I thought Chorney played surprisingly well, considering all the changes to the back end. Peckham too, but the big story on D was Gilbert! He was a manimal out there, in all aspects.

But it was definitely a night where the opposition didn't have as much in the tank as they normally do - end of a road trip with back to back games.

So the Hawk's sched and having the last change at home helped our crew out tonight. I'm not saying that the 'squeeeeees' are uncalled for, just that I'll be squeeeeeing my pants off when they start playing like this on the road. So glad that my visions of a brutal game turned out to be 180 degrees out! SQUEE!

cool.

It seemed to me the last word you gave on Horcoff was a lot less equivocal. I remember finding it an overreach.

to me it seems your issue is not with Horcoff but with what constitutes the line succession... this has been a perennial side-debate around here... whether scoring = #1 line or TOI, or quality of competition... a good argument can be made for any of these factors or a combination.

but however you slice it IMO Horcoff is top 6... he's in the top in TOI (he gets a lot of mins); top in quality of competition (he plays all the tough competition - Oake asked him about this last night... about how tough Toews is to play against - and he gets a lot of own-zone starts); AND he is 5th on the team in scoring...

So i'm not sure what measure you can use to say he's not top 6, other than saw him bad... but you've got a tough road to hoe IMO

as for calling names... I'm not really that worried about it. horsing around and ribbing people is fun ... as long as it's good natured. My interest in it is less hurt feelings and more avoiding nauseating, seemingly never-ending grudge matches... boring!

as for Beer drinker... he does drink a lot of beer, and he's tangled with Hazel so take that into account. also I've had a lot of good back and forth with the guy... so I wouldn't worry about it...

every oiler fan is sacred!

they mentioned last night that chicago had their version of edmonton's rodeo in their rink all week... so there might be something to that...

but still, you are indeed correct when you SQUEE with abandon!

If it was 4-2, 2-1 or 3-2 I would squeee with trepidation. For all the reasons as mentioned above...

But 9-2! 9 freaking goals to 2, against a team that outscored us 30-8 in the past several home games we played?

Yeah that was a back-alley drubbing and no I'm tired excuse can stand to that absolute pounding.

Although I am still a little concerned that our top 6 are the only forwards who can generate a point when we pot 9.

RNH - 5 assists Paajarvi - 0 points

WHATEBERLES THAT WAS AWESOME SQUEEE

Nice to beat up on the Hawks. Brings me back to the good ole days when the Oil regularly beat up on teams like the Hawks...remember Orville Tessier. It brought tears of joy to see the glum look of all those Hawk players including Carcillo, Toews, Kane. Duncan Keith looked like a pylon out there. We needed that one.

Man after the best game of the season and an all night long celebrating with brewskies I sober up to this.

Really? You chose a celebratory blog from Wayne after the best game of the season to spew out your garbage. Ok I'll bite but first an apology to the rest of the nation as I don't mean to add on to the negativity in otherwise glorious day for the Oil.

justwondering - Below is your original post about Horcoff and the reason why I called you an idiot in the first place.

"Why does Horcoff have to be on the top 2 lines? He is not a top six player... Gagner or Pajaavri will never develop playing 3rd and 4th line ice time. Horcoff is not the future here! I don't see what the Oilers see in this guy. He was at fault on Chicago's 4 and 5th goals. Just because he makes a lot of money doesn't mean he should have a lot of ice time! We are squandering our youth on this guy, and we have people on the farm better than he is... hell there are players in Senior A hockey better than he is! Not one of the 29 other teams would take him for their top 2 lines, if Edmonton payed 90% of his salary. So why do we... justwondering."

Clearly from your post above, your stance on Horcoff is: Horcoff sucks, there are a lot of players in the farm and even in Senior A that are better than him. But in the same breath, you want him to center our 3rd or 4th line. How does that make any sense?

Now, the guy has a good game and you jump on here like you just proved your point. He got three points (2 on the PP playing with top 6 guys). So if your stance is Horcoff sucks, then are you now using his good game to support your argument? How does that make sense.

Tip for you - change the "o" to an "a" in your handle, it'll be more fitting.

PS- I'm done with you. You've obviously brought a Robertson screw driver to a gun fight. For me to continue to engage you is just a really mean form of bullying. Kids, bullying is bad.

Just watching the highlights (again...), and would like some opinions on the 5 on 3 formation where Gilbert got his goal. Has anyone seen this '2 guys behind the icing line' on a 5 on 3 before? It looked like a planned formation.

But whatever it was, boy is it ever 'crazy like a fox' kinda brilliant! No? You get a clear path to both points, allowing them to pinch down a little farther than normally, and the triangle defence has no chance to react quickly enough to the pass out.

I was too busy drinking and cheering last night. What lines did TR roll with? Too much going on to pay attention

I'm not on the twitters, but.....

#SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

It definitely looked planned.

If memory serves the last 5-3 we had we failed to convert because the D on the other team kept lying on the ice preventing RNH from getting a pass through the crease from behind/side of the net. I think this formation was in response to that poor outing.... break down the goalie (has to go back and forth repeatedly) and confuse the D (so occupied with the back and forth - no time to lay on the ice and take away the pass) leaving the point open...

It will be interesting to see if they try it again the next opportunity and whether it will work a second time... funny though, i don't recall seeing it before from any team.

you make an excellent case. justwondering seems to be barking up his own tree on this one (for the reasons I said above #52).

but he's clearly moderated his comments and tried to make amends (though he continues to hold questionable positions)... why keep us mired in the muck?

as i said before... every Oiler fan is sacred!

Finally...Renney goes with 2 solid scoring lines and uses shutdown guys on the Horcoff line...

As long as they don't go back to the way it was before and they keep using the same type of lineup they will score more than the 27th they were before the CHI game.

I like the Gagner, Hemsky, Hall line to offset the RNH, Smyth, Eberle line....I think you'll see both lines start to produce on any given night. Both lines were dangerous last night.

Yeah, me too - never seen it before. Initially, I was just about to start screaming at the TV about having 2 guys behind the net, but then... crazy like a fox, I say.

Must be a Swiss trick, if their knives are any indication of how crafty they are.

A few games back the Oilers scored on 5 on 3 with this play. Renney was asked about it after that game and said it was something he wanted to try because it forced the opposing defensemen/goalie to turn their backs to the play and leaves the point shot open.

I like it!

I'm glad you agree that bullying is bad :)

Ahh. Good to see some effective strategy. I missed all those games on SN1, so I didn't see it the first time.

I like it too... i guess i missed that, or forgot about it... i have only missed a couple of games this year...

funnier though that Chicago didn't seem prepared for it... if we've done it before, you'd think they would have thought through how to break it down...

there's only one way to bring us all together... beer drinking, polka and hilarious hair and outfits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sshhb5ISHvI

I encourage you to pay close attention to the guitar player... from a distance he's clearly of average male height, but in a close up he looks like a little person

No, I meant Hall. I was comparing Carcillo on Hemsky to Dorset on Hall, the game where Hall decided to pay Dorset back for the cheapshots with dire consequences. Both Dorset and Carcillo are pieces of mold growing on fecal matter. Though I'd never expect Hemsky to challenge Carcillo for it, maybe Hall would have played a whole season if one of his team mates took exception to the rough treatment Hall was receiving after checks.

Wow, that was some drunk typing. Great night!

But the moo-lay on the sax player is out freakin' rageous! High-larious hair is right! Cabbage rolls and coffee!

that sax-guy is dangerously close to the full bonsignore... so much flow... let it out!