The Edmonton Oilers recorded their second key victory of the week Thursday night at Rexall Place.
Just two nights after Nikolai Khabibulin was flawless in an impressive 3-0 shutout win over the St. Louis Blues, it was the Oilers’ offense time to shine.
Sam Gagner led the Oilers with three points (a goal and two assists) as Edmonton defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-4. However it was a third period goal by Ales Hemsky that proved to be very key. Immediately after a brilliant save by Devan Dubnyk, Hemsky stickhandled his way through Blue Jacket players to score the game winning goal with 3:08 left in the third period in a Bobby Orr like fashion.
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
After two home losses in overtime, the Edmonton Oilers play two back-to-back games on the road this weekend in Detroit (Saturday, CBC, 12 p.m.) and Columbus (Sunday, Sportsnet, 4 p.m.).
With Devan Dubnyk playing every game for the Oilers as the goaltender this season, expect Nikolai Khabibulin to get the start Sunday in Columbus.
The Oilers (4-3-3) to start the season are tied for seventh place in the Western Conference with Detroit and Dallas.
The injury woes at center continue for the Oilers. On Friday, the Oilers put Anton Lander on the injury reserve after a foot injury he suffered Wednesday against Dallas and called up Chris VandeVelde from Oklahoma City.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–World Alpine Skiing Championships–www.cbc.ca–3:00 a.m.–The most significant alpine ski race before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will take place Saturday from Schladming, Austria with the men’s downhill race at the World Alpine Skiing Championships. 2007 World Championship silver medallist Jan Hudec of Banff, Alberta will start eighth, Ben Thomsen of Windermere, British Columbia, who finished second at a World Cup last year near Sochi, Russia will start 15th, Erik Guay of Quebec City, the defending World Champion will start 16th and Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a three-time World Cup champion, will start 23rd. Dominik Paris of Italy is the current World Cup leader, Klaus Kroell of Austria is the defending World Cup champion and Didier Defago of Switzerland is the defending Olympic champion.
Montreal’s Aleksandra Wozniak had a very dominant performance in the second round of the French Open. But the bad news is she will have to be spectacular to advance to round four.
On Wednesday, Wozniak defeated Jie Zheng of China in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. Wozniak played a nearly perfect first set of tennis. She only committed five unforced errors.
In the second set the play was quite even until Zheng injured her foot and was not running on the court at full speed thereafter.
Zheng was a formidable opponent for Wozniak, as seeded 31st in the world, has been to two grand slam semi-finals.
But now Wozniak has to play the Australian Open champion and world no.1 ranked Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. You know, the one that has spent time in Nikolai Khabibulin’s basement.
Azarenka is 35-3 to date with her only losses coming to Marion Bartoli of France in the quarterfinals in Miami, Maria Sharapova of Russia in the final of Stuttgart and Serena Williams of the United States in the final of Madrid.
With the playoff races in both conferences of the National Hockey League in full flight, every goal counts…even the greasy ones!
Only the nice ones make it onto the GOTW list though, and even though it’s coming to you a bit later than usual, it’s still got everything you need when it comes to beauty dangles! This week on the list we’ve got a scrapper showing off some hands, a bit of backhand magic, a diving breakaway goal, some inside-out trickery and a dazzling display that ends unselfishly.
Let’s go!
5. Chris Thorburn
It’s happened a few times already this season, but what’s one more time for good measure? Don’t you love when a guy known for knocking heads ends up turning some heads with a nice move on a top end tendy? Check out this goal by Winnipeg’s Chris Thorburn!
One of the more intriguing days on the hockey calendar takes place tomorrow. The National Hockey League Trade deadline takes place at 1pm Mountain tomorrow.
Here are is my list of the top ten players I am projecting to be traded:
10) Nikolai Khabibulin–Edmonton Oilers–Even though he is not an unrestricted free agent, the Oilers have Devan Dubnyk and Yann Danis to lead them until they are ready to be respectable. Neither are the long term answer, but a year at the status quo in net will give added heartburn for Oilers fans.
9) Kristian Huselius–Columbus Blue Jackets–The former Calgary Flame has only played two games this season and not since December 2 because of a groin injury but is expected back soon and could provide a contender with offensive depth.
