All-Star Weekend Highlights

It's Sunday and the All-Star Game will be today but the best part of the weekend was last night's skill competition.

Martin Grabner is the fastest skater in the NHL. Taylor Hall finished 2nd.

More evidence that the Oil need a new building: they are the 2nd most desirable franchise in the NHL to play for according to a poll that was on CBC Sports.

Finally, if you're wondering about things to do at the All-Star Break here it is from Oilers Nation. That said, Rexall Place has the best ice according to the same poll source.

Kicking off NHL All Star Weekend 2011

Great article on CBC about the youthful Oilers. It won't be long until this weekend will be dotted with Oilers up and down the All Star roster and they'll be celebrating a first half of first place hockey.

Taylor Hall ends up the only Edmonton Oilers representative even at the weekend. He's had a good first half, answering a lot of questions.

If you're looking to watch some of the festivities go here. I'll probably miss tonight because I have a date with my girl. But I'll be back to blog a bit probably.

Wish I was down in Raleigh so I could meet my boy Taylor Hall and get some cards signed.

I've watched more hockey in the first half of this season than in the other 27 years of my life combined. I love the sport and I'm becoming increasingly more addicted with everything I learn, read, discuss, and watch. I love the culture and love the tradition of the game.

So it's NHL All Star Weekend 2011. And I'll admit, I've fallen for this new sport and I'm enchanted.

As a growing fan of this sport and team, I find myself in a better mood on the day of games. Increasingly every single day we have a game later that night, I can't wait to fire up the ATDHE.net and find the game and just paying attention to the skill of the passing and the hitting and the body checks (although I'd like to see the Oilers do that more). I love learning the history of the sport, the franchise, and the countries that it's been founded on. Where Baseball and NFL are like second nature to me, finding out about this great game that I have only paid secondary attention to is like a whole new fascinating world to me.

I love the Oilers playing on Thursday nights, staying up late and listening to the post game show. Basically starting the weekend a night early. I think Hockey Night in Canada is like the coolest thing ever.

And the thing is, I love it all and it's not even a winning season. Things are only going to get better and more exciting. Love coming here and reading and learning and discussing with such nice and down to earth die-hard fans.

Went to a high school hockey game at the local rink the other night. Had a great time watching it. Can't wait to see the Oil play here locally the saturday before the Super Bowl for my first live Oilers game.

I love this sport. I love game day and wish it was every day.

Oilers celebrate Gretzky day with 4-3 last minute win over Coyotes

Last night's 4-3 win was one of the better games all season that we've seen since following the Oilers. Our boy Taylor Hall added a game winning assist as well as his 16th goal of the season.

The Oil play tonight at 7. This will lead into the All Star Break for everyone.

[Box Score]

Saw this at my local rink this past Friday night

Wanted to get this on the blog. America is trying to get a lot of support for Hockey Day in America. It's February 20th. Do your part!

Oilers lose 3-2 in shootout to Nashville

I was bummed after the Jets dropped the AFC title game to the Steelers. And my NHL team gave it a good fight against a competitive team last night which I was happy about. In the end, they fell short via a shootout. They lost to one of the hottest goaltenders in the sport in Pekka Rinne.

Goal #15 in the career of Taylor Hall tied it at 2.


[Box Score]

A Versus writer has Taylor Hall winning the fastest skater at the skills competition on Saturday:

Fastest Skater: Remember, the rookies get to partake in this. So, since Rangers speedster Marian Gaborik won't be in Raleigh this weekend, we'll go with Edmonton Oilers future superstar Taylor Hall. The kid's wheels already make defensemen look silly.

Oilers Nation says that in regards to the Oil dealing Ales Hemsky and Dustin Penner, where there is smoke there is fire.

They also have a pretty nice read on the overall state of affairs with the Oilers right now:

Who else but Oilers fans would calmly sit through a stretch this inept? Over the past 375 ice hockey matches since the Cup Run the Oil have posted a 152-185-38 record.
They have put up enough bricks to rebuild the Great Wall of China just south of the City limits and have left us all hoping to come back in the next life as one of the 15 remaining Atlanta Thrashers fans on earth.
They have a team that is going places.

I've been trying to update today as much as possible. This is pretty neat. Live Tweetcast from yesterday's Oilers & Barons games.

NHL 11 Doesn't Suck After All

After finding the right slider set, it's a pretty good game. I'm 10-10-1 right now with Edmonton in my second season with Hall - Kopitar - Parise on my first line flanked by Doughty and Ryan Whitney on D.

