Oilers duel Canucks at Rexall Place

Vancouver Canucks vs Edmonton Oilers 5-3 (3-0, 0-2, 2-1)

In addition to the changes of Gagner and Pitton for O'Sullivan and Hiller, the Oilers made Ladislav Smid a healthy scratch in favour of heavyweight Nolan Yonkman coming into this game.

The changes had no positive effect, the Oilers were absolutely mauled during the first period. Gratton, Samuelsson and Daniel Sedin all put themselves on the scoreboard. The Oilers put up a puny 2 shots on goal in total, while the Canucks peppered Khabibulin with 19 attempts of their own. The fans were jeering, while Kevin Constantine was surely pondering the paradox between needing to 'dig dip' and 'being in a hole' in contrast to the maxim 'when in a hole, stop digging'.

Without any shovels nor ice picks the Oilers entered the ice in the second a completely different team. Increased aggression and tighter gap control allowed Edmonton to regain momentum and turn it into results - a turnover gave the Oilers a chance on the rush which Andrew Cogliano finished off beautifully. Anton Babchuk netted his second of the season straight off a Ryan Stone face off half-way through the game. The come back was not complete, but the Oilers had struck back and almost tied the Canucks on the shot clock with 22 shots to 24.

Daniel Sedin scored his second of the night early in the third, sparking debate among Oilers fans whether Lazarus was moving or not. Penner's rebound goal on the power play two minutes after the Canucks' goal led the fans to believe that there was indeed life, but just faintly. However, when Kesler scored on a breakaway five minutes before full time, most were assured that rigor mortis had long since set in and that an eulogy should have been started already. The Oilers lose, 5-3

Post game: Sam Gagner had a nondescript debut, while the better Oilers were Babchuk, Cogliano and Stone - though they were all eclipsed by the stunning play of Vancouver's top line, who received honours for their part in the slaughter through being named stars of the game. The Oilers' top forward, Ales Hemsky, was glaringly absent throughout most of the game, receiving a weak -1 on the night.


Scoreboard
1st Period:
VAN - Gratton (Fedotenko, Edler)
VAN - Samuelsson (Fedotenko, Kesler) PP
VAN - D. Sedin (H. Sedin, Bieksa) PP

2nd Period:
EDM - Cogliano (Skille, Grebeshkov)
EDM - Babchuk (Stone)

3rd Period:
VAN - D. Sedin (Bernier, Edler) PP
EDM - Penner (Babchuk, Visnovsky) PP
VAN - Kesler (Burrows, Foote)


Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Cogliano - Laich - Skille
Axelsson - Stone - Moore
Moreau - Falardeau - O'Marra

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Lashoff - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Khabibulin
(Pitton)