(no subject)
The last time on Oil Change: Overdrive Players were drafted! Players were signed! Players were traded! Players trained! Players played pre-season games! Players got hurt! Players played a regular season game!
Season 2, episode 2
October 9th, 2011 (my birthday!) Opening game against the Penguins goes to a shootout and the Oilers win. Voiceover: "Coming off his team's opening night feast on penguin, the youngest Oiler arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Smyths house, ready to take on a different bird at Thanksgiving dinner." That is one creepy mental image superimposed over images of RNH looking tiny and awkward in a t-shirt while Ryan Smyth takes a turkey out of the oven and begins carving it up. Did the team ritualistically kill Brent Johnson and feast upon his flesh?
RNH plays ping pong with Andy Sutton while Smyth looks on. They bond as Andy beats RNH (in ping pong, not with his fists) and and hugs him and man. I know that while he looks small, RNH is actually bigger than me and Andy Sutton makes him look tiny. Also, he looks like he's a pretty decent dude, and this just makes me wish he wasn't always so Andy Sutton when on the ice. :(
Dinner! As the paterfamilias, Smytty leads grace. It's actually one of the better graces I've ever heard (not that that's saying much.)
Edmonton's mayor and the Oilers owner are in NYC for yet more talks about building a new arena. Things seem to be progressing.
The Oilers touch down in Minnesota to take on the Wild, where they haven't had much success in the last few years. Cam Barker is looking forward to playing his old team, and trying to prove that he's worth his high draft position. He gets stopped outside the arena by autograph seekers. He does an interview and, look. I'm sure Cam Barker is a good guy, but damn. He's quite boring to listen to.
Oilers score first, but it ends up tied, and goes to a shootout and they lose. Of course.
Back in Edmonton, and Darcy Hordichuk is looking forward to playing an old team Adorable shots of his son passing a puck around and being adorable while he studies tapes of fighters on other teams and talks about the role of the enforcer, not just fighting after the fact but being a deterrent to other teams running the young skilled guys. He also talks about how he used to listen to tapes of himself talking about his training and preparation to get charged up for games and dude. I'm not keen on the idea of enforcers, but you can't say that there isn't a certain amount of skill and mental/emotional preparation that goes into the job.
Adorbale little moment where wefind out his son loves the goalies the best and Darcy jokes it's because if they lose they can always blame to goalie. You can hear his wife admonishing him in the background.
Before he leaves for the rink he rubs noses with his son, and then the kid sings "Oh Canada" into a microphone and it's just adorable. It transitions into "Oh Canada" from the Vancouver game and we see Hordichuk go out for his first shift, and go in for a check only to hurt his knee. Damn. "I kind of heard it crack a little bit." D: Voiceover: "No one ever said the game of hockey is fair."
*commercial*
SMiiiid! Smid and PEEEETRY!!! In shorts, walking down a hallway. One week in, and the Oilers record is 1-1-1. And, my favourite little interview bit comes here, Ladislav Smid and Jeff Petry, driving around talking about how amazing Edmonton is and how everyone loves them. As long as they play well.
(gifs from here on tumblr) Jeff, I don't really think it's that funny but I love seeing your dumb face so whatever. Smid can be fucking hilarious, I admit.
Voiceover talks about how it was supposed to be Edmonton's offence that would win them games, but it's the defence that's been the team's bright spot allowing on average 2 goals a game. Petry's talking about how the teams is figuring each other out and forming lines and supporting each other and jeeze, I really don't want to be that girl but I keep getting distracted by the sun on his thighs and I'm sorry but just... damn, Petry. Damn.
Smid talks about learning to be smarter with the puck, because if he makes a mistake the only person behind him is the goalie- if he makes a mistake, then everybody sees that. They both laugh, because having Khabibulin and Dubnyk trying to cover up your mistakes is hilarious.
Game four, Nashville come to town. There's a terrible pun about a country hurting song, but more important cheerleaders! Handing out Ryan Smyth bobbleheads! A battle against the Preds seems mostly a battle against Weber and Suter, while the Oilers own #1 Dman is Ryan Whitney who is clearly tired of being injured and just wants to play. It's sad. "You go down and the guys don't treat you different but you feel a little dfferent, like you're not part of it." He does like what he's seeing from the team this year, especially the strong defence.
That strong defence keeps Nashville to only 12 shots and one goal, while Horcoff is busy being the captain, getting three assists and generally being a boss.
Next night is in Calgary, and Whitney is suiting up for his first game in about 300 days. He feels slow, but that's to be expected at first. The team has a 1-0 lead for 54 minutes, before the Flames score twice. Damn. Also, Whieny coming back means one guy gets sent down to the AHL: Jeff Petry. *sniff*
Petry interviews that he knows he can play in the NHL, but he's looking forward to being able to play more in the AHL and improve so he can take advantage of his opportunities when he's back up with the Oilers.
Speaking of coming back from injury, here's Sam Gagner! I have such a soft spot for Gagner you guys, ever since I saw this video about him training and not being naturally fast and his dad saying "you'll never be a rabbit, but we can make you a really fast turtle"
What if Sam never wanted to be a rabbit? What if he wanted to a a gopher working in a bookshop or something? I really hope that hockey is what he actually wanted to do with his life, and he didn't just play because of his dad. I mean, I assume that he wouldn't have ever made it to this level or been on the WJC team if he didn' truly want this, but damn. I have all sorts of feelings about Sam Gagner's happiness.
