No joy in the Nation

Maybe it was the fact that Trevor Linden had both his number retired and oddly had a gate of the arena dedicated in his name earlier in the night. Maybe it was the fact that this team looks like it would lose in a slap fight with a six-year-old girl right now. Either way the Oilers gassed another last night -– this time to fall to 14-14-2 despite what our standings on the OilersNation will tell you.

It was better than the previous game, we will give them that. But that’s kind of like saying “Being hit with a sledgehammer in the side of the head sure hurts less than being hit by a car.” Neither option feels good exactly –- but one does feel better than the other. Still the Christmas Miracle we prayed to Santa for three short days ago has come back a roundhouse kick to the face. With a candy cane to follow, we imagine. Thanks Santa.

Oh joy, Jumbo Donair potted another one. That’s his ninth and he has essentially shut all his critics down with his calibre of play. Not that it has silenced all of his critics mind you, but the ones that are able to read can see his level of output has increased dramatically since MacT stapled his large posterior to the press box and have shut up.

Sweet Georgia Brown, the Little One found some scraps in front of the net and jammed home a score. We are sure that the recap of the goal was used hours later in a great pick-up line at some club in Vancouver. You will excuse us if we don’t write 5000 words about how he is turning the corner heading into the Xmas break.

Oh, let’s see here… Who merits first-star standings on the Oil last night? Shucks, we will go unsung-hero on your asses and say El Capitan Ethan Moreau was the best Oiler on the ice. Maybe he didn’t make it onto the score sheet but he had six PIM and five shots on net in only 11:53 worth of ice time. Was physical all night and tried to use the tools at his disposal to keep the team in the game.

Though we have been defending him of late –- particularly to Gord who believes Horcoff should be traded, waived or executed if no takers can be found –- we will have to hand this off to Horcoff. He ate up a ton of ice time (24:48) yet managed not a single shot on net en route to a -1 night. We didn’t see him cycling, playing the body or doing any of the things that makes him the goods on most nights.

Let’s be clear. There is no bandwagon jumping here at the Nation. And you can see that this is the case because incredibly the JL meeting last night was the busiest we have had all season long. Now that’s a Christmas miracle. We will still be in attendance on Friday against the Ducks. If they lose that one the headline will read “Local jackass mistakes usher for MacTavish and demands resignation during second intermission. Finds out he is wrong, starts to cry, wets pants.”

Now that will be something worth writing about.