Oil Patch
Oilers Win Game, Lose Gagner
by Lisa McRitchie on 09/25/11 at 03:00 PM ET
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Oilers Beat Flames 2-1
The battle of Alberta, pre-season style kicked off a back to back game weekend Saturday night in Edmonton. The Oilers were both winners and losers however, beating the Flames on the scoreboard, but losing yet another player to injury.
Gagner went down in the second period, and post game media talk has mentioned leg as well as ankle. Given the rash of recent Oilers’ ankle injuries through the past two seasons, it’s difficult to think that it could be anything other than an ankle injury at this point. At the same time, without an official diagnosis or press release from the team, it’s all just speculation.
Nikolai Khabibulin appeared much better than his last outing at Rexall Place, but since he is paid to keep pucks out of the net, it’s difficult to get overly excited at this point. It was encouraging to see his puckhandling on the night.
Teemu Hartikainen is looking to make this Oilers roster team without a stop in Oklahoma City and potentially give Linus Omark more competition than perhaps the winger was anticipating. As with the rest of the Oilers hopefuls, there is still plenty of time for the Oilers’ coaching staff to make their assessments, and as recent injuries have proven anything can happen improving or deteriorating any players chances of making the cut.
Oilers goals on the night came from Ryan Jones and his flowing hair, or flow as Jones so often tweets about, with a nifty backhand five hole and the winning goal from Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. It is excellent to see Nugent-Hopkins continue his point streak even if it is only pre-season. If nothing else, Nugent-Hopkins gives fans something to talk about and speculate on rather than injured players’ return to the game.
You can watch the entire archived game thanks to the efforts of the Edmonton Oilers website crew at any time in their archive, or by clicking below:
The Flames host the Oilers tonight at the Saddledome at 6pm MST, this game will once again only be available online.
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About Oil Patch
Lisa McRitchie is a fairly new writer, online at least, but makes up for inexperience with passion for the game of hockey and memories of Mrs. Leskiw’s English AP class; who knew they would pay off one day.
Oil Patch focuses on the Edmonton Oilers, the Edmonton Oil Kings, The Oklahoma City Barons and Team Canada Hockey with game coverage, news updates, speculation and interviews.
Although the Oilers have had a difficult past decade… or three, here at Oil Patch, the future looks bright.
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