Declaration of War #9- No Pressure

Tonight the Edmonton Oilers take their Exciting Last Place Hockey into Chicago to play the defending Stanley Cup Champions. I swear if I hear this song more than say, 3 times tonight, I will not be pleased. Yesterday as you may know, I made a prolific pick on this very blog, I predicted Taylor Hall to score his first goal last night(well actually I kept saying it Tuesday but meh). Tonight though will be someone else's night to shine and my money would be on King Magnus to do so. 

Word is circulating that Hall will be taking the spot of Penner on the left of Gagner and Hemsky. This move would not surprise me at all, even though Penner does have 3 goals in this young season, he seems to be "half assing" it out there. Seriously did he hop back on the wheat and barley based beverages bandwagon again? Seriously what gives? (I figure if I keep calling him out he will perform). Khabi gets the start tonight in what should be a fairly exciting game. 

Prediction:

Oilers: 4

Hawks: 3

Declaration of War #8- You Mean We Have Other Goalies?

Tonight is the 8th part in the Oilers march to somewhere, where that place is, I don't know. Tonight/afternoon(depending on where you are) also marks the first time this season that we see someone other than Nikolai Khabibulin in the Oilers crease. Did anyone else know we have three goalies on the roster? Tonight will also be a historic game as I am predicting, for sure, that a certain #1 draft pick will score his first goal tonight. I know I have said it a few times but, for sure tonight in Columbus Taylor Hall will score.


The Oilers lines are not changing tonight with the exception of Vandermeer in for Foster. This almost baffles me, I'm sure you all saw the game on Tuesday night, and the games before that, is there anyone who can seriously tell me that Dustin Penner deserves to be riding shotgun on a line with Gagner and Hemsky? We are seeing a Penner that we thought died last year under Pat Quinn. What has changed? Does he not want to be part of a rebuild? Is he sick? What is wrong with the player many call "The Flying Fridge"?

Last night I had the opportunity(that's what we'll call it, there isn't much to do here) to see 2011 draft prospect David Musil play. And let me tell you, he looked good out there. Sure it was only against the Lethbridge Hurricanes, but I now see the reason why he is ranked in the top 10 for the upcoming draft. He almost made shutting down the Hurricanes power play look effortless. He got in the right position to block shots and passes, and looks like an effortless skater. I know this is still early but add him to the list of players I would like to see in an Oilers uniform in the future.

Declaration of War #7- Le Sigh....

The Edmonton Oilers will walk into the Scotiabank Saddledome tonight looking to end two disastrous streaks, one, the Oilers have not won in Calgary since 2008, and two, they have not won a road game in regulation in 26 games. Sorry for being negative but if you were looking for the Oilers to snap their 4 game losing streak, look at Thursday against Columbus for that.


The only things to maybe look forward to tonight are a close game, and maybe a Taylor Hall goal. I doubt he scores this game since apparently no one on the team(except Eberle) can score. I am interested to see if Renney gives someone like Paajarvi a shot at playing with Hemsky, since Penner just can't seem to cut it. And when I say can't cut it, we are seeing Fatgoose 2008/09 edition. Maybe he is just sick but the last couple of games he looked like he could care less what happened.

My prediction:
Calgary: 5
Edmonton: 2

My Thoughts After 6 Games

As I sit here and admire the nice green grass still outside(yes, it has not yet snowed here) there are a few thoughts that I must clear fom my mind. Let's be honest here, this Oilers team looks bad, I'm not talking last year bad, but if we can't learn to kill a penalty, we better hope Adam Larsson can, because that's where we're headed. On our potential top 3 pick, what the hell is with the love affair with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? The guy is a pencil! If we do have the opprotunity to pick there, I sure hope we do not pick RNH, sure he has talent but he has to do a lot to fill out, time I don't think we can waste. Speaking of #1 picks, holy hell is Taylor Hall the most inconsistant player I have ever seen, he goes and has a great game against Minnesota then does, next to nothing against San Jose. I think once he finds the consistency in his game then he will turn out to be the player we have been looking for.


Another weakness that the Oilers have is special teams, not just on the PK but on the PP as well. I think the solution to the PP is a simple one, change the strategy. I get why they use an overload strategy on the PP, but it makes 0 sense to have two forwards within 10 feet of each other, what they should do instead is switch to something that resembles the umbrella strategy. Have two of the forwards on each side of the ice with someone creating traffic in front, and get the puck to Foster more, the guy was signed to replace Souray on the powerplay and we have not been going to him quite as much as we need to be. The penalty kill leaves a lot to be desired as well, I don't know if it is the players that they use or what, but we just can't seem to kill penalties. What the team should do is make a call to Oklahoma City, and bring up some players who, until yesterday, killed off 35 straight penalties. If they can't do any better than what we have now, there is little to no hope for us, and like I said earlier, we had better hope Adam Larsson can kill penalties, because no one on this team seems capable of doing so.

