| 
Game 52: St. Louis Blues vs. Edmonton Oilers - January 28, 2010 - Rexall Place - 7:30 PM MT, SNET Tonight, the Edmonton Oilers (16-29-6) will host the St. Louis Blues (23-22-8) at Rexall Place. The Oilers are in the midst of an 11-game losing streak without a single win for the month of January. They are not three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes who won last night against the New York Rangers. In fact, the Carolina Hurricanes are 6-4-0 over their past ten games while the Oilers are 0-8-2. For the Oilers, this will be the third out of four times that they play the St. Louis Blues this season. In the first match-up this season, the Oilers bounced back from a three-goal deficit in the third period with five unanswered goals to win by a final score of 5-3 (game 32: Oilers vs Blues). However, in the second match-up, the St. Louis Blues lit up Devan Dubnyk with seven goals to win by a score of 7-2 (game 36: Oilers vs Blues). It's anticipated that both Patrick O'Sullivan and Zack Stortini will be healthy scratches for the Oilers tonight. 
Rexall Place - Time for Change?
In today's Edmonton Journal, Dan Barnes provided the following quote from Oilers GM, Steve Tambellini: Our fans need to know that our owner, Daryl Katz, has given me complete authority to do what has to be done to bring this organization back to a spot where all areas of the organization are not good, but great..." Dan Barnes speculates that this and other statements by Steve Tambellini suggests that he has the authority to make trades prior to the March 3rd NHL trade deadline, bury contracts in the minors or buy them out, and to pursue free agents on July 1st. While I agree with Barnes, that contract buyouts or burying contracts in the minors would go a long way to improving this team, we haven't seen any willingness of this team to do so thus far. 
The St. Louis Blues played in Vancouver and lost last night. It's a familiar story this season of teams playing back-to-back games in Vancouver, then Edmonton. Unfortunately, the story usually has a similar plot with these teams walking out of Rexall Place with two points. The Blues replaced their head coach Andy Murray with David Payne since the last time these two teams played. In terms of stats, the St. Louis Blues have an even worse power play than the Oilers which operates at just 16.2%. However, this hasn't stopped St. Louis from scoring a number of power play goals against the Oilers this season. Their penalty kill is solid, however, operating at 84.9%. The daily line, is -130/+110 which favors the St. Louis Blues. 
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup: Penner-Gagner-Nilsson
Moreau-Horcoff-Pisani
Comrie-Potulny-Brule
Jacques-Pouliot-Cogliano Souray - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Visnovsky
Strudwick - Chorney
Deslauriers Dubnyk
*** Patrick O'Sullivan and Zack Stortini will be healthy scratches - Probably should be Moreau and Jacques instead.
St. Louis Blues Projected Lineup: Kariya - Oshie - Boyes McDonald - Tkachuk - Perron Steen McClement - Crombeen Vinchester - Bergland - Janssen
Jackman - Pollak Brewer - Johnson
Weaver - Sydor
Mason
Conklin
 | 
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!
Interesting comment from Steve Tambellini... It's too bad since it sounds like two things are apparent. First, he's getting a glowing endorsement and they car keys when he should be eating surf and turf while getting fired.
Second, having the authority to do what needs to be done is a different thing entirely than having the ability to do same.