8) Steve Staios–New York Islanders–The former Edmonton Oiler and Calgary Flame is 38 years old and could provide a team with some steady presence on defence. Despite not having a goal, he has an impressive 104 blocked shots.
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames came away with victories during CBC’s annual Hockey Day in Canada.
For the Flames, it was a big 3-2 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Jarome Iginla scored the shootout winner past an angry Roberto Luongo, to keep the Flames within two points of the Phoenix Coyotes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Mike Cammalleri and Roman Horak scored for the Flames in regulation, and Olli Jokinen also scored for the Flames in the shootout.
Before the game, the Flames honoured goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, who won his 300th career game Wednesday night in San Jose.
With the win, the Flames improve to 26-22-8 and will next play the Toronto Maple Leafs next on Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The Oilers also won their game Saturday after regulation. Taylor Hall scored at the 17 second mark of overtime as Edmonton beat Ottawa 4-3. This was one of Nikolai Khabibulin’s best games all season. Khabibulin made 39 saves for his first win since December 22.
Ales Hemsky also played very well. He showed great stickhandling skills and recorded assists on goals by Shawn Horcoff and Magnus Paajarvi. Ben Eager also scored for the Oilers.
The Edmonton Oilers got back into the playoff picture Friday night with a convincing 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Rexall Place.
Sam Gagner probably had the best game of the season, in notching two goals and an assist as the Oilers moved into a seventh place tie with the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars in the Western Conference. The Sharks have four games in hand and the Stars have two games in hand on the Oilers however.
I am continuing to have confidence with Nikolai Khabibulin in net. The Russian veteran made 28 saves and should get the start tomorrow night in Calgary as well, with the team not playing again until Thursday in Phoenix.
The turning point in this one came late in the second period when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found Gagner on a beautiful two on one with just three seconds left to put the Oilers up by three goals.
With his two assist effort tonight, Nugent-Hopkins now has 32 points and is sixth in overall scoring through the entire NHL.
For the Edmonton Oilers to contend for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, they need to be better in one position– backup goaltender.
Saturday night strengthened my argument that the Oilers must either send Devan Dubnyk to Oklahoma City, put him on waivers, or trade him. I’d also like to see them give Yann Danis, who has been sparkling with the Oklahoma City Barons (9-4, 2.32 GAA, .925 save percentage) a chance to regularly back up Nikolai Khabibulin.
Dubnyk was horrible in the third period, as he gave up three shots from the point by Colorado Avalanche defencemen–Shane O’Brien, Stefan Elliott and Jan Hejda–who, including last night have a combined four goals this season. Dubnyk looked awful on the goal by Hejda as the puck just went through the wickets with ease.
The Oilers, who got goals from Ryan Jones and Ladislav Smid, couldn’t protect a 2-1 lead after forty minutes.
The news for the Oilers got worse as Taylor Hall left the game in the first period after being bodychecked innocently into the boards by Avalanche defenceman Ryan Wilson. He seemed to have injured his shoulder.
The Oilers next play Monday at home against Nashville.
We’re now over a month into the new hockey season and things are starting to get really interesting in the NHL – some teams started hot and are now slumping, other teams did the opposite, while some teams just know how to win no matter what.
One constant this season though has been a multitude of dirty dangles and beauty goals, and last week was no exception! This week’s GOTW journey starts with some nice hands on a giveaway and ends with a superman snipe. Are you ready to go?
5. Troy Brouwer
Checking in at number five this week is Washington’s Troy Brouwer, who kicked things off against the Devils last Saturday by stealing the puck and beating Johan Hedberg with a nice move. (VIDS after the jump!) (more…)
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
From every angle possible, it is a great time to be an Edmonton Oilers fan. The kids are producing. The veterans are producing. The entire team is buying into Tom Renney’s defensive-minded system and Nikolai Khabibulin has been completely spectacular.
On Saturday night, the Oilers (8-2-2), visit the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena (CBC, 8pm). Edmonton is currently tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Western Conference. They have also only given up 18 goals all season long, five fewer than second place Dallas at 23 goals. The recent play of Khabibulin led Brad May of Rogers Sportsnet to say last night that Khabibulin right now “is the best goaltender in the NHL.”
