Of the Edmonton Oilers' three winning streaks this season that lasted more than two games, two started with a win over the Vancouver Canucks. They could definitely use that type of result now. [...]The Oilers (18-16-2) have dropped six of their last eight games, including a 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. Edmonton held a two-goal second-period lead before allowing five unanswered en route to the defeat.At least that last part is sorta cheery... ;)But what isn't so cheery -- and yet another oddity found in the standings this year -- is the road-team record. It's a disaster for every team in the NW division (except Colorado, who've somehow managed to make it .500, but we all know they cheat). But for the rest of the division, it's ugly. And Vancouver is the road team tonight.Now, just a random comment about goal scoring.I've always liked wide open, risky hockey. Mainly I enjoy it because players actually score, and it doesn't require some idiot idea like making the nets bigger. Sure, the playoffs are won on responsible defense (or so I'm told repeatedly... *yawn*), but for the other 82 games a year it's a hell of a lot more fun to watch players be creative with the puck while focusing on the net in front of them as much as the net behind them.A game like Thursday night's against Calgary is something I could watch any day of the week -- even with five goals hitting the back of our net. It sure beats falling in asleep in the middle of a game, and I've done that a couple times this year.Along those lines, here's a sobering thought: the Canucks have only scored 89 goals almost halfway through the season. For comparison, they scored a total of 255 in 2005-06. It's a drastic drop made worse by the fact that our goals-against right now are 101, a negative difference of 12 goals.
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