Game Day – Oilers vs Canucks

Is there such thing as a must win game when it is only game 2 of the regular season? Well I think there is, and this is it. Time to put the boots to the bile spewing Vancouver Canucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEh53OWz0jU

That video is the only thing you really need to know about the Canucks. When the chips are down they fold like a cheap, dirty ‘ole mesh lawn chair. To say I dislike them is a bit of an understatement. The only redeeming quality they have is their much maligned starting goaltender. And really the only thing I like about him is his twitter persona, which shows that there is at least one player on their team who’s heart isn’t a lump of coal. But enough of the niceties. It is game on tonight, CBC 8:00 pm MST.

Both teams come in to tonight’s game licking their wounds a little. Edmonton ultimately put up a stinker in the Tuesday night home opener, squandering a 2 goal lead in the latter half of the game through a combination of bad turnovers and shoddy goaltending. There were some positives in that they out shot the traditional whipping boy Jets, the powerplay looked potent and some individual players showed very well in their Oilers debut, namely Jesse Joensuu, Boyd Gordon and, to a little lesser extent, Anton Belov. The key to tonight’s game will be to get rolling early, limit breakdowns in the defensive zone especially off the effective Canuck cycle, push back when things undoubtedly get physical and don’t get sucked into taking retribution penalties against a bevy of despicable Canuck players. We all know what happened last game between Weiss/Hall and Kassian/Gagne so we can expect some fireworks early and often. The expected line up…

Smyth – Hall – Hemsky
Joensuu – Gordon – Eberle
Perron – Arcobello – Yakupov
Gazdic – Acton – Brown

Smid – Petry
Ference – Schultz
N Schultz – Belov

Dubnyk

The Canucks blew their season opener against the Sharks in a 4-1 spanking. The Canucks scored an early PP goal but the vetran Sharks didn’t waiver, taking over the game early in the 2nd, starting a string of 4 unanswered goals. The Canucks were badly out-shot and soundly outplayed. They will be coming into tonight’s game ill tempered and looking to bring a better effort for their fans in their home opener. The keys to their game will be to stay out of the penalty box and getting the Sedin sisters favourable matchups to allow them to do what they do best, cycle, cycle, cycle.

The importance of in division games is going to be ramped up this season. For the Oilers to have a good shot at playoffs one would assume that they will need to go at least .500 against Pacific division opponents. The Canucks are a team that they will most likely be below in the standings so beating the lower half of the division is a must. To make the playoffs even more likely they are going to have to find a way to get the better of one of the big 3. I think the Canucks are the most vulnerable and the most likely victim. They are in the twilight of their dominance and there is no better time than now for the up and coming Oil to start making their move. It’s time to give the this highly detestable franchise of whiny, cheap, hypocritical donkeys, most fans included, a taste of the losing end of things… even though they’ve never really won anything! (ZING!)

GAME ON!