Beyond Help?

Chris Pronger in undoubtedly one of the best hockey players in the NHL today. I guess you could argue certain foolish things, but when you take the entire game into perspective, his leadership ability, skill and size have made him a force that can make or break a hockey team. Just ask the St. Louis Blues, who had quite a bit more success before he was traded off to the Edmonton Oilers, a team who screamed through the playoffs with him at the helm, then sank like a rock in a safe when he jumped ship to take his lovely wife to warmer climates.

The crappiest Edmonton Oiler team in some time just succeded in twice defeating the Anaheim Ducks by 4 goal margins in two games with two different goaltenders. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to said Ducks, other than observing that they have also struggled early in the season. After listening to both games without falling asleep, I can tell why. So many penalties, I don't know how they can play the PK so often for such dumb reasons. I've never heard a team's announcers get so many calls wrong, assuming that it was their penalty, only to have it be called on the Ducks. And how they can keep a guy like George Parros is beyond me, whatever.

I guess the Ducks kind of got screwed by the leaving of Teemu Selanne, though they knew that would probably happen, and Scott Niedermayer, who sort of just took the year off. Niedermayer was another Pronger-like player who makes a team, and there's no mistaking that his absence contributes to the current Duck situation. I'll even argue that losing Dustin Effing Penner hurt the Ducks, because with his linemates and the competition he played, he did succeed, and that helped. I'm not overly concerned about all this, I just kind of feel bad that Pronger got stuck on such a crappy bunch of goons and idiots, which is all Brian Burke's doing. I think Pronger needs to be playing on a no-name team that really needs him. He's turning into one of Burke's toy henchmen, and its annoying, because I still like Pronger.

Anyway, two more unbelievable wins for the Oil. They now are one point the better of the wonderful Calgary Flames, and I'll take it. Four more points to best another four teams, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. These two fluke wins were on the same team, so it doesn't really mean a whole lot except something right clicked. The next three games will tell many tales. A Penguin team which point-wise is right down there with the Oilers just because of the Crosby factor, believe me, Edmonton is foolish enough to let something like that (see: Derek Boogaard) affect their play, a surprisingly good St. Louis Blues team, and a resurgent Vancouver will let us all know if things are going back to the basement, or if the Oilers are on a resurgence of their own. Should be quite nice until the next embarassment, then I'll get all negative-like again. Lots of points for Pisani too, the more the better.