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4-12-2, 0.556 p/g	Ranks	11-2-4, 1.53 p/g
Western Conf: 14th		Western Conf: 3rd
29th	P/G	4th
21st	ST	6th
27th	ES	7th
30th	Goal	13th

United Center

The opposing view: Second City Hockey

Top Story:

• The Oilers dropped a 4-2 decision against the Flyers yesterday.  Philadelphia's Claude Giroux scored his first goal of the season, Anton Belov was given a match penalty for a headshot that never happened, and the Oilers lost their twelfth of eighteen games played in regulation time.  This time, it was to a team that averaged less than a goal and a half per game. The Oilers traded Ladislav Smid and signed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov on Friday night though, so everything should work itself out.  Today, the team takes on one of the best teams in the NHL.  What could possibly go wrong?

The Oilers are saying:

"We spent a little too much time in our zone tonight"

That's Oilers coach Dallas Eakins after yesterday's 4-2 loss in Philadelphia

Here's a short list of other things that could've been ssaid.

• We didn't score enough goals last night
• We shouldn't have traded Ladislav Smid for sprockets, as we don't have a suitable replacement at this time
• We're on pace for around 20 wins this year
• Oiler fans, reserve your spot at the draft TODAY!

Good lord, what a disaster this season has become, and it's only the second week of November.  The Flyers score an average of a goal and half a game this season, the Oilers give up over twice that number. The good news is that there's only 63 more games to sit through.  Find something to clinch on to, and it'll all be over in just five more months.

The Opponent is saying:

"Right now he's hot and I think the whole line is playing well"

That's Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa on Jonathan Toews, who had four assists in Chicago's 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

Everything's going to be alright, Chicago.  The only way your season gets derailed into a lake of fierly hot magma is if Corey Crawford goes down, forcing you to depend on Nikolai Khabibulin for more than twelve seconds at a time. Even if that were to happen, the forwards ought to  generate enough goals to fill a kiddie pool to 110% capacity.  Occasionally, I will look at your success with envy, but I will continue to believe that the rebuild has been a positive, enriching, character building exercise in my fandom to the Edmonton Oilers.  When is Ben Eager coming back for us already?

Of note:

Anton Belov received a match penalty and game misconduct for hitting Claude Giroux in the shoulder yesterday.  I'm not sure how this call was made, but I'd be shocked if the match penalty wasn't rescinded in time for him to play in today's game.

Sweet Lou Gazdic suffered what appeared to be a shoulder injury while he was eating fist sandwiches from Jay Rosehill yesterday, and my God-given medical expertise suggests that he'll be out of the lineup today due to this shoulder injury. His three minutes of ice time will be dearly missed, and I hope for the sake of the organization and its well being that the team plucks another marginal AHL facepuncher off waivers to replace the necessary role that Gazdic provides.

We can get rid of one of the useless players like Petry.

Projected Lines & Pairings:

The Edmonton Oilers

Taylor Hall - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky

David Perron - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle

Jesse Joensuu - Boyd Gordon - Nail Yakupov

Ryan Smyth - Will Acton  - Mark Arcobello

Andrew Ference - Jeff Petry

Nick Schultz - Taylor Fedun

Anton Belov - Philip Larsen

Devan Dubnyk

The Chicago Blackhawks

Patrick Sharp - Jonathan Toews - Marian Hossa

Brandon Saad - Brandon Pirri - Patrick Kane

Bryan Bickell - Andrew Shaw - Sheldon Brookbank

Brandon Bollig - Marcus Kruger - Ben Smith

Duncan Keith - Brent Seabrook

Johnny Oduya - Niklas Hjalmarsson

Nick Leddy - Michal Rozsival

Corey Crawford