Just Ducky

Today, I ferried back from Victoria after a night spent with island folk, drinking many glasses of a concoction that has been appropriately named the "shaft," which, as far as I could tell, is some mixture of espresso and vodka and some other unmentionables over ice. You’re supposed to drink it through a straw as fast as you can. This is the island way.

So I got home tonight and sat down, aching and bleary-eyed, to watch the Oilers play the Anaheim ducks.

And I thought my hangover couldn’t get any worse.

First Period

3:30 No shots as of yet in the first period. Kind of a sleepy start for both these teams.

4:00 Getzlaf makes a nifty little kick pass to Cam Fowler. Viktor Fasth with the save.

4:25 Andrew Ference heads off for high-sticking.

4:56 Sami Vatanen makes Ference and the Oilers pay for that one as he puts a wrister away from the top of the circle.

8:40 Schultz coughs up the puck right inside his own blueline, but Fasth bails him out. That’s an ugly play.

9:52 Sami Vatanen heads off for delay of game. Oilers with a chance to even it up.

14:30 Taylor Hall lays out Lovejoy in the corner. The Kingston Cannonball returns!

15:15 Cogliano puts a shot off the metal. Nearly 2-0.

17:30 Is it just me, or is this game a total snoozer? It’s as quiet as a church mau5 in Rexall.

Second Period

0:07 Kyle Palmieri beats three Oilers clean up the middle off the face-off and puts the Ducks up by two. Klefbom and Draisaitl were both caught flat-footed on the play.

0:51 Getzlaf walks in unchecked after a bad Oilers change and puts a laser past Viktor Fasth to make it 3-0. That’ll be it for him tonight. Scrivens in to replace him.

4:00 Nuge misses the net from the slot.

4:45 Schultz just walking back as he trails a Ducks 2-on-1.

5:15 Eberle gets in close and tries to put a backhand on net, though it’s deflected over the glass.

6:05 Rakell heads off for tripping. Who cares?

8:05 Through two power plays, the Oilers have yet to register a shot on net.

13:07 Jeff Petry gets called for tripping.

15:10 Apparently RNH threw a big hit, but Sportsnet went to commercial midplay so I missed it.

15:23 Tyler Pitlick picks up a puck after another hit from Nuge and puts it past Anderson to get the Oilers on the board. There’s that release that everyone talked about when he was drafted.

17:50 Oscar Klefbom makes a dynamite play after giving the puck away to take a goal away from Beleskey. Nice recovery.

18:58 Getzlaf is going off after dumping Scrivens with a pretty solid hit.

Third Period

3:30 Nugent-Hopkins circles the net and plays it up to Hall in the crease, but he's stopped by Anderson.

4:40 Getzlaf hammers a puck on Scrivens at the foot of the crease. He thinks he has one, but the replay shows it never crossed the line. Someone should probably attempt to tie up the best player on the ice there.

9:30 Oilers top line is buzzing in the Ducks zone. Hall gets the best chance to Anderson's left.

10:47 Getzlaf takes a pretty good whack at Ference's face. He's heading off for two.

12:40 Jeff Petry fires a bomb on net that gets deflected on its way through traffic. An actual powerplay goal for the Edmonton Oilers.

15:00 The Oilers are putting all kinds of pressure on the Ducks in their own zone. The building has come alive. If only they could play this way for an entire game. Like, start to finish.

19:43 Nate Thompson ices the game with an empty net goal.

In Conclusion

The Oilers came alive in the second half of the game, but it was another sad sack case of too little too late for the boys in copper and blue. Two goals in under a minute to start the second killed this team tonight.

In other news, we recently put out a call for a new writer. If you think you might be the guy or gal for the job, check out the posting and send us an email.

Until next time, my masochistic brothers and sisters.