Another night in Western Canada against yet another team that I don't hate. The Canucks, as I mentioned yesterday, had some possible reasons to dislike, but there's just no hate there. The Oilers are the same for me. Back in the late '90s and early '00s I'd watch them on the Center Ice package and thought they were an interesting team, but that faded somewhere along the way. Today I probably can't name four Oilers without cheating and looking online.
But again, there are some reasons to try to get your hate on. For one, the Oilers are apparently starting their rookie netminder Devan Dubnyk because Jeff Deslauriers had it too easy against the Note in St. Louis and thought he'd let the kid have a crack at them. Seriously though, the Blues are reaching that point this year where teams do not respect their pop-gun offense and have been starting their backup netminders against them. That should piss the team off, but with this group, don't hold your breath.
Second, the Blues were booed off of home ice when these two teams met just 10 days ago after the Oilers came back from 3-0 to win 5-3. The Fire Andy Murray campaign picked up serious steam after that uninspiring loss and has further added supporters with the team's consistently inconsistent efforts. Can the Blues fire themselves up for some retribution against the Oilers? Can they play a good game tonight or will they follow the same pattern of good game/bad game they've had most of the season. Can they get another win on the Save Andy's Job Tour?
Again, who knows?
The Oilers, for their part, have struggled lately as well after going 5-0 on the road, capped by that win in St. Louis on Dec. 11, followed by a 0-3 steak on home ice.
I know the Road Music brought in some Heart for tonight's game, but I have a suggestion of my own. If I'd been one of the guys who got booed off the ice against this team, this is what I'd have on the locker room boombox before we went out:
And yeah, the puppiez help somehow.
Game is at 8 on FSN Midwest and KMOX. The other half live over at The Copper & Blue, where they totally copied us and use a Psalm from the Bible to intro the game.
This, of course, is your GDT.
Move, bitch, get out the way, Get out the way, bitch, get out the way.