Tonight the Oilers took to the ice in Detroit against the best team in the NHL. In addition to sitting atop the NHL standings the Red Wings are also one of the best home teams and are currently on a franchise record 17 game home winning streak. The Oilers, for those who have forgotten, are not one of best teams in the NHL and are not very good when playing on the road. To say that tonight's game was a mismatch would be an understatement.

And the Oilers did little to make the game any closer in reality than it appeared to be on paper. They were outshot 30-17 and outchanced 17-11. The Wings dominated the play and kept the Oilers hemmed in their own end for long stretches of time. In fact, if not for some good goaltending from Nikolai Khabibulin early on the Oilers wouldn't have been close enough to tie the game in the third period so bad goaltending from Khabibulin could help seal a 4-2 the win for the WIngs; their 18th in a row on home ice. The Oilers haven't won more than 18 home games in a season since 2007/08.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Winging It In Motown

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You don't see too many games with no penalties. Of course, you also don't see too many games where the defensemen look like they're playing freeze-tag. In the first period, that's how it looked on both sides. The Oilers opened the scoring when Jordan Eberle cashed a beautiful touch pass from Dion Phaneuf. The Leafs followed that with two of their own, one off a brutal Corey Potter giveaway and another that involved Anton Lander, Lennart Petrell, and Cam Barker watching in awe as one of the gods skated by. But the Leafs weren't trying to show anyone up in the first, so it was only fair that they make an absolutely ridiculous line change to allow the Oilers to even the score on a delightful tic-tac-toe play involving Taylor Hall, Jeff Petry, and Jordan Eberle, who netted his second of the night.

It was a fun night of offense for all!

Until it wasn't. The Oilers outchanced the Leafs through one, but in the last two periods they were outchanced 15-7 and outscored 3-1, and my oh my, that's exactly what it looked like. The Leafs sanded down the rough edges between periods with a pumice stone, while the Oilers lopped off an arm in an effort to be the best that they can be. The arm in question belongs to a young phenom, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. You may have heard of him? Well, it turns out he was coming back from a shoulder injury, and in his second game back, seems to have re-injured it on a pretty routine play. No word on seriousness yet, but with the Oilers in the thick of the playoff race, we can at least take solace in the fact that the Black Knight standard of medicine was used with good reason.

Some observations on specific plays and players after the jump.

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Sam Gagner's NHL takeover is in full swing and neither the Chicago Blackhawks nor the Detroit Red Wings, two of the best teams in the league, have been able to stop it. His name is now appearing on walls in Islington and it's only a matter of time before he leaves Cream.

The Edmonton Oilers have scored 15 goals in their last 3 games - Sam Gagner has been on the ice for 14 of them, including the last 12 in a row. Gagner has 12 points in the last three games, 11 in the last two. Even strength, power play, shootout -- it doesn't matter -- to say Gagner is on fire is to underestimate how hot Gagner is burning.

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Paul Coffey, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux...Sam Gagner.

As is now their custom at Rexall Place, the Edmonton Oilers took the Chicago Blackhawks out behind the barn and put them down like a rabid dog. To be more accurate, Sam Gagner was responsible for the mercy killing. Gagner was on the ice for all eight Oilers' goals and recorded a point on each goal, scoring four himself and assisting on four others. He joins Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as the only Oilers to ever record 8 points in one game. He became the first player to total eight points in one game since Mario Lemieux did it in in 1989. Gagner was four months from his birthday. The original one.

Eight points in one game is so rare that it's only been accomplished fifteen times by a mostly illustrious group: Maurice Richard, Bert Olmstead, Darryl Sittler (he scored 10), Tom Bladon, Bryan Trottier, Anton Stastny, Peter Stastny, Wayne Gretzky (twice within 40 days), Paul Coffey, Bernie Nicholls, Patrik Sundstrom (I said mostly illustrious) Mario Lemieux (three times, including twice within 75 days) and now Sam Gagner.

