Beers and Jeers #40 (Mar 3/09 vs. Nashville Predators)

The day before the big day and not much is going on. Miroslav Satan, Brendan Morrison and Gary Roberts are on the waiver wire at the moment. Pretty big names, but I can't see the Oilers taking one of those guys. Is there not a way to claim them as insurance and then try to land a bigger name tomorrow? If you do land the bigger name then can you not the put that person back on waivers and it's no big deal?

----------------

No Nilsson tonight? Why? Is his last game as an Oiler played already? Over Jacques? Over Pouliot? Strange...

----------------

1st Period

Good early start by Oilers but Nashville scores at 6:22. 1-0 Nashville. Still good flow. The 4th line and the 2nd line are sure looking good tonight. Good pressure by the Oilers. Gagner scores! Yeah! 1-1 Tie Game. (Gagner from Smid at 9:55) "See ya Storts", says Gagner. With 7:30 left, Stortini has a great chance as Pekka Rinne sprawls out and loses his blocker. And the play continues. I have never seen that before. I just figured that the whistle would blow. Oilers score out of nowhere. Yeah! 2-1 Oilers. (Pouliot from Gagner and Cole at 14:25) The 2nd line is really buzzing now. Chances all over the place. Just when the game is looking more Oiler than Predator, the Preds score. 2-2 Tie Game. Grebeshkov didn't take the right guy and they scored. The 1st line sure isn't really doing anything. Maybe the change wasn't the right change?

2nd Period

Well it didn't take long for the first penalty of the game. At 3:58, Souray takes a hooking penalty and Nashville scores on the PP at 4:13. 3-2 Nashville. Right after the goal, the Preds take a penalty and now it's the Oilers turn at the PP. But the Preds actually kill theirs off. So much for a momentum change. Oh. It gets worse. Penner takes a penalty at 8:24. Then Staios takes a holding call at 13:22. Oilers kill off both and look rather crappy so far this period. Strudwick and Weber drop the gloves at 18:16 and have a pretty good tilt. With Nashville on the PK, the Oilers have some good pressure. Ler's hope the 3rd is better for the Oilers.

3rd Period

The Oilers start quick with a goal by Cogliano. Yeah! 3-3 Tie Game. (Cogliano from Pisani at 1:43) Now the Oilers have the momentum. As the 4th line comes out and causes some more havoc. Oilers score again. Yeah! 4-3 Oilers. (Jacques from Smid and Stortini at 5:15) That was JF Jacques 1st ever point and goal. He was robbed of an assist a couple of games ago, but he has that elusive point now. Good for him. The Preds have this back and forth passing play that they have been doing all night. It finally worked as they put one past Roli at 7:56. Very nice passing. 4-4 Tie Game. Now the game is in full out mode. Damn! Nashville scores again. 5-4 Nashville. But soon after it's PP time for the Oilers. But they can't really convert. Too bad. They needed a boost. Erik Cole scores! Yeah! 5-5 Tie Game. (Cole from Gagner from Strudwick at 13:52) What an exciting game.

Overtime

The Preds have the most pressure in the overtime period. Strudwick takes a high stick penalty at 1:25 and Nashville scores on the PP. Boooooo! Right before the Preds score, Roli takes a puck in the shoulder/collarbone area and gets hurt. But the play went on and the Preds score at 2:31. Game over. 6-5 Nashville. Crap...

--------------

Tonights Starting Lines

Reddox Horcoff Hemsky (I didn't even know that this line played tonight. They were absolutely invisible. Horcoff played 20:13 and finished -1. Hemsky was not playing well either. He had 2 giveaways and no shots. Reddox was not noticed much. He played 10:36 and really did nothing)

Pouliot Gagner Cole (A real solid line tonight. They had some defensive miscues and some bad giveaways but were all out on the offensive side. Gagner was fantastic today. Well except he was terrible on the faceoffs. (0%) Not good man. Cole looked like he belonged here as an Edmonton Oiler. It makes you wonder if this is it? I hope not. Pouliot did a great job at fitting in with Gags and Cole. He managed a goal playing with them and was good on the draw at 57% *Team High* when he had to.)

Penner Cogliano Pisani (They played well together. Penner was caught a few times being a little slow but managed 4 shots *Team High*. Cogliano was good all around, he had 3 shots and 1 goal. Pisani seemed to be getting back into form with an assist and 3 shots.)

Jacques Brodziak Stortini (This line was a good consistant line tonight. They gave Nashville all kinds of trouble. Jacques scores his first NHL goal. Brodziak played well even though he ended -1. Stortini was also good as he picks up an assist and had 2 shots and 3 hits*Team High*.)

---------------

FINAL SCORE

Edmonton Oilers - 5

Nashville Predators - 6

---------------

BEERS

Sam Gagner - The little dude had one of his best games of the season. He seemed really focused and had a knack for finding the guys around him. He had 2 assists and 1 goal. It sure was fun to watch. I wonder who is going to be with him on Thursday after the deadline? For a great effort, enjoy a nice ice cold beer Gags. Cheers!

Ladislav Smid - People just don't give Smid enough credit for being such a hard working, do anything kind of guy. He has been asked to step up and in my opinion he has done that. Tonight he picked up 2 assists and was +3*Team High* I think that the Spaz deserves a frosty. He did good. Cheers!

Erik Cole - Well if this was his last game as an Oiler than he ended on a high note. He had a goal and an assist with a +2. He sure does play well with Gagner. If only he was here for 3 more years. Gagner would love to play with him for the beginning of his young career. So maybe for the last time... Have a beer with us Erik. Thanks. Cheers! *tear*

Honorable Mention - Zack Stortini (Storts was powerful tonight. He played a real hard nosed game and managed to cause a lot of room on the ice for Jacques and Brodziak), JF Jacques (He scores his first goal. Ever. Yay!) Dwayne Roloson (He really desrves a beer tonight. He was awesome. But he did look tired. And he was hurt in the last few seconds. Good effort Roli.)

-----------------

JEERS

Ales Hemsky - What the hell man? Where have you gone? Is it the concusion reapearing becuase you were great when you came back? I miss the old Ales Hemsky. But he proved my point tonight that he is only a wingman, not a team carrier. I hope he gets some help. But for tonight. Boooooooooooo!

Shawn Horcoff - Man o' man. What to do with this guy? He gets the minutes like no other. He gets the praise from the coach that no one else gets. (other than Hemmer) Yet he seems to depend on Hemmer and Hemmer does the same to him. But it's not working anymore. Shawn needs to go to a place and find his inner hard checking, ass kicking Shawn Horcoff that he used to be. And do it soon because if we want to make the playoffs, we need a #1 line. And right now we don't have that. Boooooooooo!

The Entire Team - Take a lesson from the Preds tonight. Steve Sullivan had 2 goals. He also took 6 shots. David Legwand had 2 goals. But he took a whopping 8 shots. Every player on the Preds that scored had at least 3 shots. Tom Drake (coached me in Rossland) said to us one year, "If you don't shoot, you won't score. Shoot from anywhere and anytime. Always take the shot." Cogliano, Cole, Pisani and Penner were the only Oilers with 3 or more shots. Goals win games. Boooooooooo!

--------------

Well that was a very up and down game. I was happy. Then mad. Then happy again. But I ended up mad. At least it was entertaining. But as the roadie continues, the Oilers need more than one point a game.

Everyone knows that tomorow is the big trade day. I'm sure there will be lots of news on OilersNation. That's where I will be. See you all Thursday. We are going to visit the Ottawa Senators. Maybe a new look Oilers team? Maybe not. I'm guessing not.