The defense of this team is more than just an achillies heel, it is more like a gunshot wound that just doesn't stop bleeding, you can't honestly sit there and tell me that you would rather have Theo Peckham, Jim Vandermeer or Jason Strudwick on the back end over someone like Shawn Belle. We need to send a goalie down and maybe Ryan Jones and bring up Reddox and Belle. Those two, I think would make a difference right now as well as send a message that there is no job that is safe on the team.

Declaration of War #6- WE WILL WIN!!!!!!

That is right loyal readers of this blog, the Oilers will win tonight! You might be asking yourself why this team will win against the Sharks? To which I say, remember the last time the Oilers were on HNIC? Add that this team seems too proud to lose 4 games in a row, which is what they are looking at tonight.

The only lineup change the Oilers are making is Jason Strudwick draws into the line up for the first time this season for Theo Peckham, who injured his hand on Thursday night. Tom Renney should seriously consider not rolling 4 lines again this game, that line was brutal in the minute of ice they played together all game. I would say to not even dress them, but then some injury might occur or Penner gets another 10 minute misconduct(Don't worry Penz, only the best of us can get those).


The Oklahoma City Barons are in action today, taking on the Toronto Marlies. A game preview and tweetcast can be found here.  The only thing I hope for from this game is for someone(Belle) to run over Nazem Kadri. Him doing so could only make this day better.

Go Oilers!
Go Barons!

Declaration of War #5- It's been a while.

Who makes this schedule? I mean really? 5 days between games? If you say so NHL. Many of things have happened since the last Oilers game, there were fans being attacked by players, the Leafs came crashing back to earth(even though their fans still have the parade planned), and a new episode of the 7 part series "Oil Change" was debuted last night to many of fans delight. If you are one of a handful of fans to not watch it, go here. I don't know about anyone else, but if we managed to somehow get the 4th overall pick(without trading Eberle) and draft Ryan Johansen along with Hall, I could not imagine what reaction would have been, although I think I summed it up pretty well here. After hearing Renney speak during that particular episode, I wonder if there are still people who doubt him as coach?


Looking at the Oilers website, so far it looks like there are no major line up changes(no surprise since it's still 9:40 a.m.), but there should be given that the lines were mixed all week in practice. The line I would like to see used are as follows:
Paajarvi-Horcoff-Hemsky
Penner-Gagner-Eberle
Hall-Brule-Cogliano
Jones-Fraser-Stortini

Whitney-Gilbert
Foster-Smid
Peckham-Vandermeer


How could we lose with those lines? We have someone on our 3rd line that can actually win faceoffs, we have a line of 3 players who can cycle the puck well, and we have Hemsky and Paajarvi on 2 on 1's all game. Seeing how this is a "rebuilding year"(that's what they say in the media right?) why not switch things up early this season and who knows, we might surprise some people.


Edit: Via Dan Tencer on twitter these are the lines for tonight:
Penner-Gagner-Hemsky
Paajarvi-Horcoff-Eberle
Hall-Cogliano-Brule
Jones-Fraser-Stortini

Declaration of War #4- The Second Battle of Alberta

Tonight marks the second time this year we play our rivals to the South, and the first time Rod Phillips is behind the microphone for the radio broadcast this season. The Flames, who have been absolutely horrible this season(HA!) will be looking to extract revenge for the beating they took on opening night in Edmonton. The Oilers on the other hand will be looking for a strong performance after that duck they put up in Minnesota the other night. I mean the 14th time is a charm, right?


I see many of Oilers fans are still debating the idea of sending Hall back to junior. What good would that do? He has absolutely nothing left to prove in junior so why send him there? Same goes with Paajarvi, do you actually think he should be down in Oklahoma City and Omark on the team? If so please take your hand, palm open, and smack yourself repeatedly. Omark has done nothing to show he would be better on the team than Paajarvi, both in training camp and in the AHL so far. I mean if there is one person who has not lived up to the hype so far it's Omark(or anyone not named Hartikainen in Oklahoma City right now).

Tonight should be a good one folks, it's unfortunate that the Flames will fail to score for the 3rd time in 4 games.
Score:
Edmonton: 3
Calgary: 0

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Jokinen. (Gets me every time)