Talk about a downhill slide through the game.

The Oilers can skate, but so can we, and we showed them how in the first. Penalties were the key and 4 to Edmonton in #1, with the balance to Montreal in the 3rd, and that was that.

The guys looked a little flat in the 2nd, especially after flying in the 1st. But the double minor to start the 3rd was bad luck/bad timing. It threw the flow off -- particularly for players like Zednik and Ryder, who never seemed to get on track after the flat 2nd.

Watching from the stands, I noticed a few things.

Ribeiro is like Gretzky in some ways -- he's viturally invisible (well, except that Gretzky would be invisible until he let the puck go through a maze of legs and it either went in the net, or went to someone who put it in the net).

The D had probs and Komisarek seemed a tad confused, at times. and Rivet, well...dang. Boy, did the Oilers enjoy hitting on Bouillion. Markov is SO smooth. Souray is coming around (slowly). Hmm, back to the hitting -- the Oilers pounded pretty good on our boys and I think it started to show in the final period; we really need some skill players who can 'counter punch' with some speed AND finesse that will make some of the hitters think twice about committing themselves to a hit. Two goals on Jose were top corners -- as much luck, as skill (especially on the big slapper from the dot); that said, Jose looked like he went down a little early on both of them, which is starting to look like the book on him. Now I know why everyone can't stand Dagenais -- he skates from the knees down, instead of powering with his legs, and he's just so lazy and ineffective...he's too stupid to know he's stupid.


POSITIVES - we don't do enough of that on this thread. Higgins was a star. Jose made some fine saves and is doing much better with rebounds. Plekanec worked hard. I already mentioned Souray. Both teams played disciplined hockey (for the most part) -- virtually no odd-man rushes for either side until a flurry at the end. Begin's check on Ulanov was NOT charging -- no strides, on the ice, away from the boards, face on...sigh.

Finally, I'm not going to vent tonight, even though it was horrible walking the concourse at Rexall Place -- so often, we win in Edmonton, but tonight...there was a fight (how embarrassing). What I'm looking for is the Second Season -- what the NHL is known for -- and all this stuff is simply a preamble where Bob and Claude tinker and fit the pieces together for a play-off run (am I convincing anyone out there?). But hey, I mean it when I say, bring back Koivu and Kovalev and we'll be a completely different team. Then Claude won't have to tear his hair out, the poor guy.