HOCKEY: In the Box with Brent & Craig
Working on 9 & 2 & 5
With Brent away this week we welcome back our erstwhile correspondent Moon Dawg to fill Brent’s big old dad shoes and help us touch on the latest week of happiness in Dirt City here on GigCity, as always brought to you by Home & Away YEG.
Nov. 3rd
Oilers 5
Predators 2
Craig Douglas
A Smashville team that was missing Filip Forsberg and starting their third string goalie, Connor Ingram, should be extremely easy pickings for the Oil, but not so fast, it wasn’t as easy as one might have envisioned. For one thing, Ingram, the starting goalie for the Milwaukee Admirals, played very, uh, admirably, and the Oil had themselves a bit of a slow start in this one, not really getting rolling until the final frame. A power play goal (the best kind of goal if you’re a fan of this team) in the first period stood up for less than a dozen seconds when Nashville stormed right back after giving up one. There wasn’t much to worry about though, as Yamo got them a lead in the second period that they wouldn’t relinquish, and when they finally got rolling in the third period they sealed the deal and sent the Predators off to Vancouver (where they beat the Canucks HaHa) all sad and shit.
Other team’s broadcast note: the Predators broadcasters were absolutely GUSHING about McDavid and Draisaitl, so far only the Seattle announcers were more reverential when talking about the Oil and their two great(est) players.
Two goals and an assist saw Dr. Drai rocket to the top of the NHL points leaderboard where he now sits tied with his pal McD as of this writing. Extremely fucking fun fact: Draisaitl became the first player to tally 20 points in the first nine games of a season since Mario Lemieux did it way back in 2002-03. Let the good times roll.
Zach ‘No Negativity’ Moon
Douglas dawg pretty much covered it on this one. Nice to see Yamo back on the board for the 2nd game straight and Draisaitl sometimes looks like the former pro who shows up to your beer league game and makes everyone else look like a bunch of gorbys out there. Connor Ingram looked solid out there and its always nice to see someone who’s apparently had some personal struggles do well. Few beauty saves out there for Ingram!
I’d just like to stop for a moment and think about how sweet it is to be an Oilers right now. BREATHE IT IN … I kept reading this off-season about how Ken “THE PEN” Holland had sewered our chances by signing and trading for Cody Ceci and Duncan Keith, a second pairing that by analytical standards was going to get completely “caved in.” How the team has consistently mismanaged its assets and the goaltending is horrible. I started blocking it all out … this year was going to be different.
I have chosen a different path for my fandom this year. I’m sick of following the Negative Norms and all of their Oilers shitposting. I am tired of the fans picking a 3rd pairing defenseman to run out of town every year, and I’m done heaping on the boys when things don’t go our way. We’ve got a real team here. Let’s enjoy it! Watching your favourite team is supposed to be fun, and after all of these years of watching a shitty team in a shitty bar that didn’t even want to have the game on anymore…I AM READY. We’ve got a goddamn children’s author on our team who wanted to sign here and arguably the 2 best players in the league. We’ve got The KING of ELK ISLAND flying and smiling out there with the enthusiasm of a Bison jacked up on a kilo of catnip. Darnell Nurse looks as comfortable as he ever has and I haven’t even mentioned PAPA BOUCH and his maturation on the back end. Add it all up and they are the most likeable Oilers team I can remember cheering for and I’m gonna crush on them all year! BIG SIMPIN
Nov. 5
Oilers 6
Rangers 5
Craig Douglas
Zach “Puck Hound” Hyman opened the scoring. Jesse “Bison King” Puljujarvi potted two of his own. But all anyone wants to talk about is THE GOAL. Kevin Lowe had his number retired. The Oil kinda played like shit for large portions of the game. But all anyone wants to talk about is THE GOAL.
So let’s talk about it. With three minutes remaining in the final period McD was pissed that he was forced to circle back to center ice when the puck came out of the Ranger’s zone, while waiting for his teammates to tag up onside he assessed the situation in front of him. He looked and saw he was on his own with four Ranger players waiting inside the blue line. Fuck it then, there’s only four of them he seemed to say, and he proceeded to dangle and cut and carve and swerve his way through all four of them, then deke the hell out of poor old Georgiev to tie the game up at 5-5, and send off to overtime where his good buddy Leon gave the Rangers and their fans the dagger.
This was the type of game where my season long experiment of always checking out the other teams broadcast really paid off. Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti we’re so deflated and sad when The Bison King scored his second goal of the night to tie it at 4-4, the Ranger’s big 4-1 lead had been pissed away and anyone who was paying attention knew that McDavid had been rather quiet on the night with only a secondary assist on the the scoresheet. About fourteen minutes later when Connor scored THE GOAL, poor old Sam and Joe couldn’t even be sad anymore, they screamed and gushed and hailed McDavid as the best player in the world, and it made THE GOAL all the more sweeter hearing about it from their perspective as they were forced to acknowledge that they’d been beaten by the best.
