Hah. Jan 15: LA at Edmonton. 6:00 PM. SNET-W

Game Story

Diagnosis - failure

My optimism was clearly unfounded.

I was in such a shock that I couldn't even coherently put sentences together to describe the amount of suck that last game was.

I, like many other Oilers fans, just stared into the abyss that our team is. 

There's the exception line, obviously, with Taylor Hall, Scrappy Gagner and Ales Trademe Hemsky. 

The rest of the team can't put a pass together or are so underutilized that even if they could, people who really, really, really, really can't score (love you to pieces, Belanger, but your stick is where offence goes to die) take their ice time.

We couldn't beat a team that was dictated by the rest of the league to be worse than us.

Diagnosis for the imminent future? Failure. Lots of it.

Lines/Injuries

We know about Hall-Gagner-Hemsky

I hope for this
Smyth-Horcoff-Paajarvi
Eager-Lander-Jones
Hordichuk/Green-Belanger-O'Marra/Green

Why? Horcoff can't shoot to save his life. Smyth doesn't have the legs in him to skate with Horcoff. Paajarvi has a shot and has legs, he's just had Belanger as his linemate.

Lander came back with some bite last night. He put the puck past Hiller, only to have it WRONGFULLY DISAVOWED from him. 

As if that changed anything throughout the night.

The defence is in shambles, they'll assemble as they wish.

Predictions

The time has come.

ELPH [Exciting Last Place Hockey] has been permanently replaced by LPH [ELPH without Exciting].

Glorious Prediction - A win, ladies and gentlemen, would be glorious. Oilers take this one 4-3. Pancakes gets notified to go back to the locker room and await further instructions, only to find he switches teams midway through the third.

Realistic Prediction - I cannot hate this team. Hatred, of course, requires passion. And an impassioned performance by the majority of the team last time against Anaheim has left us all with a bitter taste in our mouths. Hopefully, Hall gets a goal to make things interesting late in the third, but 3-1, with Brown getting the empty netter, is the way things will go tonight.

LPH Prediction - Hah. We can't score. Futility continues as the Kings get a 4-0 win, mainly on the backs of Mike Richards, who willed the Kings into action against the Flames.