Om, nom, nom, nom, nom.PPV! PPV! PPV! PPV! Sorry, I've been watching a lot of old wrestling for some reason lately. So the Oilers come home sporting a shiny new 5 game win streak and what do they do? THEY COMPLETELY BLOW IT! The wheels have fallen off people! Time to hit the panic button and get the hell off this sinking ship!
Just kidding. Our troops played a surprisingly decent game, but came up short against the red hot Kings. And what do you know a stay at home D-man who hadn't scored a goal in over 150 games pots the game winner. It's not even funny anymore, the amount of guys that come in and break out of scoreless droughts against the Oilers. And don't get me started on guys scoring their first NHL goals against us. That's a whole 'nother can of worms.
The Nashville Predators have been playing the kind of hockey we would all love the Oilers to play. They don't have a boat load of high end talent. Hell outside of Shea Weber you'd be hard pressed to find a guy to send to the All Star game. But they've found a way to play hard nosed, gritty, shut down hockey, while still managing to score goals. They've scored at least 4 goals in 6 of their last 8 games. Combine that with formidable goaltending from Pekka Rinne and we've got ourselves a sleeper pick in the West. As of right now the Preds sit 4 points out of 1st in the West. Yes. The Nashville Predators. A team that I often forget still even exists is quietly tearing up the West with more tenacity than Barry Trotz in front of a bottomless plate of chicken wings.
Pat Quinn brought the hammer down after the LA game with a fiery passion. And while I'm not sure about the timing, it's nice to see that kind of reaction as compared to MacT's old stand by "Well we played super duper hard, and everyone tried their best and that's all that matters". I'm not 100 percent sure why it was this game that caused Quinn to finally pop off, because it was no where near one of the worst so far, but I guess when the same shitty, lazy mistakes are costing you points on the board every other game you're bound to get fed up. It's those same lazy, shitty mistakes that tell me this team is not a playoff team. This type of shit isn't going to fly down the stretch, and it certainly isn't going to fly if the Oilers have to meet up with the Sharks, Blackhawks or Kings in the first round. If they can continue to play as hard and as well as they have over the last couple weeks while figuring out a way to limit horrible giveaways, teach Steve Staios how to play proper positional defense, learn how to make tape to tape passes, and just generally not fuck up as much as they do, then this team should have a lot of success, and I will start cheering for them as a legitimate playoff team. But until then I will continue to cling to the side of the Hall/Seguin bandwagon. I'm not completely off it yet!
jeanshorts prediction: Oilers 8 - Preds 7. Old time 80's hockey!
GOILERS!
IQWT
-jeanshorts
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