Well how is everyone tonight? Good, good. It's game day again. This time versus those damn Sharks. Why do they have to be so good in the regular season? (we all know they suck come playoff time) This is going to be a very hard game for the Oilers. Let's hope we ride the Rolitrain for another stop. Whoot. Whoooooot.
Erik Cole has been rumoured to be on his way out soon and that sucks. He fits well with Gagner and it's to bad that this season had to be so messed up for the Oil and him. If only Cole had a better experience here. He will be missed. Robin Brownlee wrote a good article about the destination of Cole. CLICK HERE
So I have a few questions to ask. Is tonight's game going to be that boring defensive game like yesterday? Is Hemsky going to razzle and dazzle tonight? Is Smid the next Pronger? Is Gagner going to fight another guy over six feet tall and 200 lbs? Is Roli finally going to score with his bat swing? Is this the last game for Reddox now that Jacques is ready to come back? Do the referee's have their glasses cleaned? Will Rob Brown ever finish off the hair plugs installation? Do we get the 6th point on this roadie? and finally... Is the sound going to cut in and out during the PPV broadcast again because I can not stand that?
---------------------
1st Period
The Oilers vs Sharks. Oh man. Are we ready for war? I am... I hope the Oil are? GAME ON!!! Just as the game starts the sounds starts to cut out again. *shakes head* And I pay for that. Anyways, the lines are the same as last night and we shall see how that works out. Well the first part of this period has been all Sharks. They are keeping the Oilers in their own zone. Geez... even their 3rd line is kicking our butt. (ROFL: the Ref fell and slid into Dan Boyle and they both go down.) Wow! The Sharks fire a puck from behind the net and Roli has to come up HUGE. Well Roli is ready to go tonight. That's a good sign because the players are a step behind so far in this game. With 9:00 minutes played, the 4th line and the 3nd line have had some good shifts but nothing really from the 1st line. At 10:08 they score!!! The San Jose Sharks that is. It was a good goal for them. High slot shot, glove high on Roli. 1-0 Sharks. It was a matter of time with the way they are playing. Come on Oilers... Yeah!!! Stortini now with a goal. Alright Storts! (at 12:18, Stortini from Brodziak and Gilbert) 1-1 tie game. Out of all the guys that should score the 1st goal, Storts would be my second to last pick. (he really is catching Gagner in goals) So I look at the shot count. All of he sudden the Oilers have some shots on the board. So now the Oil are back in this game. It took a while but they are here now. Gagner took a high stick to the nose and the refs glasses must have been foggy because he missed it. He was also 6 feet away. Soooo??? But the Oilers do get a diferent PP chance. And then the Oilers blast a puck in to the Shark zone and the puck takes a weird bounce and Erik Cole is in the right place at the right time and scores on the empty net. Yeah Cole! (at 19:08, Cole from Souray and Gilbert) 2-1 Oilers. The Sharks take another penalty and give the Oilers even more life. But the period is over and the Oilers are looking good. End of period score: 2-1 Oilers.
2nd Period
Let's start this one with a PP goal. Well that doesn't happen as the Sharks kill off the penalty. In fact they seem to gain a little momentum. Damn! The Sharks tie it up at 1:48. 2-2 Tie Game. Marleau with a nice shot, glove high on Roli. A few seconds later Pouliot takes a penalty. Sharks are on the hunt now. After a quick scramble in front of Roli, Souray takes exception on Michalek and gives him a hard left and sends him to the ground. Gotta love Souray. Next thing you know, San Jose takes 2 separate penalties and now it's 4 on 3 for the Oilers. Momentum keeps on swinging. Very exciting game tonight. Way different from yesterdays game. MacT calls a time out. Let's see what happens... Well the Oilers don't score with a 5 on 3, but San Jose does. What? yeah... Grier flies down and Marleau jumps out of the box and tic and toe it's in at 5:43. *shakes head* 3-2 Sharks. Well a may lay breaks out. Strudwick starts some shoving and tussling. Moreau is there tossing and tackling. And Theo Peckham was in there on the ground with Lemieux on top of him giving him the "I'm old and I deserve respect" shake. They work their way back up to their feet somehow and begin to talk. The next thing I know, Peckham throws a punch and he lands a few more on the old man. Then mocks the crap out of him and drives him mad. This could be a story a little later in the game for sure. THIS GAME IS GREAT! Roli makes a big save and another short skirmish happens. If I was a small guy in this game I would really be worried right about now. Staios takes a penalty for being too aggressive. And now Moreau takes a penalty. At least he took a guy with him. And now Horcoff takes a high sticking penalty. What's going on here? 5 on 3 for the Sharks. They kill off the Staios penalty, right on. And they also kill off the Horcoff penalty. Ok guys, let's try 5 on 5 for awhile. Now Moreau wants to fight again. It was not really much of a fight as they fell to the ground. He's gone for 5. The 4th line comes out now and Stortini fights big Semenov. Semenov lands a big uppercut and stuns Storts. Then Storts throws a few and they fall down. Holy cow! But the Sharks remember that this is more than the MMA on ice and score at 19:06. 