Monday, November 07, 2005

 

Oilers Game Day - Dallas





Season Record: 8-6-1 Season Record: 8-5-1

Head-to-Head: 1-1-0 Head-to-Head: 1-1-0

Last Game: 7-2 Win vs StLLast Game: 3-2(SO) Win vs Avs




Eager to move on from the Eskimos dismal performance, I'm going to skip over the results of yesterday's football game to again point out that the Oilers are ahead of the Flames.

Big night tonight -- Edmonton plays Dallas, and Calgary has the back end of a double-header with Vancouver. Both promise to be good entertainment - alas the Edmonton game is PPV only, which means I'll expect to hear some of you rich folks chime-in in the comments section.

Dallas is on a bit of a roll as are the Oilers which should make for a good game. After posting a 1-18-2 record in Dallas since they moved from Minnesota, the Oil have now won two in a row in Texas. A win tonight would pretty much guarantee a successful road trip (assuming they don't go into Chicago and Columbus and stink it up).

Word on the street is that Pronger may not play because of a toe injury sustained while blocking a shot. Are we sure we want to continue blocking shots? Do we have anyone on IR that isn't hurt from getting drilled with a puck?

Jussi gets another start. Clearly Mac-T is going to ride him until he can't stand, which is fine with me.

Prediction: 4-3 Oil (SO)

Comments:

OK, this is a fantasy hockey question for any Oiler fan, which is painful because I dropped Langkow for not producing.

Looks like the Oil is hot right now, as far as goal scoring, and Smyth is back - as good as ever.

Other than Smyth and Hemsky, which forward will get the most points with the least amount of risk of slumping?

Horcoff is playing between Smyth and Hemsky = Good.
Stoll and Torres have been lighting it up and getting decent power play time.

Any comments?
 


Jeez, buy 1 PPV and Sac lumps you in with the rich.

By the way, whoever predicted an Edmonton Sun/excrement reference for the Esks has once again succesfully shot fish in a barrel, since Jones figures Danny M has to get out the pooper scooper this am. I wish I knew a stock that performed so reliably.
 


Thank you, Robert! Link and excerpt for the rest of you:

" Now, not for the first time this season, Danny Maciocia has to get out his pooper scooper and clean up the mess they made."

Fan-tastic. Yesterday Cosh commented: "Can't wait to see what kind of excrement metaphors the Sun columnists cook up for this one. Or maybe they'll kick it up a notch to menses and pus."

No menses or pus, although the livestock metaphor ("The Stench!" - and right in the headline) is inspired.

Terry Jones: I salute you, and your city salutes you.
 


Fun fact: in goals per unit of ice time, Ryan Smyth is currently 6th in the league, The leaders are Gagne and Alfredsson, and Smyth is just ahead of Jagr and Heatley.
 


Jeez, buy 1 PPV and Sac lumps you in with the rich.

Hey, I'm not judging. I love you rich guys with your fancy tee-vees and your helpful tendency to give eye-witness game reports for those of use with peasant-vision. I love ya, man!

I wish I could say I was shocked about the Sun's poop, but sadly I'm not.

I think the whole thing might have passed from funny to kinda weird.
 


jhuck,

Great question. I wish I knew the answer.

I think since few of them have been around long enough to demonstrate whether they can be consistent or not, it is a crap shoot.

As such, I'd go with guys who you know are going to keep getting the ice-time no matter what.

Stoll is a faceoff king and is defensively responsible - he isn't going to stop playing if his scoring touch drops off for a while. Also, the Oil look for his one-timer on the powerplay, so he is probably a safe bet.

Same goes with Horcoff.

Torres is an interesting one. You just never know with him - he's streaky like a midwinter windshield, but he is probably going to keep getting good ice no matter what.

Ethan's points have gone up each of the last three seasons, so he is probably a lock for 25-30 but likely not too much more.
 


More fun facts: a Flame and an Oiler are 1-2 in one of the NHL stat categories. No points for guessing which one when I tell you the players are Phaneuf and Stoll.

Also, Hemsky leads the league in Giveaways, which I'd beak about if I didn't think the stat was basically garbage.
 


I actually wouldn't be suprised about Hemsky and giveaways. Early in the season he was terrible for it.

Lately, however, he's been a lot stronger on the puck and isn't trying so many toe-drags at the blueline.
 


Fun Fact 2: Calgary has the second lowest number of goals/game in the league. Good thing they went out and got some secondary scoring to complement all that primary scoring . . .
 


Fun Fact #3: Smytty is first in the league in shooting % (41.2%) - by a long shot (second is 34.1% and third is 29.4%).

Who says we don't have a sniper?
 


"a Flame and an Oiler are 1-2 in one of the NHL stat categories."

It's an interesting group of players that follow them, as well. It would have been much harder to figure out if you hadn't mentioned Phaneuf.
 

Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?