HOCKEY: In the Box with Brent & Craig
Splitapeg
You win some, you lose some, and sometimes you have terrible goaltending. Brent and Craig are here this week to breakdown the ups and downs of the two game series against the Jets and look forward (?) to a home at home with the godless Calgary Flames. Will there be fights in the stands? We can only hope.
Craig Douglas
It was an interesting and exciting week in Oilerland as the team split its series with the Winnipeg Jets across two tight one goal games (just as I predicted) that could scarcely have been much different. Game one on Monday was a seriously entertaining shootout that was goals galore all night long, including six goals in the second period alone, whereas game two on Wednesday evening was decidedly less eventful, but nearly as entertaining, despite the best efforts of the fucking incompetent referees.
Monday’s game was a blast to watch, even though they lost and Mike Smith laid a shit egg with seven whole saves and an unbelievably brutal .636 SV%, before he was relieved by Koskinen, who played only slightly better because it would have been impossible to play any worse. Fortunately all is forgiven because Tipp went back to Smith for the second game of the series, and he had sorted himself out to the tune of a much tastier 33 saves and a .943 SV%. As much as the loss stings we can take some solace in seeing the rest of the team continuing to chip in some scoring. I mean, five goals and not one of them being attributed to McDavid or Draisaitl is something to sort of celebrate these days. Getting two goals from Chaisson and zero points from Neon Leon is exactly the sort of thing that lets a fanbase feel like maybe the team is more than just two players and twenty scrubs. The horrendous goaltending will leave a stink on this game, allowing six goals on a mere twenty four shots is pathetic, but it wasn’t all bad, and to be a little fair to the goalies – they were hung out to dry by their defense and can not be blamed for every one of the six goals they let in.
The second game was a tighter, more well rounded effort by the local squad, that was basically ruined by the referees and their embarrassingly bad efforts. Six power plays for the Oil and five for the Jets, missed calls that should justify them being fired or demoted or whatever happens to truly shitty referees, make up calls that would be funny if they weren’t so blatantly stupid, and so many whistles that it turned what was supposed to be an NHL game into some sort of dumb fucking special teams demonstration. Their names are Michael Markovic and Brad Meier in case you want to skip watching the next time these two clowns are tasked with ruining a professional hockey game. They were nothing short of fucking atrocious.
The Connor McDavid Player Of The Series Award brought to you by Humpty’s
I was tempted to perhaps dish out an award to The Nuge this week, as he had 2G 2A over the two games and probably doesn’t always get the credit that he deserves, but McDavid went and scored his 500th and 501st points on Wednesday night, so he reclaims his crown. As I’m sure everyone has heard, McD tied Sidney Crosby as the eighth fastest player to reach 500 points, doing it in a tidy 369 games. He’s the fucking best.
Predicsh brought to you by Huge Ford Trucks
02/19 vs Calgary – The games against Winnipeg might end up being more entertaining, but they’ll never be more anticipated than these battles of Alberta. Friday and Saturday nights, back to back games against the old provincial rivals, feel the excitement! I think this set against the Flames will deliver hype justice and then some. I’m predicting two more one goal games and another split series. Game one goes to the wankers from down south as they take down the Oilers in a tight one. Final score Flames 5 Oilers 4.
02/20 vs Calgary – The Oilers win a bloodbath that sees the hatred come to a boil, dirty plays and scraps aplenty are the order of the day, and goals are not. Final score Oilers 2 Flames 1.
Brent Oliver
Well – those two games were entertaining as hell. But as usual, old man Brent is here to douse water all over the Oilers fanbase and be the wettest of all blankets in my criticism. Time to poop at this party!
Holy shit the goaltending is bad. Yes, Smith has had 3 out of 4 stellar games, but does anyone truly think with these two goalies we can make a run for anything? I’ve owned Smith in enough Fantasy leagues to realize just how truly unreliable he can be, and Koskinen isn’t much better. While it’s great and all that we can tie a game 5-5 after being down from shotty goaltending, there’s a real chance we never would have put ourselves there in the first place with a better tender. This team needs to address this need now, so get someone in isolation and ready to play in a couple weeks – otherwise, our tenuous hold on 3rd place is about to go down the drain.
Secondary scoring and defence – have we heard this before? When you have Darnell Nurse scoring more than defending, I guess it evens out – but the rest of the defence core is doing no scoring, and even less defending. This team needs a strategy, and fast. As for the automatons on the 3rd and 4th lines, I have to give credit where credit is due with Jujar Khaira really playing well this past week with goals, hits and some mob justice on behalf of our smaller forwards and superstars. In the absence of Kassian, he’s stepped up very well. Maybe we can trade him while he’s hot (I know – I’m heartless).
Looking forward to the bloodbath tonight and tomorrow, and if the Oilers can push the Flames down further in the standings – well, then an angel gets its wings. Huzzah!
Here we go Oilers fans – two back to back games against the Flames then back to back against the most hated franchise in all of sports – the Vancouver Canucks on the 23rd and 25th. Listen, we don’t make the rules. Facts are facts.
See you next time – In the Box.
