Welcome back everyone. Life has been interesting. Lubomir Visnovsky has a dislocated shoulder and is out for the remainder of the season. Ouch! Both literally and figuratively. It's a huge loss and I'm not sure how the Oilers plan on replacing him. A trade? Minors? What's the plan?
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The Oilers are sitting in 10th with 56 points. Not great, but really... not bad considering that Dallas is in 5th with 59 points. Still time left for a good push. I am still not hitting the panic button. Yet.
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Jaromir Jagr may just be an Edmonton Oiler after all. Not this year, but very much a possibility for next year. David Staples broke the story yesterday and I was also sucked into the excitement. But even though it won't be able to happen this year, I have no doubt that we should take a chance on him next year. What's it going to hurt? Just not Sundin/Hossa money please.
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1st Period
The game is starting and I still can not believe how many Habs fans there are. Montreal gets out to a great start by getting the 1st shot away. This game seems like it's going to be a good one. But soon after (4:30) Gagner draws a penalty. MacT sends out the Kid line. Gagner ends up whacking in a rebound and scores. 1-0 Oilers. Gagner (5:41) from Nilsson and Cogliano. I love being the 1st team to score. It feels nice. It seems like all the lines are working tonight. At the 11:00 minute mark Hemsky looks like Hemsky and pulls off a sweet toe drag move but..... didn't score. Nice move though. Holy crap! The 4th line does score... Stortini scores his 3rd of the year. (watch out Gagner!) They provided good pressure to the Montreal defence and managed a goal. Stortini (13:31)from Gilbert. 2-0 Oilers. 10 seconds later the Oilers score again. Cogliano scores the 3rd goal of this game assisted by Moreau and Pouliot. Crazy!!! 3-0 Oilers. Montreal is stressing out now. But I guess we all know how that feels, right Oiler fans. It feels nice to be on this side of the fence for once. Oh no. Hemsky scores now. Geez... 4-0 Oilers. Hemsky (19:34) from Penner and Horcoff. All 4 lines have scored a goal in this period.(well sort of. Gagner's goal was on the PP with 12 and 13). 10 seconds later the Habs do get on the board. Dandenault is the goal scorer. End of period score : 4-1 Oilers.
2nd Period
Well that was the best period the Oilers have played in.. in... a long long time. Let's hope the 2nd goes as well. No mercy boys. No mercy. The start of the period has good flow until Stortini takes a high sticking penalty at 2:35. But shortly after that, the Habs fall into penalty trouble. Twice. The Oilers have a 5 on 3 Power play for 1:32. And they blow it. On a side note: Quinn and Brown say that Grebs won't be retuning today. (I wonder if Reddox can take his spot. Jk.) With Smid in the box a little while later, Brodziak gets a short handed breakaway (11:40). Scoooorrrreeeesss! Holy cow. 5-1 Oilers. Brodziak from Strudwick and Gilbert. This is awesome. But do you know what isn't awesome? Taking a puck in the face. Ouch! Souray takes some rubber to the nose. No worries. It builds character. Then at 17:19 Penner hits one of the crossbar and in. The Oilers score again. Penner from Hemsky and Horcoff. Is this the Chicago team that has been here? 6-1 Oilers. Right at the tail end of the period Souray takes a penalty and one minute will be carried over to the 3rd. End of period score : 6-1 Oilers
3rd Period
The 3rd period started of pretty good for the Oilers. Killed off the rest of the Souray penalty. The flow from all 4 lines has been exciting to watch. The Habs started to get into penalty trouble again. At 5:53 Reddox scores to make it to seven. 7-1 Oilers. Reddox from Gilbert and Brodziak. This is crazy. However, 4 minutes later the Habs finally pop their 2nd goal. 7-2 Oilers. The part I hate the most is when there is a break in the game and Quinn and Brown carry on with some dribble of banter. Most of the time they make no sense. Or they state the obvious. Well... Montreal takes their 7th penalty of the game. And the Oilers smell blood. What's going to happen? A freaking huge save by Roli that's what. WOW! That was highlight reel stuff. Roli! Roli! Roli! 3:34 left in the game and I still can't believe that the score is 7-2 Oilers. Awesome stuff. It's about time that it's us and not the other team running up the score.
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Tonight's Starting Lines
Penner Horcoff Hemsky (This was a good line tonight. Hemsky was looking back to normal. Penner was full of energy. Horcoff was better than we have seen in awhile. Very Effective line.)
Nilsson Gagner Cole (This was also a pretty good line. Well Cole wasn't that good. But Gagner and Nilsson looked really energized tonight. Good speed. Effective Line.)
Moreau Cogliano Pouliot (This line was pretty decent tonight. They worked hard and it payed off with a goal for Cogs. All three were good. Effective Line.)
Reddox Brodziak Stortini (This line was WAY better than I could have ever expected. Stortini seems to be on a real tear right now. Brodziak has also been good since the dog house bit with MacT. Even Reddox scored. Pretty Effective Line.)
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Final Score
Montreal Canadiens - 2
Edmonton Oilers - 7
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BEERS
KEGGER!!!
All the boys really deserve a beer. I don't really want to single anyone out. But Hemmer and Roli were great. Sam Gagner was slick tonight. Gilbert had 3 assists. Stortini was a man on a mission. MacT didn't make any changes during the game. Life is all good now. So Cheers everyone! It's kegger time.
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JEERS
No one was really stinky tonight, so no Boo's from me. Although I wonder what is up with Erik Cole? He wasn't great tonight and didn't really play much but he did block 3 shots. So is he hurt or just crappy right now? Or maybe he wants out?
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The next game will be on Saturday at 2:oo vs the LA Kings. They are hot right now, so that will be a good test for the Oil. Hopefully this win tonight can instill a little more confidence on this team as they prepare for the stretch run. Go Oilers!
Kegs for everyone!!! And I loved the little 'thank you' acknowledgement to the crowd from Price for that one 'save', though looked like his coach was livid. As for Cole, sounds like he has been banged up for awhile now. But I'm also wondering if he's done with Edmonton. With all that he brings, it's too bad the goals haven't been there for him.
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