There will be blood...

If there is anytime to label "most important game of the season" it's tonight. Then if we win, and Nashville and Calgary loses tonight, Saturday will then become the "most important game of the season"!

There are many scenarios...

I'm going to this game so I expect an effort. I expect crashing and banging. I want to see what this team really plays like when they are on the verge of elimination. What team will we see tonight?

The oil who have officially been eliminated should play lose and enjoy the role of spoiler. The two teams have quite the rivalry. The best thing is, I don't have to watch another stupid Pay Per View game.

My pre-game prediction... Vancouver wins 3-2

Could Edmonton be the next Gotham City?

Mirtle posted some funny stuff about Daryl Katz in the past.


For those who don't know, Daryl Katz is the soon to be owner of the Edmonton Oilers.

Daryl A. Katz (b. 1962) is chairman and chief executive officer of The Katz Group, one of North America's leading drug store operators with over 1,800 stores and owns and operates Canada's only national mail order pharmacy business, Meditrust Pharmacy Inc., one of Canada's largest institutional pharmacy operations. Katz is a former lawyer. He currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

He's really rich (worth 2.37 Billion), he's Canadian and he's also being compared to Batman.

Daryl Katz, the new Oilers owner, is being compared to Batman - or more pointedly Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne - for a lot of reasons: he's wealthy, he's a philanthropist, he keeps to himself and he lives in a cave.

Which begs the real question for me. If Daryl Katz is Batman... who is Robin?

I don't know.

Who cares.

All I know is that Gary Bettman is my candidate for the Penguin. I mean the likeness is uncanny:

VS.

On another Edmonton note. A committee seems to approve of the idea for a new arena downtown.

It would be an 18,000 seat 450 Million dollar arena. That's great but once again I'll ask the difficult question: Is this really going to make the wives like living in Edmonton any better? The committee better ask Pronger's better half first.

Canucks Dismantle Oil in a Textbook Roadgame

It was a real solid effort from the Canucks last night. I was proud to watch the team play with some poise for a change. Here's my laundry list from the game:

• Luongo - enough said. He's back in form and was amazing last night.

• Daniel, Kesler and Burrows are looking mighty dangerous and were by far the best line last night. Nice to see Daniel bump the scoring slump, even if it was a Tom Gilbert own goal.
  

• Mike Weaver had a really strong game doing all the little things well. He's a great depth defensemen for us and I admire how tough he plays for his size.
  

• Matt Pettinger's goal was awesome. He's making a good impact for the short time he's been here. Great wheels, offensive upside and finishes his checks.
  

• The Ryan Shannon/Taylor Pyatt rush was a great goal as well. Nice to see a speedier version of the Canucks with some of these young guys in there. Pyatt's back in the groove and hopefully continues his goal scoring streak tonight against Minnesota

• My favourite part of the night: Trevor Linden's short handed goal. The old man still has a scoring touch. We were in danger of letting the oil back into it but that marker sealed their fate as well as their playoff hopes. Vigneault better play Linden more down the stretch as this is his time of year. I've been pretty upset over Linden's playing time over the course of the season. No wonder he has a little bit of rust he only plays 4-5 minutes a game or sits in the press box while Brad Isbisiter takes his spot. Linden has far more to contribute to the team as a leader, penalty killer and shootout participant. Hmmm... how many times have we gone to a shootout this year? Don't forget what he can bring in the playoffs as well. He has 124 Playoff games and 99 Playoff points. Don't forget he was our leading scorer in the post season last year as well. Don't forget "the speech" as well:

Trevor Linden, who brings experience and wisdom to the Canuck dressing room, was responsible for a pre-game speech that sparked Vancouver and is thought to have led to the explosive first period that was witnessed on Saturday afternoon. Linden reportedly closed the locker room doors before the game, locking himself inside only with his teammates, and spoke to his team. The details of the speech have not, and will, not be shared publicly however the affect it had on every Canuck was, and is, evident.

"One of the reasons Trevor was back this year was his leadership qualities that he brings. He's the type of player that doesn't need a letter on his sweater to lead; he does it by example and sometimes, when he feels the need, he can do it vocally," said Coach Alain Vigneault who was not surprised by Linden's initiative on Saturday.

"We knew we were going to get a good quality person to help out our players, especially our young players as a great example, and he's been that throughout the year whether he has played or not and that's what we knew what we were going to get and obviously he's been giving us that since day one."

Now with that said. Vigneaut play him more we need him.

and if you missed last night's game here's the highlights:

Nucks vs. Oil a doozy in the making?

I'm seriously looking forward to the upcoming Vancouver Edmonton tilt tonight. Last time these two teams met it was literally the most entertaining game of the season. Lots of fireworks, line brawls, and a playoff-esque level of intensity during that magical game. Even Naslund and Hemsky were throwing hits.

The rivalry should be renewed especially with Edmonton on a tear as of late winning their last 10 of 12 grasping at the hope of the final playoff spot. It should be a doozy. I expect a great game with both teams facing off against each other twice over the next week.

It's a long weekend guys... entertain me.

"The last meeting between the clubs, Feb. 16 on Hockey Night in Canada, was a fight-filled affair with nearly 200 penalty minutes."

As a reminder... here's the end of last game: