Tough Loss

Missed it By That Much....

With a much better effort tonight, the Oilers came away from the game with a point. The defensive side of the game was much better that it has been in several games. But the PK killed us again.

Late in overtime Dustin Penner took a lazy tripping penalty and Kovalchuk scores on the one-timer with a bullet to end the game 4-3. The call on the trip was highly suspect and if you watch the replay...it could be argued, that the New Jersey Player dove and could've been given two minutes in the box for it. Weak call for sure.

Forward Thinking...

The forwards that looked great tonight were Ales Hemsky, Taylor Hall, Colin Fraser & Zack Stortini. Colin Fraser got his first and second goals as an Oiler tonight as he and Stortini teamed up to get us off to a hot start. Something we haven't seen in quite sometime.


I was surprised to see Ryan Jones playing with all of the above and got 16:48 of ice tonight. He got another 1:11 of PP and 0:00 on the PK. I am curious why Tom Renney was putting him on several different lines tonight. I get that Shawn Horcoff is injured, but I'm surprised that Jones was the "chosen one" it seemed.

Hemsky was flying out there and was handling the puck in his usual fashion, but failed to tally a point. But if Hemmer can keep that up it won't be long until he's back having a multi-point game streak.

I am not sure what is wrong with Paajarvi these days, he is struggling to find offense. I don't know if he's not used to the North American game yet, or if he's just in a slump, or if he just not ready for the NHL. But...there's something just not right with this kid the last few games and I am trying to put my finger on it. He definitely needs to keep his head up as he's been pretty heavily checked lately.

Taylor Hall got an assist on a beautiful scoring chance right in front that was stopped by Brodeur, and Gagner picked up the rebound and scored. Taylor was playing well all game and looked dangerous most shifts.

Defence First...

Whitney got another assist to make it 13 helpers on the year for him and he now leads the Oilers in points. All of his points have been assists thus far, but he has been shooting the puck so the goals will come.

Gilbert looked better tonight than he has for a while. he is -4, with 3 points in 15 games. He will have to do better consistently as he is being paid quite well for those numbers.

Strudwick needs to hit more when he's in the line-up! he's a big tough guy and he hasn't taken the body like he can. That would certainly help our defensive issues a little if he were hitting more and standing guys up on the blue-line in my opinion.

Next Game...

The Rangers are next on Sunday at MSG. it's a 10:30 am start here in E-town so set your alarms and coffee pots.  I hate these afternoon games.

Go Oilers GO!