A lesser man than Gagner might declare that he's Sam Gagner and you're not, but Gagner kept laughing, smiling and pointing to just about every teammate on the ice. Gagner even had it going in the faceoff circle where he went 7-13. It was a perfect night for Gagner and a perfect night for the Oilers, at least after that first period. For at least one night, Gagner was paid back for the years of suffering and carrying Pat Quinn's onion belt.

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With the annual waste of time that is the All-Star break behind us, the Oilers were able to get back to the business of playing out the string tonight as they hosted the Avalanche. Devan Dubnyk got the call again for the Oilers tonight, his third straight start following solid outings against the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks in the games just before the break. Dubnyk looked good for the Oilers again tonight and certainly appears to be earning himself more starts as the Oilers begin their annual run of meaningless games.

Unlike the Oilers, the Avalanche are battling for a playoff spot in the Western Conference and oming off back-to-back losses before the All-Star break were almost certainly looking at tonight as a must should win game. But a good first period would stake the Oilers to a two goal lead that the Avalanche just couldn't seem to overcome despite controlling the play for large parts of the last two periods and dominating the home team on the shot clock. The loss drops the Avalanche to 1-3-0 against the Oilers this season, if they miss the playoffs by a couple points these losses to a lottery team will look huge in hindsight.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Mile High Hockey

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If the Oilers look way up in the Western Conference standing they'll see the Canucks more than 20 points ahead of them and sitting in second place while they occupy the second last position. The Canucks are very much the Stanley Cup contender that Oilers fans can only dream of cheering for right now. These are teams in two vastly different places right now but they are still divisional rivals and that gives these games meaning; perhaps more to the Oilers and their fans who are looking for something, anything, positive to hang their hats on.

And this game didn't disappoint. The Canucks were the better team for most of the night but that wasn't exactly unexpected. Still, the Oilers fought hard and generated scoring chances, giving the Canucks a game that was much closer than they had likely expected. Even after a game last night and a late night trip to Vancouver the Oilers didn't fade, instead scoring a goal with less than five minutes left to force overtime. Overtime would be a wonderful five minutes of back and forth hockey leading to a shootout. The shootout didn't end as we'd have hoped but, for a night at least, the Oilers reminded their fans just how exciting a good hockey game can be.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Nucks Misconduct

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In the pregame thread Scott hinted that with a team like the Sharks in town that the Oilers could be looking at a loss tonight. And Scott was right, the Sharks are who we thought they were, a much better team than the Oilers. They outshot, outchanced, and outplayed the home team by a wide margin but somehow all of that didn't add up to another tally in the loss column for the Oilers. No, instead of a well deserved loss the Oilers managed a shootout win tonight proving even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

Make no mistake, in no way did the Oilers deserve to win this game. And if not for Devan Dubnyk playing what might have been his best game of the season they wouldn't have won, in fact the result likely wouldn't have even been close. But the Oilers have had so many unlucky breaks lately with injuries of late and with only five wins in the previous 25 games it was nice to see things fall their way for a change. I know that the fans at Rexall Place certainly appreciated the win.

Scoring Chances - Fenwick/Corsi - Head-to-Head Ice Time - Shift Charts
Box Score - Event Summary - Faceoff Report - Shot Report
Game Recap from Fear The Fin

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Recap via The Sports Network:

Edmonton, AB (Sports Network) - Lee Stempniak completed his second career hat trick and added an assist as the Calgary Flames thumped the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2, at Rexall Place.

According to CBC play-by-play man Mark Lee, he had a conversation with Steve Tambellini Friday night. During the broadcast of the Oilers - Sharks Hockey Night in Canada game, Lee told the audience that Tambellini said he "…thinks they’ve got all of the pieces here to make a run at the playoffs."

Blake Comeau finished with a goal and two assists, while Jay Bouwmeester and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames, who have won two straight and five of their last seven. Miikka Kiprusoff made 21 saves in the victory.

"I’m not going to put a number on it. I want to finish as high as possible," he said. "Again, I don’t want a lottery pick."

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