WE GOT A POINT! Devils 2 - Oilers 1 [OT]

Ha-ha-ha-ha.

Na-na-na-na.

We got a point.

That's a loss to any team.

The Good
That Hall kid is a keeper.

Jones played well too...

On the offensive side, Petry had a whale of a game...

The Meh
EXCEPT WHEN HE GAVE UP THE DAMN PUCK ON THE POWERPLAY


The Awful
Potter's penalty. We take like all of three penalties all game, and the one we give up at the end hurts us the most. BUT WE GOT A POINT why should we be sad?

The Beautiful
The announcement of the all star team included Jordan Eber...

The kid is 7th in league scoring. The kid is better than a substantial portion of other all-stars. I'm sorry - he deserves to go. So I'm go to protest by not putting up a beauty. Eberle deserves it.

Jan 11: Devils at M.A.S.H Corps

Game Day

If you didn't get the hint, the Oilers are injured.

Do we even stand a chance?

No Nuuuuuuuuuge.

No Gibbs.

And, as my dear friend told me is by far the most important, no Ebersqueeeeeeeeeeeeeee. His esteemed presence is lost upon us, ladies and gents.

We have one competent offensive line (the possessed-by-the-spirit-of-Richard Hall, Gagner, Hemsky), one competent defensive line (Smyth-Horcoff-Jones), and a, well, MASH corps of everything else.

Lines/Injuries

Hall - Gagner - Hemsky

Smyth-Horcoff-Jones

Belanger-Lander-Eager

Paajarvi-O'Marra-Hordichuk

Potter-Smid
Peckham-Teubert
Petry-Sutton

Khabibulin

Everyone, I believe, is injured.

Predictions

Glorious Prediction - Coming off a loss in Calgary? BOO YEAH. Hall gets a hat trick, 9-2 all over again.

Realistic Prediction - Man, this team couldn't buy a win. Well, do you think it could? .......
No. Chance. Oilers 2 - NJ 5, with an empty netter.

LPH Prediction - To add insult to injury here, Brodeur gets a shutout. 3-0 NJ

Saturday Randoms - Pre-game (January 7th)| EDM at DAL

Saturday

This sums up the past few days.

About the Oilers.

About the Canadian squad.

Everybody - simply close, but no cigar.

The Oilers had great efforts in both Buffalo and St. Louis for long stretches of the game. Which, of course, is impressive. Then, they go and lose that game.

Canada wakes up too late in the game, realizes they're down 6-1, and attempt to mount a comeback that runs JUUUUST short. 

Russia realizes they're in the gold medal game in Overtime. The defencemen, so bewildered by the fact they might win gold, cough up the puck to Mika Zibenajed, who pots that puck past the only Russian who thought that this was a big game the whole game, Sergei Makarov.

Ce n'est pas un pipe.

Game Story

See? Star-gazing!

The Oilers are attempting to salvage a little something from this roadtrip.

I'll be happy if we don't get Calgaried (9-0. Lovely game to watch. 'Cept if you're a Flamer.)

Injuries

Tom Gilbert is out for his third game, but he should be back relatively soon.

Cam Barker is one to two months away! Huzzah!

Oh, and some kid named Ryan (expletive) Nugent (expletive) Hopkins got injured and out 3-4 weeks.

Those heartless devils that hit him... I blame the icecrew.

Predictions

Glorious Prediction - After watching Boston? Nothing more than that could be glorious. 9-0. Eberle hatter. Pure glory.

Realistic Prediction - I don't know, maybe the few losses before that we were so close in, I believe we're winning a game we have no business winning. The Dallases and Phoenixes of the league can boss us around, so really, we shouldn't have a shot at winning this. But you know what? I take the Oilers 5-4.

LPH Prediction - That's right. The E got eaten. We've reached that point in our hockey prowess. We can only beat Chicago or Columbus for sure. Dallas owns us 4-1, just like the New York freaking Islanders.

WJC - EXPLAIN YOURSELF and Predictions

What happened?

Skate the right way damn it!

The United States were my *logical* pick (I still cheer for Canada - look at that Mark Stone go!) to win this freaking tournament. They're now playing against the likes of Denmark, Latvia, and Switzerland for not getting relegated into oblivion.

What?

Who do you blame? Who do you ask? What explains that anomaly?

They had experience. They had the best defending corps in the world juniors, everyone thought. They had some kind of skill up front, with the likes of Emerson Etem, Miller, and company.

Here's my take.

They played Denmark first. It ruined them.

They saw Finland as a crappy team that they could play their back-up goaltender with and still romp. The Canadians could do it, so could they!

Wrong move. Gibson, as we saw, was a lot worse than Jack Campbell, who played his heart out and gave them a chance in every minute of that Czech game. They lost the Finnish game, and all of a sudden, they had their backs against the wall.

