AnySportAnyTime

It isn’t many times when the 29th ranked team beats the top ranked team in professional sports. There aren’t many times  when I predict the 29th ranked team to beat the top ranked team and it actually happens!

But today is a day where I can blow my own horn. Yesterday I successfully blogged that the Edmonton Oilers would beat the Detroit Red Wings. They did just that last night by a score of 5-4.

The main reason I predicted the Oilers is because I haven’t been impressed with the play of Ty Conklin who struggled mightily last night by giving up three goals in the first period. I remember the days Oiler fans winced often when Conklin was in net and now it is the Red Wings’ time to wince.

Sam Gagner continued his outstanding scoring touch with three points (two goals and one assist). Jordan Eberle also scored two goals and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the shootout winner. Ryan Smyth, Ryan Whitney and Ales Hemsky all added two assists.

I was hoping to praise the play of Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who is 4-0-1 in his last five starts. But in actuality, I felt he was a little shaky at times. Don’t forget Dubnyk has won his last two games despite giving up eight goals. That just doesn’t happen often in today’s NHL. I also realized what TSN’s Darren Pang commented on earlier in the week, and that is Dubnyk’s number one weakness is his lateral movement– something I agree that he needs to improve.

The Oilers now go on a three game road trip that starts Monday in Toronto.

Tags: ales hemsky, detroit red wings, Edmonton Oilers, jordan eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, ryan smyth, sam gagner

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 9:53 am and is filed under NHL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.