Well JF Jacques has been called up and will also play tonight. Pouliot is watching from above tonight. He was the right choice as he hasn't played well as of late. (well... all year actually.) And to top it off, Zack Stortini will be on the 3rd line tonight.
New lines for the Oilers. Hope the changes work.
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1st Period
The Dallas Stars have been great lately. But it's the Oilers that start off quickly. Cole gets a nice chance, as well as Cogliano. At 2:07 the Oilers take a too many men penalty and just like that, Dallas goes to the PP. The Oilers were able to kill off that penalty and hopefully can gain some confidence for it. So 6:00 minutes in to this game, and the Oilers are looking good. The 1st line gets some good chances at the 10:00 minute mark. Staios has been laying the body a lot this period. Awwww... Dallas scores against the 2nd line at 10:41. 1-0 Stars. Well come on now Oil! Time to answer back. All right now... Dallas takes a penalty at 11:59. PP time Oilers! OMG. What a bad time to actually look bad. The Oilers are really having a tough time now, getting the puck out of their own zone. They better smarten up before this game gets out off hand. Well I spoke to soon. Dallas scores again. A softy through the 5 hole on Roli at 16:36. 2-0 Stars. The only cool thing about that goal, it was Ray Sawada's 1st ever NHL goal. And... In his 1st ever game and it's his birthday. How cool is that? But it sucks for us. Well not for long as the Oilers score. Yeah! Guess who? come on guess. Liam Reddox 17:00. That's right. Good for him. (Reddox from Jacques and Smid) 2-1 Stars. But as the period winds down, Ales Hemsky takes a slashing penalty. And a brouhaha breaks out. Peckham and Strudwick we in the middle of it and Peckham takes a 10:00 minute game misconduct. So that means the Oil will be a man short for 10 to start the 2nd period.
2nd Period
Well the period starts off great. Horcoff scores! Yeah! 2-2 Tie Game. (Horcoff from Souray and Staios at 0:47.) So just when I'm still celebrating, Moreau takes another bad timing penalty. In fact it's a 4 minute penalty (2 for tripping and 2 for roughing after the whistle). Nice Ethan. *shakes head* So now the Oilers have to kill this off. Well they don't. Dallas scores at 3:07 during the 1st part of the penalty. So that means that they still have a 2:00 minute PP. 3-2 Stars. The Stars have some good chances, but the Oilers kill off that penalty. Back to 5 on 5. Horcoff has played a ton already. Yet, he only has one shot/one goal and one takeaway. Dallas takes a penalty at 10:22. Oilers PP time. Gagner replaces Penner on the 1st line PP unit. Good passing but no real chances. Then just after the penalty expires, Nilsson gives it away to the Stars and they get a solid chance, but Roli makes a great save. Thanks Roli. However... a few minutes later Cole takes a penalty that really wasn't intentional but too aggressive. During the penalty kill the Stars crash the net and Moreau and Staios get involved. The next thing you know, Staios and Ott are having a "chat". (I really dislike Ott. I think he's a chicken shit. But, my opinion only.) We shall she what transpires from that. During the maylay, Dallas takes a penalty and the Oilers will get one minute and change on the PP. They do not convert on it. As the period ends, Hemsky gets nailed by Steve Ott and that leaves the period on a high note. I'm excited for the 3rd period.
3rd Period
Dallas gets the 1st good chance of the period. Roli and the post made a nice save, in the first 2:00 minutes. There has been 8:00 minutes played and the Oilers seem lifeless. MacT is trying to find a line that can do something. So far nothing has worked. Crap. Dallas scores at 8:17(against the 3rd line). 4-2 Stars. How does a team not be fired up when you are down by one when the 3rd starts? Terrible. Just terrible. Can anyone provide something? With 7:30 left there has been nothing. Although Stortini is out with Gagner and Nilsson and they did pretty good. A little while later Ott makes a hit on Gilbert. Roli gets upset and body checks Ott to the ground. Smid, Cole and Moreau all take exception and freak out. Penalties all around. That was the spark that was needed to wake up this Oiler squad. But just a little too late I think. It ends up being 4 on 4 for a while then the Oilers had a short PP. Then it was 4 on 4 again for a bit. Then it went to a Dallas PP. I was so confused. So much going on. But take a look at the scoresheet and you can see why. CLICK HERE. There was a lot of penalties. But the Oilers give the Stars some good pressure to finish off the period. It was nice to see them not shy away after rough stuff happens. I don't think we have much of a team toughness problem anymore. Well... game over. Dallas wins.
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Tonight's Starting Lines
Penner Horcoff Hemsky (These guys played a lot tonight. Penner wasn't an impact player at all. He did manage to be +1 but, only 1 shot and 1 hit. Horcoff was good at times and tired at times. Maybe he is playing to much? Hemsky wasn't razzle or dazzle tonight.)
Nilsson Gagner Cole (I thought this line was good at times and bad at times. Nilsson opened his own bakery tonight. He had 3 turnovers. Gagner was good later in the game, but was no where in the 1st half. Cole was hardly effective other than his 5 hits.)
Moreau Cogliano Stortini (I thought that this line was going to be better. But it helps if the Oilers weren't killing penalties all game. Moreau took to many penalties to be effective. Cogliano had 5 hit but wasn't really an offensive threat. Stortini played well. He did what was asked.)
Reddox Brodziak Jacques (This line was effective once. Reddox scores a goal right in the crease. Brodziak didn't really do anything all game. Jacques didn't play much but that's expected. He finally got his 1st NHL point.)
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FINAL SCORE
Edmonton Oilers - 2
Dallas Stars - 4
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BEERS
Ladislav Smid - The Spaz was good at laying the body tonight (7 hits). He made some big ones that made people notice him. He really seems to be stepping up with the the eother guys being out. His actual playing was good as well. No real mistakes and he seems comfortable playing more minutes. Have a cald beer Smid. Cheers!
Steve Staios - Steady Steve was great tonight (22:21 of ice time). He played a simple yet aggresive checking game. He made very little mistakes and was smart enough not to take any penalties. Staios is another defenceman that has surprised me since 37 and 71 have been out. Nice going Steve. Have a frosty beer. Cheers!
Dwayne Roloson - I know... he let in some soft ones. But sticking up for Gilbert was great. That alone deserves a beer. Cheers!
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JEERS
The 1st Line - You guys had plenty of chances but couldn't save the team from losing. Waiting for the 3rd line to provide a spark can't work every game. This line needs to be better. Boooooooo!
The 2nd Line - Why can't you guys score anymore? What has changed? You are good defensivly for the most part but you need to score. Plain and simple. And you don't. Booooooooo!
The Entire Team - Why do you guys (everyone) wait for someone else to do something? Step up and make a statement. A bold statement. We need every point that we can get. Yet we let 2 points slip away again. Boooooooooo!
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The next time we play is Saturady. Hockey Day in Canada. Yay! I love this day. Oilers vs. Flames. The war begins...
See you next time.
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Keep it nice, keep it civil. GOILERS!