The young Oilers of Edmonton lost 4-3 to the Colorado Avalanche in overtime to end yet another abysmal season, on the night when Adam Foote played his final game as an NHL'er.
Teemu Hartikainen, Kurtis Foster and Liam Reddox found the back-of-the-net, yet it was Colorado's David Jones who ended it all with a backhand...all thanks to a missed call.
Leading into the overtime goal, Liam Reddox was in the middle of controversy when he was sent off for tripping Adam Foote. Seconds prior to the penalty, Foote committed a few obvious fouls upon Hartikainen which were overlooked. Clearly some favoritism was giving towards Foote who officially announced his retirement recently.
"It was obviously disappointing in OT, being the culprit to take that penalty. I thought we were playing old-school rules out there the last couple of minutes,” said Reddox of the veteran's grab on Hartikainen.
"I knew they weren’t going to call a penalty,” Hartikainen said. “I was pretty angry about it, but I knew because he had such a long career and was such a great player, I could understand why they didn’t call a penalty."
Except the missed calls, lead to the trip, which lead to the loss...
"It’s tough, you’re trying to play the right way,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “I don’t know if a guy earns those things over time or not, but if you’re not going to call that one, then don’t call the other one. Just erase the tapes and let the teams decide who is going to win the game.”
Hartikainen recorded his 3rd goal of the season, and blue collar forward Liam Reddox finally broke his (60 plus) game scoring drought when his shot trickled past Peter Budaj.
Reddox who lost his job to Ryan Jones at the start of the season, knew that he had to make some sort of a lasting impression amongst the Oilers Brass. His goal coupled with his hard work throughout his short tint in the show, may or may not give him the opportunity to stick around once the Oilers return to the ice in September. However, like George Costanza...leave on a high note.
Too bad that he spent he spent his final shift in the sin-bin.
"It’s nice to get that goal out of the way and move on from there,” Reddox said. “Hopefully I can score a lot more for the Oilers."
“Initially I didn’t think it was my goal, that’s why there wasn’t much of a celebration. If I knew it was my goal, I would have been jumping up for joy.”
Coming soon: Oilers on the bubble!
Just because the season is over doesn't mean that Oilers Update will keep you out of the loop.
Stay tuned, this is a year-round blog.
Antony S Scandale.
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