OILERS GORED BY BUFFALO
Sabres leave town with 5-0 win
It’s been a couple of weeks since all the forks were stuck in them. Tuesday was the night to stick in all the knives.
It was time to carve them for being the turkey they continue to insist on being this season.
At this point, how can you possibly not question their character?
On a day when Ryan Smyth was named to the Order of Hockey Canada and the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup was rebranded the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the Oilers were in danger of being an “elsewhere in hockey” sort of story.
If only they’d settled for that. It would be more like: “Did you see what happened in Edmonton last night?’
The Oilers picked the occasion for their latest no-show, stinkthe-joint-out abomination at home. This isn’t a team that needs a skill-development consultant. This is a team that requires a willdevelopment consultant.
If there was ever a mid-January game to come along when the entire team ought to have been able to catch the street car named desire to Rogers Place, Todd McLellan’s Oilers decided to throw themselves in front of it.
You’d think a game against the 30th-place Buffalo Sabres — a team that defeated them 3-1 on the road and a team that had only won back-to-back games once this season before their Tuesday trip to Edmonton — would have the squad Peter Chiarelli assembled for this season more than motivated.
The Oilers came in on a threegame winning streak supposedly looking to make it four in a row for the second time this season.
Wrong. They couldn’t have come out and produced a more empty effort.
What’s the NHL record for soiling the sheets coming off positive performances? With the Oilers, it’s a routine.
There was not only the threegame winning streak going into the game. There was the example of the Colorado Avalanche’s 10-game winning streak, as well as an opponent that had only won back-to-back games once this season.
And there was the chance to go into the all-star break after Thursday’s home game against Calgary back at .500. Just like they did with a four-game winning streak leading into the Christmas break.
The combination brought the fans back to Rogers Place with their batteries at least slightly recharged for the occasion.
The Oilers assembled themselves for the game with batteries not included.
Fans came to the game prepared to believe in miracles, despite the fact everybody stuck forks in them some time ago. It was another false alarm. How can you muster zero motivation to play that game?
That was inexcusable and it’s getting to the point where some people are going to have to get excused around here.
You should know there is an Oilers season seat holder breakfast with Oilers Entertainment Group CEO Bob Nicholson and Chiarelli scheduled Wednesday for 7:30 a.m. An even bigger one is scheduled for Jan. 30.
If they’re anything at all like their hockey team, Nicholson and Chiarelli won’t show up.
It was situation normal in the first period.
The Oilers didn’t get a shot on their putrid, pathetic power play
This isn’t a team that needs a skilldevelopment consultant. This is a team that requires a willdevelopment consultant.
and were a total fire drill on the penalty kill, as usual.
Nothing changes. The two areas that have been killing this team all season continue to kill it. To keep doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
Giving up the first goal, as always, the Oilers were down 1-0 and outshot 15-8 in the first period. So somebody would peel the paint off the dressing room wall between periods and they’d come out fired up and be a galvanized group for the sandwich session?
It looked more like they got out the kindergarten mats and had naps instead.
Seventeen seconds into the second period, it was 2-0 Buffalo. Seventeen seconds!
Then 3-0. Then 4-0.
Cam Talbot, the only one keeping them in it during the first period, got the mercy hook at 11:39 of the second.
Another Buffalo goal made it 5-0 before the fans, as the tradition on such nights demands, applauded the “one minute remaining ” announcement at the end of the period.
Surprisingly some of them returned for the third period. The 3,000 or 4,000 left at the end stayed to boo them off the ice in the final minute.
More surprisingly, nobody threw one of the free Orange Crush towels on the ice. The promotion should have been more properly billed as Orange Crushed Night.