Post-mortem

Not bad, not bad at all.

Is it kind of funny that the kid-ridden Oilers have a Raffi and a Penner (Dustin, not Fred, sadly) on the roster?

I won't comment much on the Oilers. Sam Gagner's first NHL goal coming in an arena where he practically grew up is definitely a feel-good story. The rest of the game...not so much. The kids seemed to be doing just fine for the Oilers, but the absence of vets in general to mentor this kids has got to be hurting the team.

On our side...it was an overly expensive win, losing Primeau to a busted ankle and Moss to Raffi Torres. I may comment on that some more later. Right now I'm kind of guiltily thinking about my musings before the game that so far, Calgary's been pretty lucky injury-wise. I thought Torres' hit was questionable at best (Translation: That punkass was effin' dirty), and can only give up kudos to Nolan and Warrener who made it clear that nobody on our side liked it.

That said, I liked most of what I saw this game. Kipper made a couple of jaw-dropping saves, tough to do with as much quiet time as he had during the game. We saw Eriksson checking out the view from the press box for the first time, and Hale was definitely a marked improvement, with a strong physical presence and no glaring game-losing giveaways. With the top two pairings in particular, I love what's going on with the D this year. I like that Phaneuf is taking more chances in front of the net (and being smart enough that this isn't a defensive liability of McCabe-like proportions), and that Regehr is actually shooting at the net.

The forwards were decent too. The top two lines had another, mostly consistent game. Even Godard, who got more time thanks to the absences of Primeau and Moss, seemed to capitalize on his extra ice time (though I had to laugh as he chased down a puck to try and prevent an icing call...wouldn't that make the guy ahead of him skatefaster?)

Oh well, it's all good! Next game against San Jose.