The Edmonton Oilers had one important thing to accomplish last night in Calgary: Beat the Flames. Instead a tired bunch took to the ice and got absolutely demolished by the home team who were desperate to reach the post season.
Lead by Jerome Iginla's Hat-Trick, the Flames spanked the Oilers 6-1 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
But...
Regardless of the loss, Oil Country did receive a small victory, when both the Blackhawks and the Ducks officially snuffed the Flames out of the play-off race. The aforementioned teams needed to lose their games last night in order to give the Flames a chance at Lord Stanley.
Perhaps Iginla and Horcoff will tee-off together next week.
"It’s hard, especially in the second period, looking up and seeing the scores,” said Flames captain Jarome Iginla, “It took the energy out for a while, realizing that we worked hard and got ourselves back in it, but we were going to fall short. It was tough.
“I really thought we were going to find a way to squeak in.”
“We needed help but didn’t get it. Watching the San Jose-Anaheim game between periods was tough, but we did our thing here,” said Flames Coach Brent Sutter.
The loss will guarantee the Oilers to finish dead last for the second straight year; which to many doesn't come as a surprize. Heading into the draft, the Oilers can now expect to receive either Draft Pick 1 or 2 ,depending on the results of the lottery. However, every player on the squad needs to understand that there are positions to be filled for next year; and with two games remaining, every player needs to go balls-out and prove their worth.
“No excuses, we played like crap,” said Jim Vandermeer. “Maybe coming off a couple of big wins, we were feeling a little too good about ourselves, maybe looking for a little easier game, but that type of effort can’t happen."
Head Coach Tom Renney couldn't agree more and echoed Vandermeer's sentiments and frustration.
"It’s nice of a veteran player like Jimmy to man up. We did play like crap,” said Renney.
The only player who gave a crap was Nikolai Khabibulin. The Russian net-minder kept the game at zero's while setting aside 20 shots to the Oilers measly 3 in the first. In total the veteran stopped 47 shots.
“He had a game in the 20 minutes,” said Tom Renney. “He had as many shots in the first period as some guys see in a game. It was a great performance by him and we left him alone far too often.
Magnus Paajarvi got the lone goal for the Oilers and now has 33 points with 15 goals.
The Oilers will now face the Wild this Friday at Rexall.
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