*Not too sure about O'Sullivan's dream dinner date.  I would have a long list to consider for a dream dinner date, but Tiger Woods wouldn't be on it...

Oilers lose 3-1 to Buffalo Sabres.

The Edmonton Oilers lost tonight in Buffalo by a 3-1 margin following an empty net goal.  Hemsky was back in the lineup tonight, but he wasn't playing quite like himself.  In the first period, the Oilers looked pretty flat and spent much of the period hemmed in their zone.  I would wager that the combination of the game the night before along with the short bench left many of the Oilers feeling a little heavy in the legs.  There's no denying the reality that Buffalo by most measures would be considered to have the better hockey team.

Brule, Reddox, and Pisani were on for two even strength goals against.  The first of which came during the first period of play.  Potulny was looking less effective in tonight's game and he was a little sloppy with coverage.  Strudwick was unable to stop Drew Stafford from roofing the puck of Khabibulin from a rebound in front of the net.  By the end of the first period, things were not looking promising for the most part.

During the second period, the Oilers benefited from a number of powerplay opportunities.  They only managed to score on a 5v3 powerplay with O'Sullivan finally finding twine on a nice pass from Hemsky.  About five minutes prior to that goal, O'Sullivan was robbed after he failed to score on a 2v1 opportunity.  Many would suggest that O'Sullivan simply held onto the puck too long before shooting and I wouldn't argue against this.  Stortini also failed to lift the puck over Miler from in front of the net.  The Oilers powerplay had reverted to the old form of trying to pass the puck in the net or alternately whipping pucks into shin pads (O'Sullivan).  Bulin let in a shot through the five hole that he had clean sight of from outside of the faceoff circle (Montador) during the second.  Staios had made two blocks prior to the puck finally going into the net.

For the third period, Ethan Moreau used his tried and true method of building momentum for the team by taking an offensive zone penalty.  While driving to the net with the puck, he got called for grabbing a Sabre's stick.  Shortly thereafter, Gilbert went to the box on an iffy call where he fell on top of a Sabre who was holding his stick.  Liam Reddox got absolutely flattened into the board from behind by Clark McArther who got a five minute major/game misconduct.  With the ensuing powerplay, the Oilers wasted much of the time passing the puck around without generating a clean shot on net. O'Sullivan did manage to ring one off the post during the powerplay which nearly looked like it went in.  To the Oilers credit, their penalty kill was effective at preventing the Sabres from scoring or generating many quality chances.  Overall, it was a pretty decent road effort all things considered.  Buffalo had a fresher team and would have out-matched the Oilers under better circumstances as well.

Penner went through at least five sticks or perhaps more during the game.  During the third, he had his stick snapped while in front of the net.  The zebras did not make a call on the play.  Grebeshkov had a dangerous hit which looked to injur his knee which also went uncalled.

Stats:

• Faceoffs: Gilber Burle 7/11-64%, Cogliano 3/6-50%, Potulny 5/9-56%, Penner went 0/11-0%, Gagner 2/11-18%
• Icetime: Moreau/Stortini each played under 10 minutes. Penner played just over 24 minutes!
• Potulny/Reddox/Pisani line was on for both goals against at even strength (excluding the empty netter)
• Shot totals were 29-26 in favor of the Oilers largely due to the 19-10 advantage in powerplay time. 
  

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