Saint Roloson & Fire MacTavish

The Power of Christ Roloson Compels You

The Oilers always play well against the San Jose Sharks. Okay, I lied, our Edmonton goalies always play well against the San Jose Sharks. The Oilers have become really adept at killing Sharks' winning streaks. Good for Gilbert Brule who played hard enough to draw the penalty for that game-winning powerplay.

Last season, it was the Oilers who snapped a Sharks' winning streak at 11 games in a 2-1 SO victory. This year, it's the Oilers who snapped a Sharks' nine game winning streak. The common thread? Dwayne Roloson was in net. 48 saves on 49 shots plus the SO last year; 41 saves on 43 shots this season.

Now, some credit could be given to MacTavish for his 60 minute penalty kill "keep em to the outside" style but let's be honest here. If Roloson doesn't stand on his head all night -- there's no win.

Hopefully the Oilers come out of this one realising how badly we got outplayed though. Without our stellar goaltending, where would our Oilers be now? We have 3 goalies on the roster and they have all played well with a few bad games here and there. But for the most part, all 3 have looked like legitimate starters at some point. What is a team to do?

The consequence of watching a game like this has converted me from a MacBooster to the Let's Fire MacTavish camp. I am now officially convinced that we have the tools to make this a good team but the coaching staff is inept, whereas before I was waiting on Tambellini to make a move. Roloson is 39 and he's a Saint, but can he do this for the rest of the season? Even Tim Thomas probably couldn't go through 42 games of being outshot 40-something to umpteen. Surely we're not going to keep this 3-headed monster heading into the playoffs, should we qualify for them?

The reliance on goaltending on this team is amazing. How can Oilers fans make fun of the Canucks for relying on Luongo, the Flames for relying on Kiprusoff, or the Stars for relying on Turco? Their reliance on goaltending is imcomparable to ours, because our team can't even get more than 20 shots a lot of games.

To be fair, it is the San Jose Sharks we're talking about and we did outshoot Los Angeles last night and we did play back-to-back games that went to extra time. It's true. But I think it's time to realise that this team needs a new direction.

Fire Craig MacTavish.