I really have no complaints except the illustrations during game play, all the players have the same face. Then you go to replay and several guys have custom faces but then 80% of guys all guys have the same 5 recycled faces.

Like in MLB the Show, all of these guys need to have custom illustrations done for their face and every single draft pick needs to have a different face scan like in the old Madden games. IF they want to make it perfect.

A Saturday Night Hockey Night

Tonight the Oilers are in Los Angeles to play the LA Kings. It's the CBC game of the night. By the way, there isn't much out there in the way of Kings blogs. Found two worth linking.

I've been spending the day watching Playoff NFL Football. But this is a hockey blog. And I also watched some hockey today. The Penguins hung on to win without Sid Crosby today in Boston 4-3.

-For some good pre-game reading, Oilers Nation has a good post about Taylor Hall exceeding expectations in his rookie season. Oilers Nation continues to be the best Oilers blog I can find.

After Game:

That got ugly. Here's the Box Score from what ended up being a 5-2 loss. Taylor Hall took a nasty hit from Drew Doughty. Gotta give Dustin Penner a lot of credit for immediately sticking up for his young teammate.

Hall called it a clean hit in between periods. I don't really agree. Doughty is a punk and lit him up. Hall still extended his point streak to now two games and has 4 points total in two games. Jarrett Stoll had two goals on the night.

Hall nets a pair in 5-2 Oilers win

14 goals and 12 assists now after a 3 point night!

And the Empty netter:


[Box Score]

Edmonton Journal has an article this morning that talks about if a new rink is built in downtown Edmonton, the Oilers must agree to stay for 30 years. Sounds like a good deal for both the organization and the city.

The Edmonton Journal's hockey blog has a recap of last night's big win.

Really looking forward to Hockey Night tomorrow night. Nothing better than NHL on a Saturday night after taking in a couple NFL playoff games. Should make for a great weekend.

Eric Lindros was the man when I was growing up

When I was a kid growing up playing NHL, Eric Lindros was like the super power player in all of hockey. He was big, strong as a bull, he scored like crazy. Kenner Starting Lineup made a figure of him like every year.

Steve Yzerman was doing his thing. There was Super Mario also. But if I were as into NHL back then as I was NFL and MLB, Lindros would have been my guy.

The Oilers go down to Dallas, and lose. Again.

[Edmonton Journal]
[Box Score] [Event Summary]

Fresh off being named to participate in All-Star weekend, this was Taylor Hall's first game as a Centre in the NHL. The Journal had this to say about the young superstar:

A decent showing in his first game as a centre. He took a team high 21 faceoffs, and while his results were superficially poor (8/21=38%), the distribution by zone was pretty interesting: 6 of 9 in the offensive zone, just 2 of 11 in relatively meaningless neutral zone draws. Renney exposed Hall to just one own zone faceoff. He also put his two top wingers on Hall's flanks, providing his prized rookie the maximum possible shelter. Hall responded by being personally involved in eight Oilers scoring chances (six at evens) and an impressive zero against, alas couldn't find the scoresheet as his recent dry spell continues. For this experiment to work, this line absolutely has to score.

Other than that, Ryan Jones is a player man. The guy is a grinder. Tallied six shots and another goal. I say he's a building block heading towards the future. Every time I have the game on he finds a way to put the puck in the net.

One Timers

A couple of Oilers and NHL notes worth linking away today as the Oilers will play Dallas tonight in the big lonestar state. I'll be back tonight with a report of some type.

-Taylor Hall will take over Centre on the first line. [Oilers Nation]
-NHL All-Star rosters have been announced. [NHL.com]
-Oilers play in Dallas tonight, I'll be watching. [Lowetide]
-Bruins/Pens recap from last night. [Empty Netters]
-Rick Nash is an All-Star for the 5th time. [Puck Rakers]
-Who got snubbed? [Cross Checks ESPN]

Is this a Taylor-made Calder year? Good read here about Taylor Hall's pursuit of the Calder Memorial Trophy and a comparison to other forwards taken #1 overall. A strong finish will have him right in the thick of things. [Toronto Sun]

Questions I have about Canada/NHL/Etc.

So this past Friday night after getting home from the rink I discovered the Oil Change series on the Edmonton Oilers official team website.

