Edmonton still struggles

Oiler Shawn Horcoff battles for the puck in last night's 4-2 loss to Anaheim

I couldn't help but noticing a bit of an insightful statement from ESPN's NHL Power Rankings. (Which are superb compared to SI's) We find the Oilers ranked 28^th out of 30, one position better than last week's 29^th. Their caption reads: “The Oilers have lost three of four while keeping their eye on the lottery pick.”

What?!? You've gotta be kitten me right meow. For a team that started off the season great at 8-2-2, Edmonton has plummeted to 25-34-6, with 56 points and well out of a playoff spot. Even the Blue Jackets are catching the Oilers! Even the Canadiens are catching the Oilers!

What's more surprising, Edmonton is looking at the possibility of three straight seasons of being rock-bottom in the league. 62 points in the last two seasons, and maybe a few more than that this season. With four of the main scoring contributors still under 23 years old, Edmonton is looking at its third straight season with a high draft pick, potentially #1 once again.

But really, what does this even mean for the Oilers? What have the past two seasons even done to prove their success with draft choices? I'm certainly not ignoring Hall and RNH's success, but the team overall is still doing miserable. What is a third straight top draft choice going to do for them? What will happen when the Oilers acquire someone like Nail Yakupov, or Ryan Murray in this year's draft? How close is this team – which hasn't graced the playoffs since their 2006 cup bid – to contending in the playoffs? (Don't forget, on that 2006 run, Edmonton was still ranked 8^th in the West overall, hardly even in the postseason)

Regardless, they still have an extremely loyal fan base, which believes it will have an incredible NHL team a few years down the road. We'll have to wait and see.

The Battle of Alberta

Jerome Iginla leads the Flames with 11 goals this season

Saturday night was Oilers @ Flames on Hockey Night in Canada, and the first Battle of Alberta I’ve watched in its entirety. Iginla had 2 goals, one of them an empty net, in Calgary’s 3-0 win over Edmonton. Being more of an Oiler/Nugent-Hopkins fan, I was a bit disappointed, but it was an exciting and scoreless game for the first 33 minutes. The two teams seemed pretty evenly matched until midway through the second period, when the shots were announced in favor of the Flames, 24-11. That’s when Tom Kostopoulos scored from right in front of the net, on a power play caused by his stick getting slashed by Gagner. Despite the surprise from the commentators that Khabibulin wasn’t playing, Dubnyk did a pretty good job, making 31 saves. (He had quite a good retro-like mask too)

I think I have to say from the standpoint of a Leafs fan in the Eastern time zone, the battle of Alberta is THE NEW battle of Ontario. For one thing, CMU’s dorm cable for some reason gets the Montreal feed of CBC instead of Windsor or Toronto. (I don’t know why) So on Saturday at 7p.m. I’ve recently ended up with the Montreal game, unless of course they’re playing the Maple Leafs. Toronto doesn’t even play on every Saturday night anymore. The west coast HNIC games are pretty much my version of Saturday Night Live. It’s a sneak-peek into the Western Conference, which I don’t see much of besides the Red Wings and whoever they’re playing from out there. So whoever it is playing, Vancouver, Edmonton, or Calgary, I usually really enjoy watching it. And if it’s any of these Canadian teams playing one of the others, especially Calgary & Edmonton, it’s a BIG deal. Even if I’m only tuned in a little while, it’s something I don’t get to see very often. Plus, since I hope to someday call play-by-play for hockey games, Mark Lee is one commentator I love to hear, even more than Bob Cole at this point. A hybrid sound of Lee and Cole is what I hope to someday sound like.

It’s an exciting time in Edmonton, great young players like RNH, Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi, and a better start than they’ve had in the past seasons. A playoff spot is possibly on the way.