The Coyotes meanwhile are trying to get to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third year in a row. The last two seasons they have lost to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. So far in 2011-12, they are 6-4-2, and tied with the Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings for fifth place in the Western Conference.
The Coyotes’ top player this season is Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta native Ray Whitney, who leads Phoenix with five goals, seven assists.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
If you are cautiously waiting for the Edmonton Oilers to self-implode, well folks, it simply hasn’t happened yet.
On Thursday night in southern California, Nikolai Khabibulin recorded his second shutout of the season, as the Oilers completely outplayed the Los Angeles Kings in winning 3-0. Khabibulin made 19 saves.
The Oilers now have a record of 8-2-2 and are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for the best record in the Western Conference. Believe it Oiler fans! Believe!
But it wasn’t the household name rookies that were the offensive stars Thursday. It was the skill of center Lennart Petrell and Corey Potter that got them through.
Petrell, who the Oilers signed to a one year deal on the advice of legendary winger Jari Kurri, scored his first career NHL goal to make it 2-0 Oilers. Another interesting fact here is that Anton Lander, the Oilers’ second round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, recorded an assist and his first NHL point.
Corey Potter, who the Oilers signed from the New York Rangers on July 1, also found the back of the net past Jonathan Quick.
And, oh yes, who could forget Ryan Smyth, who was playing in his first game back in Los Angeles to a chorus of California boos, scored the game winning goal.
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
The Edmonton Oilers are red hot right now. They are shockingly in first place in the Western Conference with a record of 7-2-2 and have given up the least goals in the National Hockey League by a wide margin.
Their 18 goals against are four fewer than the Los Angeles Kings, who have given up only 22 goals.
A major reason for the Oilers low goals against total has been the sparkling play of goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who was named the third star by the NHL for the month of October on Tuesday. Khabibulin is 5-0-2 with a shutout, a .960 save percentage and a 1.12 goals against average in October. His goals against average and save percentage lead the NHL. Phil Kessel of the Toronto Maple Leafs was the first star and Kari Lehtonen of the Dallas Stars was the second star.
Khabibulin was also the NHL’s second star of the week behind Montreal Canadien goaltender Carey Price.
In other Oiler news, defenceman Andy Sutton has been suspended four more games for his hit on Colorado Avalanche rookie Gabriel Landeskog on Friday night. The Oilers’ next game is Thursday in Los Angeles.
We’re back with another week worth of sporty goodness – this time around, we’re looking at the decision to keep Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up with the Oilers and the keys to the team’s early success, as well as the latest “Shanabans” in the NHL. As well, we take a look at the Eskimos latest defeat and a huge effort from Edmonton’s Gord Hinse, along with the latest in the NBA lockout drama.
In the GABBYS: The WHL, Jonas Hiller, the St. Louis Cardinals, Terrell Owens, Julian Bursuc and Chris Cooley. This week’s Punchline is Nick Diaz!
The Edmonton Oilers shocked the hockey world on Thursday with a thrilling 2-1 upset victory over the previously unbeaten Washington Capitals (7-1).
Jordan Eberle led the Oilers with a goal and an assist, Nikolai Khabibulin made 34 saves, while Taylor Hall was also able to put the puck past Capitals’ goaltender Tomas Vokoun.
With the win, the Oilers move to 5-2-2 and a first place tie with the Colorado Avalanche (6-3) in the Northwest Division standings. The two teams play tomorrow night in Denver. The Dallas Stars lead the Western Conference with 14 points.
The Oilers survived a strong Capitals flourish late in the game. Down two men as defenceman Andy Sutton was in the penalty box for roughing and the Capitals had pulled Vokoun, Capitals’ superstar Alexander Ovechkin hit the crossbar.
The Oilers were without the services of defenceman Ryan Whitney who had a sore knee, while the Capitals were without Calgary native Mike Green with an ankle injury.
The Edmonton Oilers recorded their second key victory of the week Thursday night at Rexall Place.
With the playoff races in both conferences of the National Hockey League in full flight, every goal counts…even the greasy ones!
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