I guess a few primary questions:

1) Is Steve Tambellini in over his head as much as he appears to be at times?
2) The Oilers players appear to walk through a decorated hall before entering the rink at Rexall Place. What is this hall where they appear to walk past fans?
3) Why do the Oilers do so much rotating of goalies Devin Dubnyk and Nikolai Khabibulin?
4) Why do they spell it 'Centre' and 'Defence'?
5) It seems as if hockey is an intramural sport to Canadians. It's really cool. Instead of heading down to the gym to play a game of hoops, everyone is on a hockey team.
6) Is Jasper Avenue the happening spot in Edmonton? I hear a lot about it.
7) Tim Hortons is like the official coffee of Canada isn't it?

That's all I can remember for right now. I've been pretty enchanted with the series so far because it's helping me learn about the game of hockey and it's a little bit like Hard Knocks.

I grew up on NHL 93

Oilers fall to Wings 5-3

EDMONTON 3

VS.

DETROIT 5
------------------

This was a really strange game even if it ended with the usual result this year, and the usual Tuesday result of the last couple years (apparently we STINK on Tuesdays).

Looking at the game from back to front, we dominated the third period. Most forwards looked exceedingly confident with the puck and forced the play for the entire 20; even after the 2 DET goals we looked very good. I can't understand for the life of me how we didn't have about 8 PPs in the third period. The only thing more brutal than the Wings were the refs at that stage. On the 4-3 goal alone there were 2 totally blatant picks (including one by neanderthal-boy himself) that were ignored (I won't say unnoticed, because there's no way). Add in tackling Taylor Hall (which has apparently become a new league sport) on several occasions and we should have had at least a couple 5-on-3's. With the way they were playing and #23 in the lineup, this surely would have resulted in at least one goal, and of course no goal on the winner.

It's true the Oilers weren't very good in the first 40. Mostly the first 20, but even then they weren't so bad as to be allowing DET great chances. Osgood won the goalie matchup by a WIDE margin tonight. It wasn't close. Detroit looked rather uninspired for most of the game and certainly felt the absence of some of their best players. Despite those first couple periods, I really felt we got hosed tonight.

Credit to Renney for overshifting the top 2 lines at a key point early in the third. This shifted the momentum permanently and set the stage for a comeback. Once again we had some trouble off the top of the game, but again the score was more the result of being outgoaltended. Rather than a timeout, Renney should have pulled #35 after the 3rd DET goal. Even though a weak D pairing had just been schooled, it was clear that Khabibulin wasn't all there tonight. He'd nearly screwed up a couple other plays besides the goals, and with that let's move on to PLAYER REPORTS
-------------

Khabibulin
- As noted above, he had his lunch handed to him by Osgood tonight. The first goal he wasn't ready, the second (despite a HORRENDOUS sequence by Cogliano) should have been a routine save and the third he didn't even put up a fight even though Draper telegraphed his move. After that he settled down for some time; and though I can't fault him for the fourth, again he didn't look ready. The fifth was a pretty nasty screen, but again, a goalie should be making himself as big as possible at that point, not as small as possible. I'm not saying all the goals were bad, but I am saying 35 looked unprepared and slow all night. He has nights like this and the coaching staff needs to start recognizing them at 2 or 3 goals and yank him outta there.

Peckham
- Despite a rather unfortunate skate-pick on the fifth Detroit goal that made him look rather stupid, I liked Theo's game a lot tonight. His goal was a great example of knowing the situation and taking advantage in that DET had a delayed penalty and Peckham took that opportunity to leap into an empty slot, get open for a pass and make no mistake. Great read. He also had a number of nice hits and was generally solid with the puck.

Gilbert
- Again, one really unfortunate play tainted an otherwise solid game. On the fifth DET goal, Gilbert reacted to Peckham's incident by making an awkward play that completely screened his goalie. I'm not sure what caused him to react like this. It would have been much better if he'd reacted by being way too aggressive as opposed to way too backed off. This helps no one in these tight plays, especially on D. At least if you go for broke, you can say you tried and give your goalie a chance to bail you out. Other than this, Gilbert was solid. He and Theo are coming along nicely as a mid-range D pair. It's not ideal for a championship team of course, but it's nice to see progress anyway.

Foster
- Possibly his worst night as an Oiler. Where to start...his passes were ineffective, his pinches (both during the main game and late when trying to force a goal especially) were just plain horrible (he pinches too much with his stick and not enough body position), he didn't hit anyone, his shots didn't get through and his defensive positioning was a joke. I know that it can be tough playing with Vandermeer, but we usually don't make it look this bad. Why he continues to get shots from the coaching staff late in games when he's proven he won't deliver is beyond me.

