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The Oilers have out-chanced the opposition once or twice (I’ll check later) in the 11 games they’ve been without 71.

Now, in seven of those games they’ve also been without the services of 37 so the loss of both games makes for holes that aren’t that easy to plug.

But, still, 71 seems like the guy who drives any kind of bus that leads to the Oilers out-chancing.

As for tonight, once again the 43/49 pair were sheltered and once again they came up a little-past-even and that’s fine and that’s all we need. But the bigger picture is that the 5/77 tandem doesn’t look good and the 24/44 pairing proves two things.

1. 24 is done as a top four option
2. 44 is the one that Needs propping up as opposed to one that can Do the propping

When we get to the forwards we’ll see that the 10 line is the middle of what has to be their worst stretch of the season by far. MacT’s playing them PVP and for the first time in recent memory, we are losing that battle night-in and night-out.

Finally, 18 is an anchor but he did take a big penalty late in the game to give us a bit of a spark.

Final Notes:

- interesting that both 26 and 27 can come out looking good in tonight’s game

- Overall, I blame Pouliot.

Scott: MacT’s got a love-hate thing going on with 51. Some nights he’ll lean on him and then there are other nights like tonight where he’s nowhere to be found.

The logjam’s loosening up league-wide in terms of trades so perhaps 78 won’t even be here come Sat night. But if he is and he doesn’t draw in after a game like this, I dare say he’s done as an Oiler under MacT unless we incur enough injuries that they have to play him instead of playing say both 22-33.

Its brutal.