Game 54 - Carolina Hurricanes vs. Edmonton Oilers - Rexall Place - February1, 2010, 7:30 pm - PPV The Edmonton Oilers (16-31-6) will host the Carolina Hurricanes (19-28-7) tonight at Rexall Place. Sadly, this battle between the league's last placed Oilers and 28th placed Hurricanes or the Battle of the Brutals will be on PPV. If you don't feel like shelling out a nickle to watch this game, I don't blame you. However, there's a morbid sense of curiosity for some when two teams this bad actually play each other. The Oilers will play without Sheldon Souray who recently broke his hand in a fight with Jarome Iginla. Though Sheldon Souray had recently provided Steve Tambellini with a list of teams that he would waive his no-trade clause for, it's completely irrelevant since it expires on July 1st of this year. Yesterday, the Edmonton Oilers announced that they've recalled defenseman, Alex Plante, from their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons. While the Oilers are winless in their past 13 games heading into this match, the Carolina Hurricanes have won four games in a row. With the Toronto Maple Leaf's recent trades for Dion Phaneuf and Jean-Sebastien Giguere along with Carolina playing well with Cam Ward and Eric Stall in the lineup, the Oilers should be a complete lock on a top 2 draft pick. 
Night Falls on Rexall Place? With Sheldon Souray out of the Oilers' lineup and untradable with his current hand injury, the Oilers have recalled Alex Plante from the Springfield Falcons. Alex Plante was drafted in the first round, 15th overall, at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Plante has two goals, seven assists, and has a +/- of -10 in 48 games this season. If he plays tonight, it will be his first NHL game. The 6'4" tall defenseman also has 122 penalty minutes this season alone. With the recent Toronto trades, it's possible that this might spark a chain-reaction of roster changes leading up to the March 3rd, NHL trade deadline. Of course, the Olympic roster freeze will kick in on February 12th as well. Already, Darren Dreger's reported a potential trade between the New York Rangers and Calgary Flames. The Flames are expected to deal Olli Jokinen to the Rangers for Ales Kotalik and Higgins or Gilroy. Now just might be a good time for the Oilers GM, Steve Tambellini, to get up from the fetal position and start doing something other than recalling players from the AHL. Burke's shown him that it is possible to move difficult contracts like Jason Blake's. June 19, 2006 - Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals where the Oilers lost to the Hurricanes For the rest of my life, every time I see the Carolina Hurricane's logo, I will probably be reminded of painful memories of the Oilers game 7 loss at the Stanley Cup finals. Like most things, it seems to get better with time. The Carolina Hurricanes have struggled like the Oilers this season. With their playoff hopes also ending too soon, their GM, Jim Rutherford, has made it public that they're in sell mode. Despite this, not much has happened to far other than maybe Ray Whitney's name coming up in a few trade rumors. I've decided to drop the pre-game stats comparison for the remainder of this season. We all know already that they Oilers can kill penalties, win faceoffs, or prevent goals against. The Carolina Hurricanes are marginally better at many things with the exception of having a slightly less-effective power play than the Oilers. 
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup: Penner-Gagner-Nilsson
Moreau-Horcoff-Pisani
O'Sullivan-Potulny-Brule
Jacques-Pouliot-Cogliano Grebeshkov - Gilbert
Plante - Visnovsky
Strudwick - Chorney
Dubnyk Deslauriers
Whitney - Staal - Jokinen Samsonov - Kullen - Kostopoulos Larose - Sutter - Tlusty Dwyer - Brind'Amour - Yelle
Gleason - Wallin Pitkanen - Ward Carson Alberts
Ward Legace
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Given that the already porous Oilers defense is now infused with 3 AHL defensemen in Chorney, Strudwick, and now Plante, this should be a lock.
I won't be watching what you've termed, "The Battle of the Brutal." Pretty much any game with the Oilers is brutal.
I looked at Ticketmaster yesterday and there are seats available pretty much anywhere at Rexall.