**Great Moments in Columnizing. Iain MacIntyre channels Dennis (among many others) in yesterday's Vancouver Sun:

At least Lowe's bold summer spending spree signified something. We just weren't sure what until this week.

Apparently, the Oilers are rebuilding. Rebuilding with a payroll nudging the $50.3-million salary cap. Rebuilding without any of the first three Oiler draft picks in 2008 that Lowe surrendered to sign Penner, who had produced three goals in 20 games before facing the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night. Rebuilding after stating all summer the objective was to win now, although Edmonton is last in the Western Conference.

"We're a young hockey team right now," Lowe said Monday on an Oilers' radio show. "There's no question we're back into a rebuilding situation..."

[...]Asked by a couple of reporters for an interview after the morning skate, Lowe said: "Uh, maybe," then excused himself and didn't return to the dressing room area.

And Bob Stauffer takes to the Edmonton Sun to make a point that he's no doubt been banging like a cheap drum on his radio show: that Lowe and MacT, in sharp contrast to Eskimos coach Danny Maciocia, are the beneficiaries of some comically low expectations. Man, I loved this line:

Fans also seem to understand that general manager Kevin Lowe is limited in what he can do because the Oilers are up against the cap.

Curse those dark forces that somehow got the Oilers up against the cap!

**The O**ogosphere continues to pervade! Admiring dead-tree profiles of Shawn Horcoff yesterday (lede: "He gets no respect, just results.") and Tom Gilbert today.

**More good news for Brian Burke! The Washington Capitals fired Glen Hanlon today and replaced him with former Nova Scotia Oiler Bruce Boudreau -- a guy with a 10+ year coaching record in the minors that is nearly unblemished. This can only be good for the Caps, and what's good for the presently-league-worst Capitals is good for Burke's 1st round draft pick this upcoming summer.

**The Flames host the Chicago Blackhawks tonight (700PM MT, RSN West). This is the first time this season that they've played one of the Norris Division's erstwhile Unholy Trinity, so I'm pretty interested to see what the deal is. Just thumbing through the numbers for the season to-date, and it's fairly clear that the Hawks are still very vulnerable at even strength and have achieved their respectable record on the back of (A) a nice powerplay that ranks #6 overall and #2 on the road, and (B) a league-leading (by a mile) 7 SH goals.

I guess we'll find out tonight if the Flames' PK really has turned some kind of corner (they allowed only 3 shots in 10 SH minutes on Tuesday), or if it was a mirage that was the simple consequence of facing the league's worst Road PP.

At first blush, it would seem that the thing to do on the PP against a team that scores a lot of shorties is to put a defenseman on the point instead of Tanguay, but I think the best move is actually to leave him there. I've hemmed and hawed around this before, but my brief theory on why Alex Tanguay is more effective at EV than on the PP (relatively speaking) is this:
his biggest skill, such as it is, is exploiting defenders who have gotten out of position. He's always looking around; if another Flame beats his man or finds some open space, chances are that Tanguay has noticed, and will get the puck there.

This is less of an advantage on the PP, where -- again, relatively speaking -- defenders are more positionally aware. The top PP producers tend to be either great puckhandlers or guys whose primary skill and instinct is to get into a position to shoot the puck. Tanguay's scouting report does not say "great puckhandler", and his instinct is to get into a position to make a play rather than shoot.

All of which is a long way of saying, in relation to tonight's game: if Patrick Sharp is fancying himself a shorthanded scoring threat, and is inclined to cheat a bit to make it happen, Alex Tanguay is exactly the guy to make him pay for it.

**This just in: TSN's Ice Chips reports, "Dustin Boyd will play tonight for the Flames. Calgary has some issues with the flu, so it's unclear at this point who's coming out of the lineup." It must be because of the flu... there's nothing up on the team site about Boyd's callup, and there has been absolutely no previous hint from the beat reporters that a callup from QC was likely.

However, Scott Cruickshank is confirming... check back there for updates (mainly, who's sick/out); it's not a terribly interesting blog, but he and Lefebvre have been pretty good about getting roster notes posted on game days.

**Prediction: Calgary 3 (Iginla x2, Tanguay) Chicago 0. Go Flames.