Goodbye to Gibby

Good luck to Gibby in Minnesota. Tough to see a guy like him go today, but welcome to Nick Schultz.
— Taylor Hall (@hallsy04) February 27, 2012

Tom Gilbert headed to Minnesota for Nick Shultz.

Oilers lose to Calgary Flames rally, 2-1

[Event Summary]
[NHL.com] [Cult of Hockey]

I went to bed with the Oilers up 1-0 on the strength of a Tom Gilbert goal. Then I realized that Taylor Hall had the flu and got the DNP.

After that I decided that I wasn't going to watch the game. And when I woke up in the middle of the night and refreshed the NHL app scoreboard on my iPhone, I was not surprised to see the '1-0' lead morph into 2-1 Calgary.

The Oilers are 2-2-1. And they're showing that they're just slightly improved rather than a legit playoff team.

Hopefully Taylor Hall is back from the flu on Thursday evening.

Oilers Opening Night

[Oilers 2, Penguins 1 (OT)]
[Lowetide] [Oilers Nation] [Empty Netters]

That was an epic opener. 

There were definite lulls in the play last night, but to go with it there was a certain degree of magic. The number one overall draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tying the game 1-1 at 15:05 of the third period with his first NHL goal--spanking in a backhand assisted by Taylor Hall and Tom Gilbert.

It was one of those magical, defining moments that you only know you're witnessing right when you see it.

The Oil battled hard, killing off each and every powerplay opportunity that the Penguins mounted. A huge part of that was Devan Dubnyk. He was absolutely lights out, matching and then outplaying Brent Johnson all the way into a shootout that would see the Oilers victorious after makes from Jordan Eberle and Ales Hemsky.

Something felt different about last night's game. This Oiler team is up and coming, and they can play with anyone on any given night. Tom Renney is now 8-0 in season openers. That is absolutely amazing.

No one out there is predicting them to do this thing this year and make a playoff run. Except this blogger. This team will be in it until the end. No one planned on Dubnyk arriving as a big-time goalie and no one outside of Edmonton and the people who watch the young signature talent on this team will know of the run they're about to make until it happens. But when they are put on notice after a hot start, the Oilers will have to adjust.

I think that this was a storybook start to what is going to be a special season.

And my God is Hockey season magical. Everything about it.