The opposing view: Matchsticks and Gasoline

Well, Pop My Gut And Call Me Deflated

Tough to play against?  Turned a corner, you hear?  Yeah, about all that.  The Oilers get on the board in the first period with a goal from Taylor Hall, but a pair of goals from Cory Conacher helped propel the Sabres to just their fifth regulation road victory all season.

the sabres are starting matt hackett in tomorrow's game. you know what that means. #oilers

— Jeff Chapman (@NewWaveOil) March 19, 2014

The Sabres entrusted rookie Matt Hackett to make his first career start against the Oilers, and you know what happens when a rookie goaltender gets a start against Les Oilers.

@NewWaveOil Shutout!

— Junaid Hussain (@j_hussain) March 19, 2014

@NewWaveOil shutout for an opposing team's backup?

— PrimeBane (@PrimeBane) March 19, 2014

These were very good answers, and they were almost spot on.  Hackett turned aside 35 of 36 Oiler shots en route to his first career victory.

And the beat goes on.  Tonight, the Oilers face the Calgary Flames for the final Battle of Alberta of the 2013-14 season.  My God, what a sad sack of affairs the Battle Of Alberta has become.  My worst fear is that Calgary becomes substantially better than the Oilers before the Oilers become average.  That's really not my worst fear, but it's up there with "Luke Gazdic Gets Multi-Year Deal".

The Oilers are saying

That's Flames forward Mike Cammalleri dropping some grade-A knowledge.  Cammalleri scored his second goal of the night with two and a half minutes remaining in the third period, but Calgary was unable to score one more, giving the Jets a 6-5 victory at the Dome.

• 8 (1-7) in seven games.  This includes that space-age out of this world moon waffle of a goal that he scored versus Tampa on Thursday night.  Missed it?  Y'ought to check it out.  Seen it 500 times already?  Yeah, me too.  If this makes you uncomfortable about our team, rest assured, comrade.  We got a third and a fifth round pick for Ales Hemsky, it'll all work out.  This rebuild has been great, you guys.

• Jack Michaels says that Viktor Fasth (2-0-1, .940)  is starting today, and I'm not one to argue with Jack Michaels...yet.   Fasth's last outing was Edmonton's 5-1 romp over the Predators on Tuesday.
• Karri Ramo (11-10-4, .908) gets the nod for Calgary.
• The Oilers scratched Steve MacIntyre before Thursday's game versus the Sabres, which kind of surprised me.  If Eberle is back, that's one less spot for MacIntyre to take, which means they're totally gonna dress him on the fourth line, aren't they.
• Anton Belov has been cleared to play.  There's at least one defencemen I could spot him in for right now without any issue.  I'll give you a hint as to who it is:  his name rhymes with "lark blaisure"
• The Oilers host the Flames tonight, they then face nine teams currently in a playoff position in their final ten games.  Make this one count, gents.