Oilers vs Hawks Feb 9th 2011

Hawks vs Oilers and Sean Grove

The Edmonton Oilers will play host to 2010 Stanley Cup Champions the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at Rexall.

Tonight will mark the 4th meeting of the year between the two clubs and Edmonton has won two of the three matches. The last time the two clubs met was Nov 17 when Chicago blanked the Oilers 5-0.

Chicago comes into tonights game 3 points out of 8th spot behind the Calgary Flames. Two nights ago, Calgary handed the Champs a 3-1 loss at, Pengrowth to send the squad to 11th spot in the west with a record of 27-22-4.

The Oilers remain in the league's basement with a not so brilliant 40 points. To their credit, the young Oilers have not lost more than 4 games in row yet the team hasn't been able to string a win streak past 2 games.

M.I.A.

Ralph Kreuger will take the helm as Head Coach while Tom Renney is away for his father's funeral in BC. It is expected that Renney will also miss the next game against Ottawa on Saturday. Kreuger is no stranger to the Head Coach position; in fact last year, Kruegar was behind the bench for the Swiss National team at the 2010 Olympics 

"The responsibility filling in here for Tom is large but we're doing it together..."I'll be running the bench today, but otherwise my personal message and the way I communicate with the players has remained exactly the same here in the last day." 

Shawn Horcoff could be sitting out tonight's after enduring some cold like symptoms. Kreuger, is somewhat certain that Horcoff will play, though there is nothing wrong with taking precaution.

"I would say 97% sure he will play. It's just a precautionary measure. There's a little bit of a cold going around on the team right now but he'll be fine," he said.

Since coming back from an ankle injury, Jordan Eberle, along with veteran Andrew Cogliano have combined for 8 points in just 3 games. It is expected that Kreuger will keep the trio of Hall, Cogliano and Eberle together against the Hawks.

Live from Edmoton

Fellow Oilers Die Hard and Victoria Oilers Fans Correspondent, Sean Grove will be at Rexall to cheer on the Oil. Be sure to watch for his updates during the game.

Oilers vs Blackhawks tonight atdhe.ws 6:30