GUESS I WAS WRONG

Predictions...


So I predicted a 4-1 win for the Oilers last night in Carolina in my last post here. Did I ever s@#% the bed on that one. I wasn't the only one though, Jason Gregor on oilersnation.com predicted a 4-3 OT loss for the Oil. We both thought Hall would score. At least I wasn't the only one that was way more optimistic than we should've been. Gregor did predict the loss, so I guess he saw something I didn't. I am a perfect 0-2 for predictions here.


Ex-Oilers....


So two more ex-Oilers got points against us. Erik Cole & Sergei Samsonov. This comes after many other ex-Oilers have gotten points against us this season. Kyle Brodziak, Fernando Pisani, Raffi Torres, & Marty Reasoner have all had their way with their former team this year. These players are not prolific scorers by any stretch of the imagination, and yet they seem to come to play against us, if not against other teams. I would've broken down in tears if Patrick O'Sullivan had've been in the line-up for the Canes and scored.


Goal-Tending...


I made some comparisons to the Goalies yesterday. After two great games against better teams against Detroit and Chicago, I was hoping that Khabibulin was starting a hot streak. Last night he let 4 goals in 8 shots and by 7:19 of the first period it was 4-0 Carolina. I did state that I didn't think Cam Ward was a "high-end Goalie" but he did play well and had better numbers coming into the game than Khabibulin. The Bulin Wall was chased from the crease and Devan Dubnyck came in to relieve him. This didn't stem the tide as Dubnyck let three go by him, but Carolina had to work harder (albeit not much) to get them.


In defense of our Goalies, our blue-liners were not good. In particular Tom Gilbert. in the last few games it seems that his head is not in the game. Last night he coughed up the puck more than once. He also didn't add any physicality to the game when presented the the opportunity. I like Gilbert, I think he's a decent defense man, but he needs to pick up his game for sure.


Bob Stauffer...

As the game was a 5:00 pm start here, I was listening to CHED on the way home from work. at 2:41 of the first Zack Stortini took a bad boarding penalty. From the way it was being described, it was a blatant hit from behind. I didn't see the hit and still haven't. But I noticed something that Bob did on the broadcast...he bit his tongue when he was about to rip Stortini for the cheap shot. I have never heard such an abrupt stop from Bob! I love Stauffer's willingness to say it like it is. But you could tell that he was going to say something that would've gotten him into trouble and he had the where-with-all to stop short, and make a more rational statement. I was semi-disappointed that he didn't say what he wanted to, but I understand that Bob knows where his bread is buttered.


Stauffer was on the TEAM 1260 this morning around 8:30. Bob, didn't bite his tongue when he vehmently said that he never wanted to see Ryan Jones on another power-play again. That's more like it Bob! I love your passion for the game! Hopefully you won't catch too much, if any, heat for that little beauty.


Getting Benched...


So the rookies got benched in the third for some significant minutes. I have no issue with this as other factions of this team have been benched as well. as long as Tom Renney is not singling players out like Mac-T used to do or like Pat Quinn did last year, this is ok with me. What does confuse me is that Stortini didn't get benched for his bad penalty noted above, but Steve MacIntyre was after his bad penalty in the fisrt couple of minutes in the second period. 


Let's just forget this game and move on to the shalacking we are going to hand Detroit at Joe Louis on Thursday!


GO Oilers GO!