Monday, November 26, 2007

Ninety Years Young!

Today the National Hockey League was officially founded with the following teams: Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Sentators, Toronto Arenas and the Quebec Bulldogs. Frank Calder was elected as the league's first President and would serve until his death in 1943.

I highly recommend checking out the timeline of the NHL. The back and forth of teams coming in and out of the league is interesting. My favorite part: "Back on Jan. 9, 1918: The NHL announced a new rule permitting goaltenders to leave their feel while making a save. Previously a penalty was called if a netminder sat or lay on the ice to stop the puck." I love this. Can you imagine if goalies couldn't flop on the ice? No career for Hasek.

Anyways, I've been a bad blogger. So what's new the Oilers? Good news is they are not in last place. That belongs to Washington. Bad news, we're only 2 points out of the basement. More good news: we're within 3 points of 7 teams. Bad news: we're 7 points out of a playoff spot. Good news: it's only the end of November. Bad news: we're down another defenseman due to a concussion to Dicky. Good news: Pisani is a couple weeks away from returning. Bad news: Moreau and Souray are not.

So does the good outweigh the bad? I have no clue but it's been an up and down season thus far. Oilers have 6 of 9 wins from shootouts including another one on Saturday against Chicago. It's been a struggle for each and every win but the Oilers are dominating the shootout. Gagner, Hemsky and Horcoff have been spectacular. Also, Pitkanen has been fantastic since his return. In particular, he was jumping into the rush big time on Saturday verses Chicago. It was nice to see him so natural as a rushing defenseman. I hope we see more of this.

Another game tonight: Oilers vs Columbus. I'm going out on a limb and say the Oilers win this in regulation. I know, a dangerous call but I'm going with a nice comfortable win. 4-1 with goals by Cogs, Gags, Hemmer and Horcoff.

2 comments:

Red said...

Good call on the game prediction. You weren't too far off. You're not the only bad blogger around. It's been hard to come up with decent posts without too much complaining.

You know, this team doesn't really suck as bad as the standings indicate. If we can just pull the PP together (Haha, I said pull the PP)and get a couple line combinations that gel, we may come out of this season in relative mediocrity.

MacS said...

Nice prediction. Also:

Owner: Take this object, but beware it carries a terrible curse!
Homer: [worried] Ooooh, that's bad.
Owner: But it comes with a free Frogurt!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The Frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: [worried] That's bad.
Owner: But you get your choice of topping!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The toppings contains Potassium Benzoate.
Homer: [stares]
Owner: That's bad.
Homer: Can I go now?