4-2 Sharks. Well that is not how we want that period to end but at least we are going down swinging. So far the Oilers have 24 penalty minutes in the game. Oh. That was all in the 2nd. End of period score: 4-2 Sharks
3rd Period
Ding... Ding... Round 3. Well it looks like a hockey game broke out here. Decent flow to the 3rd. Back and forth action. I see Lemieux back out. I wonder if him and Peckham are going to get reacquainted? Well they are still playing hockey but nothing really to report. Chances we had by all and 10:00 minutes have been played. Awww crap. Horcoff takes a penalty. Let's go Oilers! They do it. Right on. A minute later 89/12/83 have a nice shift together. As the whistle blows Gagner gets a shove from Semenov. Gagner pushes back. Semenov pushes him again. Gagner sticks him in the middle area. Good thing that linesman came in between them. That's one big dude to fight. How can you not love Gagner? Well here we are now with 5:00 minutes to go and we are still down by two. Hemsky draws a penalty and it's PP time. This is when I miss #71 and #37. Staios on the PP is just never right. But the Oilers can't get much going and the game ends. That was a good game for the Oilers even though they lost. At least there was some fight to their game. We have been missing that for a long time. Welcome back.
----------------
Tonight's Starting Lines
Penner Horcoff Hemsky (They were not really that dominant. Penner was sort of lazy again. Horcoff was playing like a checker. Hemsky was strange tonight. He didn't suck... but he wasn't the same.)
Nilsson Gagner Cole (This line wasn't bad tonight. Nilsson was a little above average. Gagner took 8 shots with 4 hitting the net and played hard. Cole scored a lucky one and had 5 hits.)
Moreau Cogliano Pouliot (This was not much of a line. Moreau was good. Hitting and whacking anyone in site. Cogliano was riding the pine. Not sure why? only 7:58 of ice time. Pouliot is a head scratcher for me. Pisani can come back any day now...)
Stortini Brodziak Reddox (What a good line. They were causing greif all over the place. Stortini scores and fights. He just needed the assist. Brodziak was ok tonight. Reddox was not bad. I didn't yell at my TV because of him so that's good.)
-------------------------
FINAL SCORE
Edmonton Oilers - 2
San Jose Sharks - 4
-------------------------
BEERS
Tom Gilbert - Gilbert was very good tonight IMO. He didn't seem to have much faults in this game. Which is good because he has had some relapses lately. But tonight he picks up 2 more assists while logging 26:23 of ice time. He also managed 2 blocked shots and 2 takeaways. So for having a productive game... Have a frosty Gibby. Cheers!
Zack Stortini - Huggy Bear is on the loose. He tried his big thugery butt off tonight. He scored a goal that was instrumental to the Oilers in getting into the game. He had a fight with the big guy Semenov. He did what he could. And that's all that we can ask for. Miller time Storts? Cheers!
Ladislav Smid - Who would have guessed that Smid would be in a top 4 pairing and actually not look out of place? He was a very smart player tonight. He jumped up at the right times. He had 3 hits and the Spaz even managed to get in to the kerfuffles after the whistles. And he logged 18:48 in ice time. I think he deseves a beer. Cheers!
Honerable Mentions: Sheldon Souray (he was the workhorse again tonight. People worry about Roli and all the work. What about Souray? 29:10 of ice time.), Theo Peckham (He is starting to win my heart. I know that sounded gay, but he really is impressing me. He's tough and he doesn't seem to be scared of people.), Sam Gagner (even though he was -2, I thought that he was good. It's crazy to see how old he plays sometimes. Wait till he is older and how good he is going to be.)
------------------------
JEERS
38% team faceoff percentage - Booooooooooooo!
------------------------
Even though the Oilers lost, I thought that it was a good game for them. The answerd the bell for themselvees and for their team mates. It was good to see. But we still have 4 points out of 6 on this trip and that isn't so bad. I wonder if Roli is playing in Dallas on Thursday? Of course he will. We need the W.
So thanks for stopping by and reading the madness. We shall see you all next game. Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep it nice, keep it civil. GOILERS!