Then they ran into a wall painstakingly built brick by brick by Petr Mrazek, who, if you note, has been drafted by the (expletive) Detroit Red Wings. HOW DO THEY DO IT?

Out of all of this, if you want someone and something to blame, blame the expectations and the coaching.

They were expected to destroy Finland. They crumbled. They were coached poorly during the Finnish game. They crumbled.

At the end of the day, the intangibles killed them. And Petr Mrazek.

Predictions

I simply can't. I'm assured that Finland will beat the Swedes, because every team with Oilers prospects has been destroyed and Finland is pretty freaking awesome. 

I don't want to predict Canada and Russia. By all means, Russia should lose, like they should have lost to the Czech Republic/Petr Mrazek. But I'm not going to take anything from them. They're good. 

I'm cheering for Canada. Let them win in peace.

B2B Jan 3 - Edmonton at Buffalo

Game Day

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo...

Identical under-achievers?

Well, obviously not.

They both have a new owner.

Both went out in pursuit of high priced free agents.

Both against the salary cap after free agent signings

Both got off to hot starts

Both are now disappointing their fan bases.

But of course...

Only one team has Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, and Ryan Nugent Hopkins.

Hell, we don't even have Ryan Nugent Hopkins because he went and injured himself...

Aie.

Lines

Nugent-Hopkins' self-inflicted hillarious bonanza and Gilbert's pasting into the boards means Teubert and Josh Green (former Oiler from the first decade of this century) are in.

The Oilers got in at 3 AM in Buffalo, so the lineup is simply a speculation...

Hall-Horcoff-Hemsky

Smyth-Gags-Eberle

Jones-Lander-Hartikainen

[Green-Belanger]-Eager

Sutton-Smid

Potter-Petry

Teubert-Peckham

Khabibulin

Predictions

Glorious Prediction - At their most glorious, they will win without injuring any part of themselves. Eberle suffers without Nugent-Hopkins on the power-play, only tallying 3 points in a 4-1 win.

Realistic Prediction - We're tired. Buffalo has Vanek and Miller. Be afraid. This is going to be a borefest. Oilers drop this one in everybody's favorite format, the shootout. 2-1 Buffalo SO.

ELPH Prediction - Hemsky gets injured. Buffalo destroys us 5-1. Double kick to the gonads, as we lose and now can't trade him.

B2B Rundown - Blackhawks, Oilers Jan 2

OILERS

FINAL 4 - 3

BLACKHAWKS

Yeh yeh.

That's right, laddies and gents, the Oilers won.

The Bold
Taylor Hall was flying!
Eager bounced back!
Hemsky had some dandy moves.
Smyth was Smyth.
The team played well, really. Dubsy!!

The Meh
... except for Khabibulin. Someone obviously told him that we desperately needed the win last night, and then he went and continued that deal with whichever god he made that pact with at the start of the season (you know, the one where he got all of his skill back?), which most obviously required human sacrifice.

Why on earth did you pick Nugent-Hopkins (our most important forward) and Gilbert (our most important D-man)?

Plus, if you guys watched that game last night, dear lord, there were about 6 players injured or sore after that game. Plus Ryan Jones, who has a bruised heel bone.

Wow - I hope the deal means we get a playoff spot.

The Awful
Carcillo's hit. Bad man.

The Beautiful
Nothing much happened last ni- oh you say there were 2 quarterfinals and an outdoor game? I see...

Lundqvist's save on a dumb penalty to save the game absofreakinglutely awesome - my beauty of le jour.

Jan 2: Edmonton at Chicago, SNET-W, 6:30PM

Game Story

No, seriously, sir, I simply don't care.

THE RETURN OF TEEM-U HOCKEY?

The Oilers, I will argue, couldn't win with this guy in or out of the lineup last year, mainly because the Oilers were simply awful everywhere.

New Khabibulin? First line that exists? Teemu Hartikainen? This, ladies and gents, could be freaking fantastic.

Then again, we're playing Chicago. They're good. They're incredibly good.

Lines

The Macblen... uh, I mean, the Renblender, or whatever permutation of that you would like to change it into, was in full swing

Smyth - RNH - Eberle
Hall - Horcoff - Hemsky

Gagner - Belanger - Jones

Hartikainen - Lander - Eager

Man, Eager got duped and trolled last game - we know how Brad Staubitz felt that game where Hordichuk made him take that 4 minute major. Damn. Eager needs to bounce back with skill and size. Always take the moral high ground. Can't lose then.

Predictions

Only another 6 game skid from having only ELPH predictions. Shall the countdown begin?

Glorious Prediction - We come into Chicago's house and smoke 'em 9-2. Ebs trick. RNH 5 assists. Boo yeah.
Realistic Prediction - We're going to get a point. I feel it. Just not 2. 4-3 OT loss to Chicago.

ELPH Prediction - HAHAHAHAHA. Chicago, knowing how it feels to lose 9-2, destroys us on the road 6-1. Ebs gets a goal on the power-play. Heh.