Blue Jackets and Oilers Rumble for Playoff Spot

Jan Hejda's first NHL goal was a thing of beauty. Not in how he scored it, mind you. But the beauty was all in how he celebrated it.



He is now an important defensive presence on the Blue Jackets blue line. The Oilers acquired him for a 7th round pick but lost him for nothing, marking one of the biggest blunders with regards to organizational assets that I can recall from recent memory. Glencross and Reasoner being the others. To acquire a steady, stay-at-home D-man the price isn't high, but around the playoff push, the price is definitely higher than a 7th round pick.

However, the Oilers have been playing well of late. Not a full 60 minute game - mind you. There are still patches in the games when the Oilers go AWOL and the fans go "oh shit." If the Oilers can come through on special teams, I can see the Oilers getting an easy win against Columbus.

Will they let me down? Will they let us down? Facing Columbus is a must win situation: the Oilers don't have the option of losing.

Will the Real Edmonton Oilers Please Stand Up: Win 7-2 Despite Being Outshot 39-19

Holy Smokes. The Oilers finally woke up. And in fine fashion, I might add.

I didn't watch this one because I was in class, but from what I hear, here's what happened:

Hemsky was a force all night

Penner was creating chances everywhere: drawing penalties, banging bodies, crashing the net, sniping wristshots...

Pouliot played like an NHL player, not an AHL callup - perhaps he is the guy who played with Sidney Crosby in Rimouski after all

Roloson was outstanding

Souray and Visnovsky played like the top pairing once again

Gagner played much better

Reddox continues to impress

I hope to acquire a copy of that game so that I can watch it for myself.

I have a few worries though. The Oilers were outshot 39-19. Horcoff said in the post game interview that the score didn't reflect how close the game was. Playing the devil's advocate, this could be the result of a few things:

A. Pascal LeClaire's ankle not being fully healed

B. The Oilers' superior offense

C. The Oilers' superior defense

D. The Oilers' superior goaltending

E. Luck

F. MacBlender finding the right chemistry, finally

G. The team waking up realising they had been shut out by Ty Conklin, of all people...

H. Unleashing the Penner within

I. Some combination of the things above

I know it reads a lot like a goddamn multiple choice exam, but I pray to God the answer is I and the combination is B,C,D,F,H, though if G is included it would help us get revenge against the Red Wings Thursday night at Rexall Place.

Maybe they woke up and realised that the loss of Fernando Pisani meant that the team would have to start putting in a group effort. Who knows.

There is doubt and rightfully so that we can win every game being outshot by 20 or more. Not every goalie not named LeClaire will give up 7 goals on 19 shots, unless the Oilers dynasty was revived tonight. Look to the Oilers putting the pedal to the metal against the Red Wings Thursday.

I will be in attendance with Suneil Parmar of Addicted to Oil and we will cheer on the Oilers from home ice. See you there hockey fans.

Oilers @ Blue Jackets; Pisani Injured

This man cannot be allowed back into the playoffs. Simply no way we can allow that unless he dons an Oiler jersey. Tambellini, make it happen.

Watch out for Torres tonight, again. Dustin Penner draws into the lineup but Garon stays out in favour of Roloson.

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

Fernando Pisani injured. Broken ankle. Bad news for the Oil.

God hates the Oilers

I don't believe in God. For those of you who do, you are starting to realise that God doesn't only hate Flamers like Marchment: God hates the Oilers too.

Oilers lost the game 5-4. The Oilers led 4-2 at one point, and the Jackets 2-0. Torres lead that last rush on the Malholtra goal. I was hoping he wouldn't burn us in the end. I hoped wrong.

Evidence that God hates the Oilers

Evidence 1:
Raffi Torres leads the rush to the winning goal, capping a counter-comeback win by the Columbus BlueJackets. We didn't deserve to win this one outright, but coming back with 4 straight goals from a 2-0 deficit - wasn't exactly a game we deserved to lose either.

Evidence 2:
Injuries. Injuries. Injuries. Strudwick is playing hurt. Smid has a concussion. Grebs has a mild concussion. Roy is unavailable. And that's just the blueline. When are we going to get Jean-Francois Jacques back?

Evidence 3:
We can never have good overall special teams. We're good on the PK one season, but horrible at the PP. We're good on the PP one season, and horrible at the PK. Why can't we be good at both or at least in the middle of the pack for both. Why? WHY?

Anyway ...

... it's gonna be a tough game in Pittsburgh tomorrow and we better come up with a gutsy effort or we will end up where we started on this roadtrip. 2-2 is not bad on a 4 game road trip. 2-2 is considerably sketchy on a 7 game road trip though, and following a 5 game losing streak the Oilers need to prove something.

Sure, we're fans and we don't get a say in how the team runs or contribute to making the team better by our criticisms. But I'm darn sure we want the team to win as much as they do and we know that even if we come out of this road trip 4-3 we'd still be only 0.500 on the year in a tough conference and division.

This is not the right direction to be heading in - considering the team started 4-0.

Other News:

Brodeur's out for 4 months. Roloson is very likely heading the other way because Khabibulin and Fernandez are not necessariliy better options. I would also bet my bottom dollar that Lamoriello chooses Roloson over Theodore or Gerber, even if they were available.

Considering that the NJ Devils have a few UFA's of their own, I would imagine that Tambellini makes a push for either Madden or Holik. However, with Lowe as his overbear, he may try to make this into some sort of weird massive trade for Parise, which wouldn't realistically happen.

Anyway, Madden would fill some of our needs and make at least one major forward expendable along with Roloson. Perhaps that would help us acquire a D-man to fill in for all the injured bodies. Colin White or Paul Martin, perhaps?