HOCKEY: In the Box with Brent & Craig
Road Rage
With Brent still on the IL, it’s the team of Craiggy D. and Zack “No Negativity” Moon back on the beat for another week. Will Zack change his nickname to “Some Negativity”? Will Craig complain about the idiotic officials? Is the road trip actually over? Find out below on this week’s edition of In The Box here on Gigcity, brought to you by Home & Away YEG.
Nov 11
Oilers 5
Bruins 3
Craig Douglas
The officiating was such dogshit in this game as McDavid was tripped and slashed with impunity, with not a single fucking call all game long. Despite McDavid being the talk of the hockey world for that amazing goal against the Rangers – this is what the league does in response? I guess? Let a bunch of plugs maul him while he’s doing his thing? It was so bad that his agent took to Twitter to call the refereeing “a joke”. Earlier that day, former NHL coach (and noted fuckhead) John Tortorella chastised McDavid for having the nerve to complain about the terrible officiating that takes place in the league which he is the face. “He complained about it a little bit that he wasn’t getting the calls … Just shut up. Don’t talk about it.” is what Torts said on ESPN, the network that employs him to be a blowhard for some reason.
So this old bastard Torts seems to think that the best solution to a gigantic and ridiculous ongoing problem is to shut up and not talk about it, thus ensuring the problem will never be solved and things will continue on the same way forever. The Hart trophy winner and face of the league doesn’t need to change his game a little bit, the league doesn’t need to change the rules a little bit, the refs just need to enforce the current rules and not try to manage the game by being scared to whistle a power play for the Oilers just because there is a +40% chance that they’re going to score a goal if that happens. In fairness to Torts, once you hear the entire clip there’s some things he was saying that weren’t totally wrong, it’s just the whole old man telling people to shut up in order to solve a problem thing is a big reason why these problems never seem to go away. Okay, rant’s over.
This game was still awesome, despite the atrocious refereeing. Anytime the dirtbag Bruins lose I am filled with joy, and if it’s a comeback win for the Oil where Dr. Drai gives them a couple of third period daggers to send their idiotic fans home all sad and shit? I couldn’t be happier with the outcome, but the refereeing was so fucking bad that that’s all that can and should be brought up when discussing this particular game.
Zack Moon
Some of my first Oiler memories are of the 1990 Oilers and “The Kid Line” defeating Andy Moog, Cam Neely, and Ray Bourque in the finals – and they did it without Gretzky. Who could believe it really? 31 years and 31 or so 1st round draft picks later and here we are.
The Bruins aren’t the powerhouse they used to be, but still seem to trot out a semi-contender every year. This game featured Mikko Koskinen doing his usual thing with the obligatory soft goal and also some huge saves when needed. It’s always an adventure with this year’s squad. The Bruins scored early twice and each time the Oil answered back quickly. Leon Draisatl is a point stacking maniac and again was a major force throughout the game. Zach Hyman made a power move and a slick backhand to tie it up at 2.
As for the officiating. I too noticed the missed calls and often find myself yelling at the T.V. PENALTY! I, like most fans who have McDavid and Draisaitl on their team, wish the NHL would let its superstars exploit their inferior opponents by calling the game by the rules.They are what makes the game exciting. Not sneaky holding, interference, and tripping infractions where the defensive team gains control and clears the puck out to some guy standing at the red line who deflects in it for a line change. It seems like its moving just a little too fast out there for the officials, and I seriously fail to understand how letting the best players do their thing isn’t a priority for the league. I’m sure I’d feel different if this was the late 90’s Oilers and some combination of Mike Grier, Rem Murray, Boyd Devereaux, Dean McAmmond and/or Todd Marchant were out there “grinding” against Sakic, Forsberg,and Milan Hedjuk, but as it stands I don’t. Back to the game … finally!
Cody Ceci had his best game of the year and stepped up in the 3rd with a beautiful assist to Draisatl on the game winner and the final goal of the game to put the Oil up 5-3. Good stuff, boys. Off to Buffalo.
Nov 12
Sabres 3
Oilers 2
Craig Douglas
So it was a back to back game, with the backup goalie, with their backs against the wall, back in black and back to basics and …
Luckily I missed this game because sometimes you catch a break in life and don’t have to spend several hours watching a shit effort. The first period was weird and sloppy, while the second period featured all the scoring but was still a total slopfest, and I didn’t catch this one so who could care what I have to say about it.
