THIS! IS! KHABIBULIN!!!!

In honour of Nikolai Khabibulin reaching the 300 win mark last night with his shootout victory over the Dallas Stars...I present to you this wonderful masterpiece. I spent a good 3 minutes on this one, so enjoy it. I have no story or written words to go with it...so I'll leave you with a big, happy "GOILERS!!1!!!"

-TB

Da Stars

Pictured Above: A Star.

I'll make this quick. The Stars fly into RX1 tonight. The Oilers are looking to shake off the feelings of despair that they most undoubtedly felt after watching Khabibulin pull a Horcoff (read: Whiffing on a puck.) to end their season opener on a bit of a downer.

The Powerful and Mighty Oilers will be looking to absolutely hand it to the Marc Crawfordly looking Dallas Stars this evening. This game also marks the return of Charile Huddy to RX1, as he is now an assistant coach with the enemy after being let go by Tambo this summer.

The offensive aspect of the Oilers' home opener wasn't too much to complain about. They showed that they can play physical. They got their noses dirty and generated chances by charging hard to the net and being tenacious on the puck. But I do expect a little bit cleaner play from our squadron this evening on the defensive side of things. Quinn mentioned in the post game comments from Saturday's game that he wasn't terribly thrilled on how his team looked on any of the four goals against. I would have to agree with him. Mostly because he's Pat Fucking Quinn, and also because all four goals against were pretty weak. Except that last one...there was nothing Khabibulin could do on that one. (read: Sarcasm)

Sounds like Nilsson draws into the lineup to replace Moreau who sits tonight with some sort of infection in his foot or something. I dunno. But nothing seems to surprise me anymore when it comes to our Captain and injuries.

The game is being broadcast on PPV tonight. There's an OilersNation.com PPV party with Wanye Gretz and Jason Gregor being held at a swanky new pub "The Pint" at 10125 - 109 Street in E-town. I've been told it's the old Fox and Hounds or something? If I lived within cab ride distance of that place I would be there. But I don't. So I'm just going to continue to pout about it.

Speaking of PPV games... What the fuck is with having the second Oilers game being broadcast as a PPV game? I realize the network/regional tv draw of the Oilers has probably dwindled somewhat since the '06 cup run. But dammit. I don't want to pay for a PPV game so early in the year. I need to see this team in action a few times before I'll commit to dumping 15 bucks on a PPV game. I suppose it's cheaper than "going" to a game...and who am I kidding...I paid for PPV games at the end of the 06-07 season when the team went 2-18 in the final 20 games. One more thing, have you seen the PPV schedule for November? Good lord. There's like 5 of them! I'm going to need to find some friends house(s), bars and/or internet feeds to watch some of those ones. The last thing I need is an extra 75 bucks on my Satellite bill.

Ok then, my guess is Oilers 5, Stars 1. Gagner with the hat trick tonight. Yep...you heard it here first.

-TB

Stay Hydrated

Well well well. What the hell do we have here? Am I mistaken?... or is tonight the season opener for the Edmonton Oilers? You're god damn right it is! I sure hope Khabibulin is drinking lots of water. We don't need our new/old goalie getting dehydrated and having to leave the game between the second and third periods. Do we?

This has been the longest day ever. I woke up this morning around 7 am...as I am normally prone to do. Reason: My kid tends to wake up between 6:30 and 7:00 am every day, which is awesome. I get to live every day to the fullest extent possible, regardless of the state of my hangover. Ahh, the joys of parenthood. You see...some of you may not know...but I am the proud father of a 2 year old girl. (Yeah...I know hey? I barely have the mental maturity of a 12 year old...let alone an adult that could parent offspring ...and have it survice to the age of Two.)

She's a cutie though....so it makes waking up so bloody early at least worth it.




What a darling eh? How do you suppose she knows to what team to cheer for? I swear I've never told her ANYTHING about the Oilers. Ever. She doesn't even know what hockey is.

"But...umm...TB...I hear you in that video telling her what to say."

Well....then....I suggest you get your hearing checked...because I've reviewed this video multiple times and I can't hear anything but a cute kid cheering for her favorite hockey team. My guess is that through some miracle of genetics, she knows that the Oilers are awesome and she must cheer for them to ensure the survival of her species. That's just my guess.

Moving on...

Game Day Bitches!!! The Oilers are playing host to those farm animal lovin' cowpokes from down south this evening. It should be a spirited affair, as always. I'm anxious to see how the Oilers play tonight because the Flames have already played a regular season game. For that reason, I hope the Oilers don't come out flat and I hope they bring it from the second the puck is dropped.

The Flames looked pretty good against the Canucks the other night. They stormed out of the gates and had the Canucks on their heels for 2/3 of the game. The third period was all Vancouver...but the shock and awe technique employed by the Flames in the first two periods was enough to build a lead and weather the storm for the third.

The Oilers need to play a full 60 mintues tonight. They were guilty of playing partial games last season. I don't recall very many games last season where the Oilers stormed out of the gates and kept rolling through to the final buzzer. I sure hope that is one aspect the Oilers work on this season.

I expect the 4th line tonight to be the money maker. I think the combo of Moreau, Gagner and Stortini is a good mix of grit, hard work and skill. It should fare well against the Flames.

That brings me to a final thought: I like these line combos that Quinn and his 332 coaches have thought up. I like the idea of a balanced attack. I mean, sure you could have ONE really potent line...but then you sacrifice the other lines to be chock full of muckers and ham n' eggers. I like the idea of mixing a bit of skill with a bit of hard work....it's a departure from the Mactavish days where we had lines of skill, lines of defensive forwards, lines of muckers and lines of grinders. You knew when the bottom two lines were out on the ice that the chance of scoring a goal was pretty much nil. This way any line has a good chance of potting some G's at any point.

...sounds good in theory...doesn't it?

...what the hell do I know. I just hope it works.

Game time is 8:00pm MST. CBC.

LET'S DOOOOO THIS !!! !!11!

Towel Boy