With Taylor Hall done for the season, Ales Hemsky on the IR again and Dustin Penner exchanging one-liners with Matt Greene in LA, Steve Tambellini put out the SOS for career-minor leaguer Alex Giroux. Giroux will play his 32nd NHL game tonight on a line with Andrew Cogliano and Liam Reddox. Giroux has a whopping 139 goals in his last 199 AHL games, so I’m sure we’ll see him on the 2nd PP unit, but I don’t think Giroux can do much to help the Oilers "Salvage Our Season."
The BB-gun offence of the Oilers will try to put up a fight in Denver tonight with the Cogliano line along with trios of Magnus Paarjarvi/Shawn Horcoff/Jordan Eberle, Ryan Jones/Sam Gagner/Linus Omark and JF Jacques/Colin Fraser/Steve MacIntyre.
Once again, Gilbert Brule is out with an undisclosed ailment.
Alex Plante will dress and likely be paired with Jim Vandermeer.
CAN’T LOOK AWAY
The Oilers’ final 17 games could be, who am I kiddding, they will be a trainwreck, but the good news for Oiler fans is you’ve seen this movie before, so you should be prepared. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that this stretch won’t be as bad as the final 20 games of 2007 when the Oilers went 2-17-1.
In the final 20 games of 2007 the Oilers scored a measly 25 goals. They were shutout five times and scored one goal eight times. It was a painful time for Oiler fans, and the worst part was they won the final game of the season and missed out on the draft lottery, because they held the tiebreaker over Chicago.
The slide began when Ryan Smyth got trade for Robert Nilsson, Ryan O’Marra and a first rounder (Alex Plante). There was one incredibly aawesome thing to come out of that death march season….OILERS FREAKING NATION.
That’s right, Wanye Gretz was so upset by the trading of Smyth,that he found time in between crushing 15 BLs a day to build Oilersnation.com and he even made T-Shirts protesting the deal. There is no way these final 17 games will unearth something as wonderful and addicting as the Nation, but a few of the remaining games will undoubtedly be as painful as what you witnessed in 2007.
GAME DAY PREDICTION: If the Oilers can’t be a sieve like Brian Elliott then they won’t win for a month, but they will pump a few weak wristers past Elliott and start this ROAD TRIP TO HELL with a win, 4-2.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Jordan Eberle will pot a pair of goals, and Oiler fans will instantly wonder, is it possible he could win the Calder, because they need something to make the final stretch watchable.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The legend Rod Phillips will call his 8th of ten Rod’s Classics along with Bob Stauffer. Midway through the 2nd period, the Oilers will get their 3rd straight penalty, a weak holding call, that will set Rod off. For old times sake, he will go off on one of his patented rants on the officials. He will toss it to Bob, but Stauff will try to speak while laughing at Rod’s rant. The two will spend the next few minutes regaling listeners about some of Rod’s most famous Ref Rants….It will be golden radio, and will be much better than listening to Mark Lee.
I know this is just Colorado but the way we’re running their show, maybe the Death Row Squad steal another game on this road trip despite the buzzkill of Brownle’s last observations.
Buzzkill? What “buzz” is there with a 30th-place team heading out on the road with Penner traded and Hemsky and Hall injured? Do tell.
At least we know what direction we are going, re-build. Geez Colorado was in first at Christmas and have lost what 15 of 16. They look god-awful tonight.
Gawd, Colorado may endanger the Oilers claim to last place at this rate.
It’s pretty obvious now that Hall was holding the team back. 😉
7-3-0 in our last ten and currently in 29th place. As much as Chris and David S have complained about exciting AHL hockey and lamented the Oilers brass for making the team tangibly worse, these jerks are winning!
Frankly, it’s bothering me. Would it be so hard to lose 3 in a row? I dont think it’s too much to ask. The Sens have a game in hand and a hot goalie. Let them make up some ground on us for gods’ sake.
2-0 since Hemsky’s latest injury. Just sayin…
So now I finally see Tambellini’s strategy: get rid of all our best players: then start winning. Brilliant!
9W 7L 4otl without Hemsky. Did we get rid of the wrong guy at the deadline??
3-0 without Penner.
True enough, but 20 games without Hemsky is probably a lot more accurate assessment than 3 games without Penner.
You don’t like Hemsky’s injury history, I get it.
Keep this up and David Staples will have no choice but to create another stat that shows the Oilers aren’t really 3-0 without Penner.
3-0 in the post Dustin Penner era!
…and yes there is life after LUMUX…
especially with L.A.s’ first pick&more maybe though in June, oh and that Tueburt kid …27 still has the touch…see how he chizzed one off Luongos’ arse for the lone goal in a 3-1 loss?
…a bit of nice work!
Kings make the post season? not!
serves’em right for not givin’ us Schenn.
…so…zit true? we’re out of the playoffs, right guys? NO! …y’mean…there’s no way? not even half way mathematically? we’re out? we’re out…damn! cuz y’know…with this team? bein’ 3 and oh?… this team right here? we could go deep…i mean DEEP in the playoffs…with this team…i think we have the right mix with this team now and if this isn’t the result of some fine calculated moves on the part of our GM, staying on leash, and getting us an opportunity to play say, i don’t care, who cares anyway, the Canucks in the first round…we’d take them out in five, ok maybe six but we’d be in good shape to make another BIG run right?…y’know like in oh six? i mean who needs a Pronger…come on guys can’t you see Devon D is bloody all world peaking now…? the D isn’t half as busy running around protecting ‘our stars’ anymore…they can free wheel with the top six AND the bottom six now as evidenced by how Smac has found his game, albeit a bit late but shoot it doesn’t matter, he’s here he’s healthy and he’s ready to go!…we could do this and shirley without all the worry of those nasty high upper body sprains and stooopid lower leg tweaks or whatever they’re calling these boo boos our ‘so called’ elite players have…i’d say we’d be good to go, those suckers were just gettin’ in the way IMO…thanks for the inspiration Arch