Edmonton Oilers review || NY Rangers preview

THE NUGE!

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a hatrick*, who also accounts for about 90% of the Oilers scoring this season so far, yet Edmonton still couldn't beat Vancouver.

*RNH's third  goal should have been Taylor Halls, but I think they were just trying to be nice

This season has been a little boring so far.  Boring, predictable...sllooowww.  Aren't we supposed to expect that though?  Over the last 5+ years, the Canucks aren't even a .500 team after the first couple weeks of the season. No need to panic quite yet, although if it doesn't pick up once we hit November, then you can expect to see some people leaping off the band wagon.

There were only a few bright spots I found in the Edmonton game.  The Volpatti fight and the Weise (wee~se) fight were what really stuck out in my mind..  Volpatti won decisively, while Weise and Peckham threw punches-in-bunches but never really landed any.  Dale Weise took a run at Eberle, and if he had connected, oh boy.  The hit probably would have been reviewed by Mr. Shannahan, so it's a good thing Eberle had his head up.  That was a good reason to fight though; it wasn't staged, it wasn't because of a clean check which apparently have become something you have to answer for.  It was a 4th line guy taking a run at one of the star players and then having to pay for his actions.  Just like the good ol' days...

Most topics brought up about the Canucks seem to be, what the kids are calling now a days, Rich People Problems.  We have two extraordinary goaltenders.  Schneider is playing above his worth and, despite what you think, every other team in the league would kill to have Lou minding their net.  Another is, what's going to happen to Hodgson when Kesler comes back, which will be tomorrow against the Rangers.  What are the Canucks going to do with all this talent down the middle?  Sedin, Kesler, Malhotra, Lapierre, Hodgson, "we have too many quality centres, what shall we do?"  I'll tell ya what you do, you play them all!  Samuelsson and Sturm may as well just not show up.  Sturm doesn't want to battle for the puck and Samuelsson seems to be scared of hustle.  Granted, they both are coming off of surgery and are expected to take a bit of warming up, but you should at least see them WARM up.  They are practically invisible and the only reason their line has any sort of pulse is because they have a kid who is battling for a permanent position on the team in Hodgson.

ANYWAYS!  The Rangers, Dale Weise's old club, are in town tomorrow night.  Kesler makes his return (see Rich People Problems above) which will see him centre Hodgson and Higgins.  That line will be like a third line, but all of which have 20+ goal scoring potential.  Well those were the lines during practice anyway, so hopefully they stay that way.

Sturm will be sitting this one out and Tanev was sent down to the minors to make room for the sometimes-clothed Kesler.  The second line went from being deathly slow, to probably the fastest line on the team.

This game should be a battle of the goalies, Lundqvist is a dominant goalie when he is on.  He's often over looked as one of the greats in the league today, which is why he often goes a little later in fantasy hockey pools, as far as goalies go I guess.

There aren't very many scout reports on the Rangers because we just never really see them here.  Most people will regurgitate memories of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final when they think of the Rangers.  I assure you, they aren't that good anymore AND there is no Messier to sucker punch a helpless and battered Trevor Linden (I still haven't forgiven him for that).

My Prediction:

Canucks 4
Rangers 3

Vancouver is going to be bombarded at the end while NY pulls their goalie, but I think were going to hold on to the lead like the Edmonton game.  We should come out a bit faster and stronger than we have so far this season, especially with the (hopefully) revamped 2nd line.