St. Louis Blues In Town

Chalk this one up as the seventh straight game Edmonton will be playing without the offensively-gifted services of Ales Hemsky. Scoring just one goal against the Sharks on Friday night the Oilers cruised to a 4-1 loss at the hands of, at the time, the West’s best team (the Sharks did not reclaim their top spot in the NHL until they completed Friday’s game, Boston is only a point behind them). And I hate to place more emphasis on the Hemsky injury than what has already been placed but Ales was placed on the IR on Friday and word is that he won’t be back until after the All-Star break. That makes it at least another 6 games until Hemsky is back in our line-up; by that time, and I don’t want to be a negative-Nelly here, but we could be well out of the race of the Playoffs by that time. I don’t mean to say that if we tank these games that we haven’t a chance of making the Playoffs.

I do mean to say that if that happens it will not make things easy.

The loss on Friday is not the only negative thing coming out of that game: our injury list has gotten considerably larger. Added to the list of Ales Hemsky (mild-concussion) and Fernando Pisani (ankle) is Zach Stortini (knee), Robert Nilsson (un-listed, probably concussion-related judging by his run-in with the boards on Friday), Sam Gagner (ankle, will likely still play) and Sheldon Souray (Shoulder, will also likely still play).

Can I throw up yet?

Despite the injuries that came out of that game the major story is not that of the injuries; it’s who is being called up to fill in for the injured players. First let me say this: I am not a subscriber to the Schremp fan club. However, it is hard to deny the fact that he seems to get the shaft with the team more often than not. Instead of Scremp (30GP, 3G, 20A, 23Pts), Ryan Potulny (36GP, 17G, 14A, 31Pts) will be suiting up in his first game as an Oiler, and I don’t think it’s that hard to understand why he’s the one called up. Potulny, from what the stats say (I don’t watch the AHL), is more of a goal-scorer rather than a play-maker, and I think it is pretty clear which player-type this team is in need of right now.

Also of note: Roloson gets the start in this game despite having a terrible first period versus San Jose, so terrible in fact that MacT pulled him after the first period: something one does not see often from MacT. I don’t get it, and let me remind you that I am a fan of Garon’s. Roloson plays like crap, Garon comes in, in relief and plays well, yet Roloson gets the start again the next game. All I’ll say is this: Garon has yet to be given the luxury of playing a few games in a row when he’s lost the last couple and was pulled in the last. In fact the only time he got a second shot in a game following a loss was in October versus Colorado and Vancouver, since then he’s only played one set of games one-after-another: 2 wins versus L.A. and Dallas.

The Oilers play tonight against a team that is on a two game winning-streak; their last win coming in Vancouver on Friday night. By all standards this is a game we should win, but I’m not counting on anything with the Oilers any more.

The wish-list from last game (with a few minor changes) still stands boys:

1. Sam Gagner and Erik Cole continue to generate chemistry on the second line if they play together (if they play together, and they should).
2. Ladislav Smid fights some one. Seriously, from what fans have seen thus far he's good at it.
3. The PP at least manages to get set-up, a goal or two would be nice.
4. We score at least 3 goals.
5. The PK continues on it's new track in the right direction.
6. The fourth line continues to be a source of energy for the rest of the team.
7. We have at least 2 centermen or players above 50% in the face-off dot.
8. Brule (or whoever is filling for Hemsky) gets some production going with Horcoff and Penner, seriously, this is supposed to be the first line. If they can't get it done they need to be demoted: move the (substitute player here, oooh, maybe Cogs? Does Cogs play LW?), Gagner, Cole (if they play together) line up.
9. Ethan Moreau manages to stop giving away the puck and actually produce something positive in the way of offense instead of taking stupid penalties.
10. The team puts in a full 60 minutes. Not 20, not 40, but 60... Wait, no I've changed my mind, I want 80 minutes of effort just in-case this goes into extra-time.