Zip, Zilch, Zero

There was no question that last night's game would be tough and physical.  The Blues went into Rexall Place with the plan to destroy their opposition with: speed strength and scoring in order to claw their way back into the play-off hunt.  The Blues did just exactly that as they spanked the young Oilers' asses 5 times without conceding a goal.


5-0 Blues.

"It was vanilla where there needed to be passion and emotion and contact,” said head coach Tom Renney,  "We need to be more physically engaged, that’s a challenge with this group at times. “We have to get to the front of the net with some snot in our nose. We needed to push or way into that game. We’re capable of doing that... we have quickness and speed and strength.

"When you struggle with puck battles in the corners and gave up valuable real estate in the front of both nets, it’s awfully hard to win."

While score was lob sided so was the shot clock.  The Oilers somehow managed to win in that category with the score of 39-22.  

"I don’t think it was as bad as a 5-0 score would suggest, I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Sam Gagner and then echoed his coaches sentiments . “But that being said I thought we could have brought some more physicality, especially early on, to let them know it wasn’t going to be an easy night.”

However, one must give credit to Ben Bishop for his monstrous performance.  The 6'8" (yes...that's right 6'8") goaltender  not  only looked big in net, but came out big to put the Blues 5 points back from the final play-off spot currently held by Chicago with 70 points.

Looking down the list of players on the Oilers roster, there is no question that the club lacks some size; though should that matter?

“You don’t have to be 6-foot-4 to be strong, there’s mental strength that goes along with it. We have to check into that and conjure up what’s required to play that way. It’s mind over matter as much as anything.” 

Mind over matter.  Indeed!  Use what you have and create something out of nothing and be positive, yet maintain that mental desire to win. 

Next the Oilers will face another big and tough team with the Boston Bruins.  The two squads will face-off tomorrow at 5:00pm Pacific