Zack Moon
“If I had my way, I’d shuffle off to Buffalo
Sit by the lake, and watch the world go by
Ladies in the sun, listenin’ to the radio
Like flowers on the sand, the rainbow in my mind”
-John Fogerty, Rock & Roll Girls
The Oilers shuffled off to Buffalo on the 2nd game of a back to back. The game seemed to start out well with Darnel Nurse “scoring” what was blown down and called a goal while the Oilers had the puck beside a partially open net. Upon review the puck didn’t actually cross the line. SHIT! Why’d you blow the whistle? Shortly after that the Sabres had their own goal disallowed on a high stick in front of Stuart Skinner, who looked half decent throughout the game. Not too much to report in this somewhat stinky effort from the Oil. McDavid and Draisatl exchanged world class backhand passes in the offensive zone before Draisatl buried yet another goal. Other than that it was a sloppy game from the Oil and Dylan Cozens had the game of his career so far for the Sabres, racking up 2 goals, matching up against McDavid, and winning the battle.
I checked in during intermissions of this game to see how the Oil faithful were handling this performance and it was not going well! Tyson Barrie is apparently “atrocious” on the 1st line PP unit and his big wind-up on his slap-shot was “making someone’s eyes bleed.” Are you ok Oilers fans? Coach Dave Tippet did cycle in Evan Bouchard and Darnel Nurse into the 1st unit throughout the game, but it didn’t lead to much improvement as the Oil fell 3-2
You can’t win them all and good for Buffalo … good for them. Poor Buffalo. At least they have that flavour of wings. Poor Chickens.
Nov 14
Oilers 5
Blues 4
Craig Douglas
First off, the Blues announcers were great, absolutely gushing with joy about the wonder of Leon Draisaitl after his amazing feed to Yamo on the final goal, well deserved praise to be sure. They also gave us this gem of an exchange at one point:
Announcer 1: You know, the duo of McDavid and Draisaitl now have three more goals than the entire roster of the Coyotes
Announcer 2: Well, they’re also paid more than that entire “roster”
Announcer 1: Heh heh heh, you make a good point there.
Announcers slamming a divisional rival for being a fucking joke of a fake team in a game when that team is not even playing?
Uh, yeah dude, more of that, please. Anyways, they were great, lots to like there. But what about the game itself?
There’s lots to like here! The Nuge getting a million shots on net and scoring his first goal of the season to go with all those juicy assists, just like I predicted he would. Ryan McLeod’s first NHL goal ever. McDavid cracking the 600 point mark like it’s no big deal, and another strong performance from Mikko Koskinen! What’s not to like? Well, another sluggish start that could have sunk them early, giving five power plays to the stupid Blues (I will not complain about the refs again … yet), and blowing a one goal lead in the second period then following it up by blowing a two goal lead in the third period. Wow! Lots to complain about here too!
This game also featured the league’s stupid offside challenge rule that really sucks, but I guess I won’t complain about it today since it benefited the Oil on this occasion, and we also saw one of those “haunted” goals, where the puck goes in but no one sees it and play continues until the horn just sounds out of the mists and everyone stops and one team is happy and the other is sad.
So lots going on in this game as the two teams took turns tying it up and blowing leads and having goals called back and goals called forward, it was anything but boring, I’ll give it that.
Koskinen kept them in it and the team deployed a few last second daggers that must have really saddened the Blues and their fans. McDavid slipping them a dagger with five seconds left in the first period probably saved the game from winding up in the toilet, and of course Yamamoto shiving them with the ultimate dagger with less than thirty seconds left (when you just know all of their fans were thinking they’d get it to OT and win it there) really got the Edmonton fans bounding out of their easy chairs with a rebel yell. Thanks should really go to Koski for this one though, even though his save percentage was a titch below .900 for the night. He saved their asses when they showed up sloppy and thought it would be a good idea to give three first period power plays to the league’s second best special teams units. The Oil were outshot 14-9 in the first period and by the time it was done they were extremely fucking lucky to finish the frame tied at 1-1
However, they showed great resilience and delivered the daggers when they needed to, I just think plenty of credit should go to Koskinen and a bit of scorn should be side eyed at some, or really most, of the players. Maybe we chalk up the sluggish starts to the woes of the road, and we see them get back to business when they get home, if this road trip ever ends.
