In Which The Edmonton Oilers Score Two Goals To Philadelphia's Zero

This is a winning streak.

What? A winning streak. Do not resist.

The Oilers scored a pair of opportunistic goals, and Devan Dubnyk’s dice were hot as he earned his first shutout on the season, and it came against a team that’s averaging 3.3 goals scored per game.

After the jump: Jordan Eberle’s goal, some tire pumping for Devan Dubnyk, is mid range contract for Hemsky in the works? Also: an easy fruit salad that anyone can whip up.

Take the plunge.

THE SHOW

Over the past two seasons, there have been more than enough occasions where you’ve angrily flicked the game off, or wondered out loud when Tambellini and company are going to rustle up two defencemen to help and try to make this team a competitor. Last night wasn’t one of those cases. The game was close, the Oilers kept the shots within a reasonable distance (the Flyers outshot the Oilers 35-30), the Oilers caught the breaks on the scoresheet and Dubnyk was on his mark.

FULL MARKS go to Devan Dubnyk. Thirty five saves, zero goals allowed will earn you your first shutout of the season against a quality team. Dubnyk made some tough saves look rather rudimentary, like this one from Brayden Schenn shortly after Edmonton scored their first marker. A dominate performance for the former Kamloops Blazer gives him his twelfth win on the season, pushes his GAA down respectable street to a 2.87 and his SV% up to a loftier .909, which I believe is the highest it’s been this year.

EBERLE, AGAIN

NATURALLY

: If you missed Jordan Eberle’s goal last night,

good news

, we’re going to talk about it. You see this little move that Eberle throws on an unsuspecting Braydon Coburn (#5) of the Flyers? Let’s go to a still shot.

You’ll see that this Eberle fellow is horizontally positioned on the ice so that he can poke the puck away from Braydon Coburn (strategically dressed in the #5 sweater). I’ve seen guys dive to swat pucks away in their own zone, but diving in the attacking zone at a player attempting to skate the puck out is a rare breed. This causes confusion, and Eberle finds himself with the biscuit on the end of his twig. Now let’s watch.

That’s some serious NHL ’12 stuff right there. High quality H20. This goal is Eberle’s 27th. Add the assist he had on Taylor Hall’s power play goal onto that, and Eberle is sitting at 60 points on the season in only 56 games. Not to be outdone, the power play goal was Hall’s twelfth of the season.

LAST GASP FOR HEMSKY?

Rumour and scuttlebutt swirling around the Twitters yesterday would suggest that the Oilers are making a last ditch effort to retain the services of a one Ales Hemsky before Monday’s trade deadline. Here’s a couple of nuggets that I’ve seen around…

2 years, $10 mil (5 per) might keep Hemsky an Oiler...might not. Options being considered in Edmo. No doubt about that. #TradeCentre
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 24, 2012

Hearing Hemsky would consider a 2-year deal at $10-11 million. If I'm the Oilers I sign him to that. Win-win for both prior to RNH new deal.
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) February 23, 2012

To use a Mark Mothersbaugh line, I don’t think that’s all just wind-in-sail. If I’m the Oilers and I can get Hemsky for a couple of seasons at that rate (especially seeing what Tuomo Ruutu got the other day), I’m jamming my fax machine to get that sucker over to him. This is just another tick in the eleventh hour clock that is the soap opera of Ales Hemsky. Just make the deal, man.

SO NOW WHAT

If you think I’m going to leave you without that fruit salad I promised you, you’re sadly mistaken.