Vandermeer
- Came back and didn't look all that solid. He was slow and having to play catchup; which is kind of expected after an ankle injury. It will be interesting to see if he can elevate his game back to the decent area he was playing in before the injury.

Smid
- Generally solid game with an unfortunate bounce that cost us big. I liked the way Smid used his physicality and moved the puck for most of the night. It can be tough playing with a young D partner, but #5 did a solid job supporting Petry all night (not that he needed a ton, just that it can be a specialized role of sorts).

Petry
- Well, the butterflies appear to be gone. Jeff was big-time solid from the word go and spent the night using solid body positioning and a strong stick to take pucks away from DET forwards even if they held them in a strong position. I haven't seen a game like that since Joni Pitkanen and they have a lot of similarities in style (this is a VERY good thing!). He also got a really strong shot on net and I firmly believe he should be placed into a majority of the offensive situations that Foster has been receiving as he's shown he's capable. He moved the puck well, played aggressively and maintained solid defensive footing. This kid looks very good. If there's a solid story on D this year, it's the development of he and Peckham.

Jacques-Fraser-Jones
- Jacques had a game just like Foster did. He missed mulitple hits due to his bad technical skating, missed multiple pucks due to the fact he seems to have forgotten the game is played with one, and even sat there twiddling his thumbs on the bench when called for a shift at one point. How he keeps getting chances, no one may ever know. I was heckling him even harder than usual tonight as he was just making so many mistakes I could barely believe it. Playing Ryan Jones on this line completely wasted the fact that he's been playing so well and can be an offensive contributor. He needs people to get him the puck and both Jacques and Fraser are allergic so that was just impossible. He laid a couple hits but was very quiet. Again, Fraser had no sublime offensive or defensive efforts.

Reddox-Brule-Omark
- It turned out that this line worked pretty well. Reddox played the exact kind of game I expect from him, but with more polish than past editions of #85. His skating lines were excellent, he hit people, he fired a couple solid shots and always seemed to be aware of his and his linemates positions. He shouldn't be sent back down as on this team he's definitely top 12. Great little play and pass for his assist from behind the net as well. Omark had a very good rebound game after his brief journey to OKC (which I believe saw him get 4 assists in one game?). He was excellent on the PP and I honestly prefer him handling the puck on the half boards to Ales right now. He's just very dynamic from there. He landed some hits and kept things simple but effective on a lot of shifts by playing a solid dump and chase game. He's one of the few guys we have smart and fast enough to make the play effectively. His assist wasn't spectacular, but he made many other solid plays that should not have gone unnoticed. Brule was certainly better than he has been lately, and I liked his goal, but I'll be interested to see if this was him riding on the energy and chemistry of Reddox-Omark or whether Brule got some steam back in his game. He still wasn't hitting anyone which has really shocked me this year as this has always been a key part of his game.

Paajarvi-Gagner-Hemsky
- I really didn't like this combo a lot of the night despite the fact that Ales wound up with 2 assists and Sam got 1 and 1. There was just something wrong about them. They kept rushing 3 strong up the right hand side of the ice and trying to make plays, which sort of worked early in the game and then derailed later. Magnus was really hit and miss as I thought he got to some very nice places on the ice early, but couldn't create any good chances, didn't really use his speed and took kind of an ugly penalty. I just don't think he compliments Ales as well as some of the other players. This was a rougher night for Hemsky than most. He struggled a little with the puck in the offensive zone and didn't get any bigtime scoring chances. It is true that DET plays him tighter than most teams and seems to know the areas he shoots from better, but I still expected more. At least he was still solid in the D and neutral zones. I liked both Sam's goal (quick thinking, solidly taken shot) and pass (good composure, good skate and great play to spot and feed Peckham) a lot. This was probably one of his better games and her certainly looked fired up, but he does need to be better on the faceoff dot. Why can't he be made to play a wing? I like the way he plays wing. The only thing I'll dog #89 for is missing the breakaway he had in the second; while he made a great little skating play to generate it, you have to finish when you deke out a goalie like that. What's with all these guys thinking they can go low nowadays. Nothing has ever or will ever beat a strong move to your forehand then going high.

