HOCKEY: In the Box with Brent & Craig
Every 1’s a Winner, Baby
Three games, Three wins for your NUMBER ONE EDMONTON OILERS. A quarter through the season and Brent & Craig are planning the parade. No seriously. Jasper to 101, to 104 to 109. Insane optimism run wild – presented by Home “Career Fair this weekend” & Away YEG.
Nov 24
Oilers 5
Coyotes 3
Craig Douglas
A light-ish schedule in Oil Country this week saw only three games being played, and the locals won all of them, just as I predicted they would. They didn’t throw an embarrassing beating on the Coyotes like we would have liked to have seen, since the game was technically close when the score was 4-3 Edmonton with about five minutes to play, however the outcome never really felt in doubt. It certainly served as a nice palette cleanser just 24 hours after being beaten by the Dallas Stars, although Dallas has won six of their last seven games as of this writing (including wins over St. Louis, Edmonton and Colorado) so maybe they’re not as shitty as I generally consider them to be.
Anyways, I don’t want to talk about this game, because as nice as it was watching McDavid and Dr. Drai rack up four points each, all that really happened here was that they beat a fake NHL team that is a fucking joke. The Oil had another terrible start and gave up the opening goal a-fucking-gain, the refs were quite shitty, and they let up in the third to allow the Coyotes to make it sort of close and way closer than it ever should have been, that’s all true. However, great games from the big guns, strong saves from Koskinen, and revelatory showings from Broberg, McLeod, Ceci, and Kassian all left us feeling pretty good.
Since almost every team is sitting at 20-21 games played (aka a quarter of the season) let’s examine the standings and see where we think the Oil are really at. They currently sit atop the Pacific Division at 16-5-0, good for a crisp 32 points, they only sit one point above the Flames, however the Flames have played an additional game and are also getting fat off of five pathetic loser points (tied for the most in the league, fucking losers). The Oil are a robust 9-1-0 at home and a more than fine 7-4-0 on the road, they can also boast the fifth most points overall to go with the fifth best overall goal differential of +18. Do I think that makes them the fifth best overall team? No, not necessarily, I’m sure Vegas, Colorado, and Tampa might have something to say about that, but I do feel comfortable calling them a top ten team and that obviously gets you in the playoffs and makes you a legitimate contender – at least for now we can all be pretty chuffed about that. It’s too early to draw any exciting conclusions, and stats can be cherry picked to put a shine on almost any angle. Like saying that they’re only one point up on the Rangers and only sitting seven points up on Detroit … yikes! However, they’re also eight points ahead of Vegas, and Winnipeg, and Pittsburgh (hey that sounds pretty good!), but they’re also those same six points clear of Columbus which… uhhhhhh… yeah. That’s all a long way of saying that things are going quite well at the 1/4 mark of the season, and we should all be content and looking forward to the next slab of twenty games.
The next slab of twenty games is very interesting as the Oil will play eight of their next ten at home, and those away games are quick one game jaunts to Seattle to play a silly little expansion team, then the world juniors come to town and force the Oil out on an eight game road trip that begins in California, heads to Calgary and St. Louis, visits all three NY area teams, and finally ends in Toronto, so the stretch between now and Christmas is looking pretty fucking important and they’ll need to bank some points, because a big eight game road trip with two sets of back to backs and some dumb fucking afternoon games is looming large.
Brent Oliver
I watched this game and took zero notes. Mostly I remember laughing at how bad Arizona is, then not laughing for two minutes as they made a comeback, then laughing again when they lost.
Ha. Ha. Ha!
Nov 27
Oilers 3
Golden Knights 2
Craig Douglas
I don’t know why I dislike the Vegas Goldie Knights so much. It could be because it’s a dumb city for bros in the middle of a desert that I have zero desire to ever visit, or maybe it’s their stupid name and ugly uniforms, or maybe it’s just because they’re an expansion team that is loved by little children, or maybe I’m jealous that they had some sort of instant “success”, (success is in quotes since they’ve actually won exactly fuck all). Either way, I just don’t like ‘em.
Beating them on a Saturday night for all to see, that’s some satisfying shit right there. The gorgeous goals from Ryan “Nugent” Hopkins, Zack “Puck Hound” Hyman and Jesse “Bison King” Puljujarvi had everyone jumping, and not to be outdone, Mikko “Can I Have A Nickname Please” Koskinen was making great saves all over the place, thirty six of the fuckers in total and many of the ten bell variety. The game was not without its flaws, but the Oil did a great job of shutting the door when Vegas was attempting to crawl back into it in the third, and boy is it nice to watch a game here and there and not feel compelled to crab about the league’s dogshit referees managing the game. They’ve thus far managed to withstand all of the injuries suffered by the left side of the defense, and that’s due to a combination of guys stepping in to fill those roles (like Kris Russell who became the NHL’s all time leader in blocked shots during this game) and the team maybe finally feeling like they have a couple of goalies who they can send out with full confidence on any night against any team. They’re rolling pretty well right now and if they can turn this home stand into a nice stack of Ws and then weather the giant road trip, they’ll be sitting pretty heading into 2022.
Dec 1
Oilers 5
Penguins 2
Brent Oliver
Sid the (no longer a) Kid and the Pens came into town last night sporting a pretty decent record thanks to a super hot, former Edmonton Oil King goalie in Tristan Jarry. A 4 day Oilers layoff, and Kris Russell sliding into the number one D pairing had me shitting my hockey pants thinking this would be a shit show and had all the reasons we needed to lose.
But what’s this? This is not last year’s, or the year before’s, or the past 15 years’ Oilers hockey? No it aint. Koskinen again was super solid facing 34 shots. McDavid set up nearly all the goals and Zach “Busting Loose” Hyman scored two in the victory. Well actually, he scored 3, but the offside rule disallowing his third goal means he’s the proud owner of many many hats.
The Oilers depleted defence could have probably played better, but Russell shouldn’t be relied upon to block EVERY shot hurled Koskinen’s way. That minor gripe aside, it was a solid win, against a historically solid team, and another bit of proof that this year’s Oilers are not only a top 5 team in the league, but a real contender at this stage of the season. I worry we’re one superstar injury away from being shit, but for now – keep the pressure on the necks boys. It’s fun to watch.
The Connor McDavid Player Of The Week Award
I’m handing the award to Mikko Koskinen for putting up three W’s to go with 92 saves on this light week of scheduling. I hope it’s his first of many.
Predicsh
12/03 – at Seattle – Sorry little expansion team, I think it’s going to be a few years at least before I will predict you beating just about anybody, and yes I’m aware you recently beat Florida, Carolina, and Washington.
Final score: Oilers 4 Krakens 1
12/05 – vs Los Angeles – The Kings won’t be getting any victories around here anytime soon, and yes I’m aware that you recently beat Ottawa.
Final score: Oilers 5 Kings 4
12/07 – vs Minnesota – Only because you can’t win em all, but least we get a stupid loser point.
Final score: Wilds 4 Oilers 3 (OT)
Release the Kraken this Friday night at 8pm! Or don’t. We’ll smoke you in your hometown you dumb expansion team. Then home against the Kings and Wild for what should surely be boring wins for us against boring teams.
Wait – Should the parade go West-East, or East-West? I have to send the permits into the City!
See you next week – In The Box.