In many ways it was the exact type of game we all joked about before the season started: “Well, they’re going to end up with a lot of 6-5 wins.” On the one hand, I wouldn’t want to see them play like that every night, but on the other hand, more please!
Zach Moon
Like I said. You would be getting any negativity out of me. I know we were down 4-1. I know Mikko Koskinen didn’t look the greatest, but he won and he’s frickin undefeated … and 174. Yes that’s right. One hundred and seventy-four times is the approximate number of times I’ve laid my adoring eyes on the glorious goal scored by Connor McDavid … and counting. I am so happy to be a fan of this team. Honestly watching McDavid and Leon Draisaitl is a hockey fans dream. It’s been rumoured that Draisaitl skated by one of the Rangers when the Oilers were down 4-1 and said “Hold on…it’s coming.” This is some Babe Ruth shit. McDavid is the best and Leon is not far behind. Can’t forget Puljujarvi unleashing a howitzer off the rush, after a wizard like pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to tie it up at 4-4 to set the stage for “THE GOAL”. Glorious crushes on all of them I have. OFF TO THE MOTOR CITY.
Nov. 9
Red Wings 4
Oilers 2
The Oilers headed out for the first of a 5 game road trip presumably feeling very good. Honestly in my mind it felt like this was exactly the kind of game a 9-1 team would lose. You cannot win them all…or so they say.
Stuart “SKINDAWG” Skinner got his first start of the year between the pipes and admirably faced a 16 shot onslaught in the first period. The Oilers didn’t look to have their “A” game going but we all know a breakout could happen at any time with this team.
Unfortunately for the Oilers things weren’t going their way when Stuart Skinner misplayed a puck beside the net and was embarrassed by Dylan Larkin to put the Wings up 3-0. The Oil showed up in the 3rd and made it close after Puljujarvi seemed to provide the spark again.
Which brings me to my favourite play of this game. Jesse Puljujarvi blocks a shot at the blue line and is pretty much even with 2 Red Wings players headed towards their own zone. From here he absolutely takes off and beats them both back their own net, sniping a beauty low glove on Alex Nedeljkovic. It was beautiful in its suspenseful glory, with Puljujarvi prancing across the sheet with all the powerful grace of Whitetail deer on a snow barren prairie. (I said I LOVE this team…you better believe it!) Pure Finnish power and an infectious smile and enthusiasm for the game. CRUSHIN’
The effort was present in the 3rd but sadly it was too late. Detroit played well and limited the Oilers chances. They’ve got a couple potential stars in Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider and it looks like they could be an entertaining team to watch in the future. They kind look like Tampa Bay 2.0. in their infancy.
Like I said … or they say … you can’t win em all and It’s very exciting to be a fan this year. Hopefully the Oilers win the cup, and even if they don’t … isn’t it really about hanging with your pals, watching the games, jumping up and high fiving your buds when McDavid makes you shake your head in disbelief and then yelling and sharing some sort of primal feeling that maybe we don’t even understand or experience in the way that we should often enough?????? ISN’T IT?!
Thanks for letting me float in.
Craig Douglas
The Connor McDavid Player Of The Week Award
When you score a fucking goal like that, you get your fucking award back for as long as you want it.
Predicsh
11/11 at Boston – The road trip rolls into Massachusetts to face my most hated team of them all: the fuckface Bruins. Just for fun, let’s say the Oil humiliates these pricks.
Final score: Oilers 7 Bruins 2
11/12 at Buffalo – Can we still call it The Shitty Bowl™️ when the Oilers and the Sabres play each other? I’m being told we can not. Speaking of Buffalo though, Jack Eichel was traded to the Western Conference this week, giving McDavid many more chances to show old Jack firsthand that he’s the biggest Rab McLaughlin of all time.
Final score: Oilers 3 Sabres 0
11/14 at St. Louis – Are the St. Louis Blues good these days? I can’t tell, and this game won’t give me anything to help me decide.
Nuge gets his first goal of the season in overtime.
Final score: Oilers 4 Blues 3 (OT)
So another great week in Oil Country ends on a bit of a down note and they endure loss number two. It’s too bad that they couldn’t have given a better effort to support Skinner in his first start, but no time for that now, the long road trip rolls on! Will they destroy those maggots in Boston? Will they fold and flop in Buffalo? Let’s find out together!
See you next time – In the Box