Hall-Cogliano-Penner
- In 2 years on a night like this, Hall gets between 2 and 4 goals. He was really really dangerous despite getting absolutely badgered by the wings, especially in the third. There was specifically a key chance with under 2 to go where I still am not sure how he didn't score (Osgood did make a nice play on this one, but Hall still should've finished). Were he an older player I might be dogging him a bit for missed chances on a night like this, but it really helps his case that he generated many of the chances with singular efforts of skating and stickhandling. Heady days are surely not far away, I just hope the guy doesn't get frustrated. He seems to take the beatings and stonings by trying harder (and not in an "I'm frustrated way) which is a positive sign, but man he deserved a couple goals tonight. Cogliano got absolutely schooled chasing around behind the net on the Bertuzzi goal. He really needs to learn to STOP skating like a mad man sometimes. It's costing him dearly in the defensive zone as he uses it as an excuse to neglect his position. No offence generated by 13 tonight. Penner did not have one of his better games in that he seemed to be one step off the puck in both the neutral and offensive zones. With DET playing rather uninspiringly, this could have been a big night for #27 and it just wasn't, especially on the PP.

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[Box Score]

New Years Sleeper for the Oil

EDMONTON 1

VS.

CALGARY 2
---------------

I put up the Oil City picture because of the following e-mail tips:

A friend of a friend who works at Oil City saw Hall grinding on six chicks on the dance floor with his shirt around his head... this was on New Years Eve... true story. Soooo I'm getting most of the Oilers were way too hungover to play a good game.

Our effort was really weak...I can probably count on one hand the amount of times we beat Flames dmen clean, we just weren't willing to work for it. This was true in the defensive end as well; we just didn't want to beat anyone tonight.

Obviously losing Eberle was a huge blow; he brings so much calm and well executed play that we suffered without him. Renney's pregame decisions (dressing Jacques, sitting 91, sending down Omark and not having him available, and playing 43 over Petry specifically) handicapped us offensively (and defensively I would argue as well) before puck drop and we really couldn't get any kind of offensive flow going. It is true that some of this was because the Flames were allowed to clutch and hold all night (we had what, 1 PP?) but we also didn't force them to take us down or hook. We weren't skating past anyone, and that's the key to drawing penalties. It's also something 91 does better than anyone on the roster. It'd be nice if we could give the young offence a rest sometimes, but we're clearly not talented enough to do so and compete.

It is clear this team has problems starting games at home with enthusiasm and focus. I'm really not sure why this is; other than that maybe through lack of competition our roster has gotten too comfortable. There is no actual pressure on the bottom lines because of the way we manage players. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

The Flames are a sorry bunch right now; they just laid back all night despite our lacking efforts in all zones. We should've been torched for 4 or 5 tonight. Our D wasn't solid and our neutral zone play was brutal, but they didn't even look interested in playing. If Jackman doesn't score a semi-lucky one this game probably goes 18 rounds in a SO before Jason Strudwick falls headfirst into Kiprusoff and takes the puck in with him. It was that BLAH tonight.

The only positive that comes out of this game is that maybe Omark gets recalled and some entertainment value comes with him. We're not exactly looking stellar right now in that regard.

The first Calgary goal was an utter debacle for 43, 45 and 13. All were out of position and made bad choices. 13 needs to learn to cover someone, ANYONE in his defensive zone. Just about every Oilers forward on the roster is better at this than he.

The second Calgary goal was an unfortunate sequence; Hemsky and Penner got tangled on the draw, then Hemsky didn't make it to the point while Penner failed to lift Jokinen's stick as the puck came through. Unfortunate play.

Our goal was a beauty; great backhand pass through Calgary D's legs to Gilbert, who sold the shot hard and then made a great pass to Jones who streaked into a perfect position and scored. One of the only solid offensive outbursts of the night.

PLAYER REPORTS
-----------------

Khabibulin
- Wasn't really tested with tough shots tonight as the Flames couldn't jump onto offence very well. He played well enough for us to have a chance to win though, especially in the first period. No complaints.

Belle
- Though he showed some solid wheels and skated the puck alright, he struggled more defensively than during his last go round. He kept drifting out of position or playing a little too far from his man. I know playing with 43 probably didn't help, but he needs to be better. Watching him skate with the puck, I'm kind of amazed no one's ever tried him at forward. He could be a rather interesting power-winger.

Strudwick
- There were multiple times tonight where 43 stood, looked around, then seemed to realize that "Oh yeah, I'm playing hockey and have to move, there's also a black disc near my feet...hmmm". He was even worse than usual and certainly contributed to the loss. Every time Renney sent 45-43 over the boards on a shift with the first line, they managed to bugger up the play. This is an element of coaching logic I've seen from both MacTavish and Renney that I don't understand at all. Playing 43 over Petry might've lost us the game frankly, because with 2 more decent breakout passes, or a decent play on the PP or opposition blue, maybe we pop a goal or two and it is anyone's game.