Speaking of which …
Zack Moon
Douglas covers this one pretty well. Koskinen stood on his head, but also managed to let that usual squeaky one in. Nugent ‘Horsewhisperer’ Hopkins is finally on the board with his first of the year and the gap-toothed and extremely likeable Ryan Mcloed scored the first of his career. Congratulations dude! I look forward to watching Mcloed rip around the ice for years. Just a marvelous stride…cashmere Georgie! McDavid racked up his 600th career point. Draisatl was huge again and came up with a sublime pass to Yamomoto with 30 or so seconds left in the 3rd to lead the Oil to a thrilling 5-4 win. That was fun!
Nov 16
Jets 5
Oilers 2
Craig Douglas
Well, Koskinen was up to his old tricks, letting in a soft ass goal on the first shot of the game. Sure, it was largely Duncan Keith’s fault with that egregious giveaway, but still, that was a goober of a shot by Lowry, and it just has to be so demoralizing to consistently be allowing the first goal in almost every game. He definitely made some redemptive saves as the game went on that helped the team have a (very slight) chance of getting back in the game, but he simply has to stop that fucking puck. Today marks two full weeks of games where the team has allowed three or more goals, and that is not a recipe for winning, even if the team is 3-3 over that stretch. Of course it was predictable that they might lose this game at the end of a long and grueling road trip that saw them play five games over just eight nights, they just looked bad all around. Leaky goaltending, dumb penalties, and a whole lot of giveaways, and the defense looked like shit for most of the night, Tyson Barrie being the lone exception. The good news is that they have a chance for payback at home just 48 hours later. SIGH!
Zack Moon
Was it time for the mighty 2021 Oilers to get their redemption against the well-balanced depth of the Winnipeg Jets? No…No it wasn’t. Mikko Koskinen put the team behind early with a flubbed glove hand goal against and that kind of set the stage for the lack of bounces and calls that were to go against the Oilers for the rest of the night. They got outworked and Winnipeg seemed to get the benefit of a few calls at least, with their determined play tilting the sheet in their favour . Mark Scheifele “innocently” clipped Derek Ryan at a critical point in the game. |You could tell he didn’t mean to because he immediately threw both hands up in the air as if to say “not me!” There was no call and the Nikolai Ehlers ripped an absolute potato gun blast over the glove of Mikko Koskinen to put the Jets up 2-0. They scored on a Powerplay shortly after then when Leon Draisatl got his stick up while trying to get untangled with a Jets player who was running the usual interference. Are they not going to call any of this garbage??? Nope.
Stuart Skinner came in to tend the net to start the final frame. Leon and Connor made some magic late but redemption for last year’s playoff sweep will have to wait until Thursday at the earliest. So soon. Good luck Oil. Also I must say those fresh new Jets jerseys look pretty damn good and I think that might be why we lost. We seriously need to bring the dark blue jersey’s back. We haven’t been good since this putrid orange arrived. I predisch if the Oil wear the dark blue 3rd jersey, we’ll come out on top this Thursday. Also predisch Skindawg gets the start and a 7-2 Oilers win. That would be fun eh?! An Oilers fan can always dream….and I certainly do.
Always a pleasure to fill-in and talk some Oil. Thanks, dudes!
The Connor McDavid Player Of The Week Award
It’s got to be Draisaitl right? The guy has been amazing with seven goals and three assists over the course of the last four games. Those numbers are fucking insane, and he now has thirty three points in just fifteen games. What a madman.
Predicsh
11/18 vs Winnipeg – Revenge is served up hot and fast for a change as the Oil get home and show the Jets who is boss.
Final score: Oilers 5 Jets 3
11/20 vs Chicago – Fuck the Chicago Blackhawks.
Final score: Oilers 4 Blackhawks 0
11/23 at Dallas – Back on the fucking road already! Dallas is definitely dogshit, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. A shootout loss to a terrible team ends the winning streak at two measly games.
Final score: Stars 3 Oilers 2 (SO)
The cursed road trip ends, but only briefly. Will home cooking and snow be the cure for what ails the Oil? Will the players even bother to unpack before they head out again? Will they score the first fucking goal of a game just for funsies? Check back here next week, In The Box.
