Game 12 review – Another game without a goal

Do you remember a week ago when the Oilers were 6-2-1? The sun was shining, birds were singing, people smiled at each other on the streets, dogs and cats lived in peace, it really was a great time to live in Edmonton. Six days later it’s the team has lost three straight, hasn’t scored in seven periods, it feels like winter outside, nobody has anything nice to say about anything, and I think most of the people on the train last night hoped it would crash just to put them out of their misery.

All in all it’s been a hell of a week.

Are things so bleak that it’s time to have Commissioner Gordon grab that red phone on his desk and place a call to Batman? No not quite yet. Things for the Oilers haven’t looked good of late but it’s just three games. Yes they’re divisional games and yes the team got shut out twice, but it’s just three games out of an 82 game season. There is no reason to panic.

What is most concerning to Oiler fans right now is that after watching a team score at nearly a four goal per game pace for nine games they’ve now scored just twice in three games. The last time the Oilers scored a goal of any kind was 141:25 ago, and they haven’t put a puck in five on five (I’m not counting Nilsson’s empty netter against Columbus) in 189:17 – that’s more than three games if math isn’t your strong suit.

As bad as things have been I don’t think that the team is totally to blame here. I’ve got to think that the flu is the main culprit. The team that I’ve seen on the ice of late looks almost nothing like the team I saw to start the season. There is no jump and no physical play. I hate to say it but they look an awful lot like the Oilers team that I was unlucky enough to watch for the final couple of months last season.

With the similarities to last season I could easily abandon all hope and declare the season dead. But look at who they’ve been shutout by in these last two games. Luongo and Anderson. One of the best goalies on the planet and one who currently looks like the best goalie on the planet. Sometimes you get a hot goalie and there is a damn thing you can do about it.

It doesn’t help though when Horcoff – one of the leaders on this team – coughs up the puck in his own end on the first shift of the night and you find yourself down just 25 seconds in. I would have really liked to have seen this team get an ugly one early, maybe they could have gotten a bit of a boost from it. Instead the team played some of the most boring hockey imaginable for two periods. The third frame was better, see just like last season, but Anderson stood tall and they just couldn’t get the lamp lit. Final score Avs 3 – Oilers 0.

There are still guys out there playing good games, O’Sullivan, Penner, and Gagner come to mind; Horcoff, Moreau, and Comrie do not. Sometime soon the team will beat the flu, the pucks will start going in again, and the wins will return. Hopefully it happens sooner than later, like tomorrow against Detroit maybe?