Gilbert
- Struggled a little more defensively than he has in past games, but still joined the rush and made a decent pass or three. Certainly not on him tonight.

Peckham
- I expected a lot more from him tonight; he didn't smack the Flames around and we needed that fairly badly. He was decently positionally and moved the puck alright, but he could've been the X Factor in this one.

Foster
- A few more stupid shots that had no chance of going in. These might as well have been giveaways. One thing I've noticed is he's becoming lazier in terms of trying to rely on his reach rather than skating to and through the puck. This is an unfortunate trend. He wasn't physical either and didn't contribute much.

Smid
- Liked the way he was moving his feet a bunch tonight, and certainly had an improved defensive outing. I was surprised however that he didn't do more offensively. There was one really nice sequence he had which I believe was late in the first, but that was it. Does anyone have any idea why we can't teach him to use his talents to become a more successful offensive player? All the elements are there except a plan...

Jacques-Fraser-Stortini
- Stortini doesn't look near as good playing with this group. He showed some early jump but honestly got pushed around and then backed off a bit. Very disappointed he couldn't follow up last game's strong effort. I'd like to address a point that's been made about Fraser lately: I am not ignoring his defensive game, it just doesn't impress me either. He's not a guy that will go get the puck, win races, throw defensive hits or make great blocks. He literally does nothing, even when he gets the puck in clear open ice, which is just plain not good enough for anyone on an NHL roster. Jacques made his best play tonight without a stick; that says all you need to know about #22. He even got muscled off a puck he was driving down the boards into the Calgary zone by a weak-ish check from a Calgary defender he had excellent position on. What's the point of being a big forward if you can't execute that?

Brule-O'Marra-Jones
- O'Marra was effectively benched after the Eberle injury, which I really don't understand because he is holding his own and playing better positionally than guys like Cogliano, Brule and Jacques. He's also a better hockey player than Stortini most nights this year. Not sure what Renney thinks he's doing there. Brule still didn't show me anything; no indication that he's learned from his benching. His offensive game has degraded and he no longer shows any boardplay or physicality. If they won't let him take faceoffs, what else is he supposed to do? Jones played alright after being promoted to an offensive line. It's nice to have a guy who's versatile like that. It was also nice to see that he kept his effort level up and didn't get frustrated like many of his mates seemed to as the night went on. I would've liked more hitting, but at least he could take a pass.

Hall-Gagner-Eberle
- Hall missing that breakaway killed. I don't know why he went backhand, much less 5-hole backhand (I'm not sure there's a weaker combination in the game), but if he finishes that chance it's a HUGE momentum swing after Khabibulin took that STUPID penalty. He had a couple of other chances as well, but couldn't seem to get anything going. He's also firing wide again, and seemed to have trouble controlling the puck in the Flames' zone. Eberle was playing fairly well before his injury, generating a couple of our best chances. It's going to be tough watching the games without him, but maybe this will force Renney to be a little more original in his line combinations. Gagner was a little less visible than usual tonight. I've noticed he often rushes up the right side rather than the center slot with Hall and Eberle, but I'm not sure how well this play is going to work long-term as that's a hard spot for him to finish from.

Penner-Cogliano-Hemsky
- Cogliano tried to do too much again, and also couldn't take a pass. Combine that with the previously noted defensive struggles and I really hope he's off this line for my own sanity's sake. I know this might be a nice way to gain him some tradability, but it hurts to watch. Hemsky struggled more than usual in the offensive zone tonight, mainly because Calgary blocked the shooting lanes very well and he got frustrated and started to force the play a bit much. The lack of support from the blue and Cogliano certainly didn't help, but Ales needs to be better than tonight. Penner was just okay. He had some great moments of knocking Flames around and making that pass, but wasn't really interested in willing this team to a win or drilling a hole for Hemsky to score from. Even if just these guys had been going tonight, we win.
----------

Certainly an unfortunate followup to our last 2 periods. That was the quietest EDM-CGY Saturday game I've been to in a long time.

A note of congratulations to the SSAC club that won the Mac's Cup today. A friend of a friend is their head coach and his boys survived a scary penalty-filled third to win one of hockey's finest tournaments at the Midget level. I was an MLAC man myself, but congrats to the boys on a wonderful title.

[BOX]