable before he’s able to get to Detroit. It’s not bloody likely, but I’d laugh in Colorado picked him up.
The Oilers are now absent of wins in five consecutive games, and the road doesn’t get too awfully much easier when Nashville comes into town on Sunday.
Chins up people, we still got a lot of hockey to watch.
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