Friday, December 07, 2007

LiveBlogging: Blues @ Oilers.




- Missed the first 5 minutes of the game, Matt told me we were playing well.

- Great looking first powerplay, it's too bad Penner didn't read off of Hemsky taking it to the front of the net just as the man advantage expired, that could have been a pretty goal.

- Johnson had Garon beat, but put if off the side of the net. That would have been a real momentum killer.

- Horc hits the post with a great looking release. He has been great this season.

- 2-1 turns into a 1-1 down low for Thor. Cogliano makes an ugly pass and Thor doesn't much on the shot.

- 1-0 Blues - This game is looking High even so far. Stepniak makes a nice play as Rourke finds himself in no man's land. Boyes then cleans up the garbage.

- Hemmer and Penner on a 2-1. If Hemmer makes the pass, I think Penner puts it in, Matt agrees. Hemmer's second drawn penalty so far, he's having a solid game.

- Grebs and Smid out to start the PP on the point. Matt thinks it's a shorty waiting to happen. Next thing you know Johnson and McClement create a quality SC. Matt thinks that was a penalty on Pitkanen, he's happy we are still on the PP.

- Great chance and Gagner breaks his stick. Hopefully we'll start to capitalize on some of these opportunities. It's looking like another "blues backup" kind of game (fuck you Sanford).

- Nice little play by Cogliano to get Brodziak a nice chance

- 1-1 Beauty play by Hemmer. Gets in there to get the faceoff win, draws in basically the whole Blues team and dishes to Horc, who takes a great shot for the gaol. Kinger think Horcoff's shot has drastically improved since last year.

- I love watching Pitkanen play. Pinches down low to support the puck with such confidence, and he's got the skating ability to get back when things go wrong.

First Intermission 1-1
-Good period. I think the team deserves better than a tie game, and the St. Louis broadcast team agrees with me.

On Stoll and Torres, here is Kinger and my chat log from earlier today
Kinger: weird eh
Matt: Crazy.
Kinger: did you hear about that yelling match
Kinger: from last game
Matt: I heard. Not sure what happened there. There's so much hearsay in the whole thing. But this benching leads one to believe the hearsay may have some merit.
Kinger: yea i agree
Kinger: the fact that they both ate it
Kinger: leads me to believe in the stortini rumour a bit
Kinger: seems to make sense
Matt: Yeah.
Kinger: i can see raffi calling him out too
Kinger: and stoll backing him up
Matt: The timing is about right too. Because before Pies came back, who would they expect to have on their wing?
Kinger: the whole public side of it from MacT is a deflection
Kinger: i think
Kinger: about struggling or whatever
Matt: But with him back, they got pissed off when they still had Stortini
Matt: Yeah
Kinger: there must be a catalyst
Matt: I tend to agree,.
Kinger: i gotta say if it's true
Kinger: good move
Kinger: stortini has played with more balls than both those guys
Kinger: combined
Kinger: it's ridiculous for them to be calling anyone out
Matt: Agreed. You can't have guys questioning the coaching and blaming their teammates like that.
Matt: I don't care if they were playing well or not you can't have that.
Kinger: it's one thing for hemmer to say that stoll and torres needs to be better
Kinger: publicly
Kinger: or horc calling them out
Kinger: it's another thing to have the guys that you are counting on playing shitty and calling others out
Kinger: i mean don't get me wrong
Kinger: it's bad either way
Kinger: but it's especially bad if this is the case
Matt: I suppose. But I would be pretty choked at Horc if he was yelling at MacT on the bench about his anchor LW du jour.
Matt: Yeah, agreed.

Second Period

-WTF just happened? Garon gets dragged to the corner and manages to take a holding the stick penalty!

-Grabbing the stick is alright, but you gotta let go before you end up in the corner.

- Staios, great play on the PK. Good play by Marty to get it out on the next sequence

- Rourke makes a bad decision and decides to skate right in front of his net with McClement right on him. We normally like Rourke's brand of simple hockey, but he just doesn't have the foot speed to lose McClement on that play.

- Nice play by Smid coming out of his own end. He's had a strong game tonight.

- Another penalty drawn by a good shift by Hemsky and Horcoff. Brewer for holding. You could see it coming.

- Great play by the kids on the second unit. Kinger is furious McKee on the Blues didn't take a cross checking penalty for drilling Nilsson after he he took the shot on his chance in front. On the replay it looked absolutely vicious.

- Nice little bit on the Blues broadcast about Weight and Brewer signing autographs for 3rd graders in Edmonton.

- Kinger tells me Penner was awful against Pittsburgh, but we both agree he's looked pretty good tonight. If that pick can get out of the top 10, I'll be perfectly okay with that signing.

- Goalpost for Tkachuk on a wacky play.

- Oilers are getting killed on the draws tonight. The centers are getting waived out a lot as well.

- Couple ugly bounces here leading to sustained Blues pressure. Garon gloves it through a screen and gets a draw. Tkachuk vs. Gagner down low is a bad match.

- Blues powerplay looks pretty good. I don't like Pitkanen on the PK, I'd rather have him fresh for EV and the PP. When Souray returns, i'd like to see Staios - Smid and Gilbert - Souray as the top four on the PK.

Second intermission


Followed up a good first with a shaky second. Our PK looked pretty ugly.

Third Period


- "Pisani stole it", music to Oiler fan ears. His hard play on the board leads to a Oiler powerplay. Thank Doug, we know where your heart is.

- Intentional offside, that's a rare one. Matt is not convinced that Penner knew it was offside.

- Fans boo a terrible PP. A good choice.

- Looks like a pretty chincy call on Gilbert. 2-1 Blues just after the start of the powerplay. Our PK has looked pretty bad so far, it was liable to hurt us eventually.

- 3-1. Dougie gets lucky as the puck goes off Gilbert's pad and through Garon's legs.

- 3-2. Nilsson with his patented one timer goal. Great pass by Gagner to see the seam.

- Doug Weight almost quiets the crowd. Nice save by Garon.

- Pies on the top lines, let's see how this works out.

- 4-2 Blues. Kariya makes Penner pay for a mistake at the blue line.

- Matt thinks if we score 4-4 then on the PP we can win this. Lol.

- 4-3
. Marty puts in a nice pass from Horc. We're still in this.

No comments: