OILERS		CANUCKS
	AT

Stats are based on the 2011-12 regular season.

Well how about we don't see a repeat of the game against the Anaheim Ducks: a 7-3 raping. The Canucks did themselves in by collectively, from Cory Schneider - out, falling apart and losing their minds. I am going to give the Aaron Volpatti-Manny Malhotra-Dale Weise line a pass. As for the rest...where in the hell was the defence? Where was the tenacity? Where was the drive?

I would imagine that after last night's game, getting right back at it on Sunday night against the Oilers is a good thing. Perhaps. But I wonder if these guys are going to be hurting after their first game in months and then facing a speedy Edmonton team less than 24 hours later. If the Canucks don't show better team defence the Oilers will tear them apart like Anaheim did. However, I am sure Edmonton is not as good defensively as Anaheim was.

On the Luongo-Schneider question as to who starts this game I would hope it is Schneider. He didn't look very focused in Game 1. Luongo did. You could see it in his body language. You have to wonder if it was a mental thing for the SchneiderMan. For the first time he is the starting goaltender for an NHL team while his friend and competitor was sitting on the bench. I can not imagine the pressure Schneider was feeling. But he needs to work through it. We know how good he really is, so I hope Alain Vigneault gives him the start. I also hope the team in front of him plays better defensively as a team. Good Lord.

CONFIRMED: Roberto Luongo gets the start tonight. (TSN)

I have no clue what AV is going to do with his lines. I really didn't like the performance of the Kassian-Ebbett-Raymond line. Kassian (and yea I know he's young and shit) really needs to lay more physically to be effective. I didn't see enough emotion out of him. If he is going to become a power forward then he needs to play more like Aaron Volpatti and create space. He needs to drive to the net. Anyway, we'll see what AV does. It's tough to judge after only ONE game.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Devan Dubnyk

#40 / Goalie / Edmonton Oilers

Height: 6-6

Weight: 202

Born: May 04, 1986

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle

Yakupov - Gagner - Hemsky

Smyth - Horcoff - Hartikainen

Eager - Belanger - Petrell

Nick Schultz - Justin Schultz - nice.

Smid - Petry

Whitney - Potter

What? No Mark Fistric?

So now we get to see that Justin Schultz kid play. Yea, the defencemen that turned down the Canucks to (smartly) play more minutes with a young Oilers team. We also get to see the Oilers' latest first round pick in Nail Yakupov.

Lots of question marks for the Oilers. The Copper And Blue tackled two of them recently:

The Defence. How good will Schultz be? How dependable is Ryan Whitney going to be?

Goaltending. Nikolai Khabibulin is on the IR. Is Dubnyk for real?

It felt great to watch Canucks hockey again! I am so glad NHL hockey is back.

VIDEO

Ryan Kesler vs Sam Gagner (Take your damned helmets and visors off! Jeeziz!):

Volpatti keeps it short and sweet:

Wow, watch Schneider absolutely rob Eberle:

The title of this post is brought to you by Bryan Adams: