6 games left to go in this wretched season and even though the Oilers are winning as of late, the news just continues to get worse. Taylor Hall will go under the knife to repair a torn labrum that has hampered him over the last few months. Recovery time is expected to be 5-6 months. The injury puts next season's training camp in jeopardy for him. Hall does have a gumby like nature, so his recovery time isn't that of a normal player, but a torn labrum is an injury that is a long, slow injury to recover from with a ton of rehab. Hopefully he will be ready for training camp, but I have my doubts. The Oilers have points in their last 7 games going 5-0-2 in that span. The Oilers have really played some solid hockey despite not having much to play for other than pride. If you combine their October and March records, they would have a mark of 13-6-5. A playoff achieving clip. Something went seriously awry in the months of November, December, January, and February. Either the fix was in and the coaching and management sabatoged their own team or the Oilers truly don't know success if it hit them in the face. The pundits will say that inconsistancy is the mark of the young team. Welp, with the Oilers is the vets that need to find their consistancy. The Stars come into this game losers in Calgary, 5-4, on Monday night. The Stars are anywhere from winning their division to not making the playoffs at all, so needless to say, this is a big game for them. Right now they sit in 7th place. Theo Peckham is also out with a concussion. Taylor Fedun was practising with the team yesterday, wearing a normal practise jersey. That's a tremendous sign, he has come a long way since that horrific leg injury he suffered in training camp. It is unlikely he'll see game action before season's end.
Forwards Oilers
- The injury to Hall hurts, but they still have a couple of other kids that can ramp up the offense.
Defense Stars
- Former Oiler Sheldon Souray having a solid season with 21 points and a +17 rating.
Goaltending Stars
- Kari Lehtonen = Vezina finalist.
Special Teams Oilers
- Oilers powerplay is 2nd while the Stars are 28th.
Coaching Stars
- Stars seem to have the Oilers number for 2 decades now. Styles clash.
Intangibles Oilers
- Oilers should be well rested after having Monday off. Stars are in the middle of a road trip.
Oilers:
Jones-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Hartikainen-Gagner-Hemsky
Smyth-Belanger-Petrell
Hordichuk-Vandevelde-Eager
Smid-Petry
Whitney-Schultz
Sutton-Potter
Dubnyk
Khabibulin
Stars:
Eriksson-Ribeiro-Ryder
Benn-Ott-Burish
Nystrom-Fiddler-Vincour
Morrow-Dowell-Garbutt
Souray-Robidas
Daley-Pardy
Larsen-Goligoski
Lehtonen
Bachman
Game Time - 7:30 PM MT @ Rexall Place on Sportsnet Edmonton.
No comments:
Post a Comment