NHL monster hits

This is a montage of the best hits in the NHL during the month of February, and there are some monster hits on here. Of course, my two favorites are Zack Stortini of the Oilers (of course!) and the Atlanta Thrashers' Garnet Exelby - he took down three players in a row! I love a player like that.

Stortini is one of the few bright spots for the Oilers this year - he's not afraid to mix it up, and Edmonton needs his grit in the lineup right now, and definitely next year. He's the heir apparent to former Oilers tough guy Georges Laraque. He'll make the team full time next year.

I've completely not taken advantage of the fact that YouTube reached an agreement with the NHL to post highlights this season. Next season (which will hopefully be a better one for my Edmonton Oilers), I'm going to post a bunch more hockey clips. But, the playoffs are coming up, so this season ain't over yet. I'm now just a hockey fan in general with no rooting interest in who wins the Stanley Cup, since my team's out of it. But, it is always my favorite sports event of the year, Super Bowl be damned (as much as I love that).

Oil well's going dry

The Oilers blew another chance to inch close to a playoff berth tonight with a pathetic 5-2 drubbing at Rexall Place at the hands of arch-rival Vancouver. The only highlight was Zack Stortini's first NFL goal in the second period, which tied the game at 2. However, it didn't take long for the Oilers to self destruct.

Penalties, penalties, penalties. I will never understand how players take the dumbest penalties when the games get critical late in the season. Raffi Torres getting slapped with a game misconduct is downright inexcusable. Maybe he should grab some pine to think about it for a while, or maybe even a new team to make his dumb freakin' mistakes.

This season's quickly going down the tubes, and the Oilers are largely doing it to themselves. Sure, they've been hit by injuries, most notably Ethan Moreau for an extended period, and also some short-term injuries to Ales Hemsky, Ryan Smyth and now Jarett Stoll, but the injuries are just a small part of the story.

Edmonton's defense is pathetic, wanting and self destructing. To say the loss of Chris Pronger has been huge would be the understatement of the millennium. If Oilers GM Kevin Lowe doesn't make a move soon, Oiler fans will soon face the unthinkable -- no playoffs.

What a crappy sports year. I was telling friends of mine over the weekend that typically sports serves as a welcome diversion from every day life. The way my sports seasons have gone since mid-2006, I now need a diversion from my diversion.

Am I off the Oilers bandwagon (a sports term I despise, by the way)? Nope, because I've never been on one - I like Edmonton through thick and thin, since their second year in the league. I'm not about to switch teams now - unthinkable. Besides, who would I follow? Just when I think my tema is having a bad season, all I have to do is look to the pathetic, slow, skating-in-molasses Philadelphia Flyers, and I guess I don't have it so bad as an Oilers fan.

However, I don't think making the playoffs is too much for a fan to ask, especially a team that went all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals just nine short months ago.