Anyway, he's back and everybody is training and working on being a team. Tom Gilbert Talks to Steve Smith about how much better they're doing, and preparing to take on the Wild. Again. Again, they take a lead and protect it by blocking shots. Eric Belanger is interviewed about shot-blocking and how Smid and Sutton are two of the best in the league and how in this game he went down to block a shot, went headfirst and very nearly took it in the face. In the fifth game of the season. I love/hate shotblocking.
The Wild tie the game with half of a second left. MOTHERFUCK. Shootout again, lost again. Tom Renny (ILU RENNEY!!!): "You can't play outside the system for a second, the league is too good. Let's learn from this," which is his mantra for everything, I believe. All of them need to take respnsibility for what happened.
The New York Rangers arrive, with Glen Sather in tow. He approves of the rebuild, letting the kids develop at their own speed and not to rush them.
The last time these two teams met, Avery punched Smid in the head, and this year Avery's in Connecticut and Smid's playing his best hockey ever. Shots of him playing, taking contact, getting stiched up and singing (badly) on the bench. Goaltending duel between Lundqvist and Khabibulin. Seriously, did anybody expect that at all? A goal by RNH, and then a second by Corey Potter (so handsome!) against his former and his first with his new team. Shots of him after the game on the phone with his grandparents, who are both so very proud of him.
Shutout means an optional skate the next day. Kelly Buchburger hams it up and shows off some of his moves, while for Theo Peckham and optional skate is more "strongly reccomended," since he's been a healthy scratch. He's the youngest defenceman there and has a lot to learn still (and would probably be picked up on waivers if sent down, unlike Petry who isn't in danger of being snagged just yet.) He understands why, eve if it's obvious that he would rather be playing. He's only 23 (seriously, I forget how young both he and Gagner are, when you remember that they're actually multi-year veterans on this team.)
"Half of us have still never played in some buildings in the NHL." If there was ever a statement that highlighted how youn and inexperienced this team is...
Canucks again, Khabby scrambles in net and three goals chase Luongo and is enough to win 3-2. Of course, since nothing for the Oilers can ever go well, Whitney goes down with a knee sprain. Of course. So, next game with Whitney down Peckham draws in against the Capitals who, if you remember, were 7-0 to start the season (spoiler: I like to think that this is where is all went to shit.) (aside: this game also produced my favourite picture from this season so far.
Yeaaaaaah.)
Renney: "They're the best team in the league. I'm not saying this to scare you, I'm saying this because I think you can beat them and make a name for yourselves in the league." Tom Renney, fuck yeah! "Rely on a lot of things but above all, rely on each other."
Caps score first, then Khabby and the D close the door. Hall and Eberle score. In the third it's all the Caps but they just can't score on Khabby and the crowd starts chanting "KHABBY, KHABBY" and seriously, did anybody expect this last year? As the camera follows them in to the locker room Whitney tells the camera that "They're saying Khabibulin," and you can tell he's really happy for him too.
Oh team. <3
*commercials*
From beating the Caps the team gets on a plane to go to Colorado and they don't get in until about 3:30 AM. Horcoff interviews that this is maybe the latest he's ever gotten in to a city for a game. He does look tired and scruffy, as everyone walks in around 12:30 for a team meeting. everyone looks very spiffy in their suits. Paajarvi looks like a BAMF in his black suit and shirt. Tom Renney tells them that he's very proud of them, and that if he has any disappointment it's that they were kind of startstruck by Washington at first. (Well, Tom, you did tell them that they are the best and a team to be measured by right before the game...) Specialty teams were outstanding, Khabby terrific. Shots of Eager, Lander, Paajarvi all looking exhausted.
Announcement of "the worst kept secret in the league": RNH is staying up and not going back down to juniors. Woo! Nuuuuuuge. Renney interviews that as an 18-year old, they needed the 9 games to really tell if he should stay up for the year and.... uh. Renney talks about the sexiness of having him around and I lose the plot a little because I know what he means, but the sexiness can be interpreted in different ways and I can't even deal with Renney talking about RNH and the sexiness. Oh Tom. "It's not about sexy, it's about being right." Okay. They knew he'd be strong offensively, but weren't sure up until that point how physically ready he was to play in the NHL and how defensively minded he was too.
Renney congratulates the team on making it a comfortable situation for RNH to be able to do well and stay up with them. There's a shot of the assistant coaches at the back of the room all beaming like proud parents. N'awwww. And with that, it's back to business.
3 straight wins at home, so they're worried about a letdown. It's actually really cool seeing the team go over video- Renney points things out and they all talk it through. Taylor Hall is describing how one of their opponents moves across the ice and it reaffirms that while so much of the game of hockey is instinctive and reactionary, there's a hell of a lot of preparation that goes in before each game. All of the players walk out of the room, and near the end it's Horcoff, Potter, andRNH sitting in the chairs and Ebs walks over and fistbumps Ryan to congratulate him.
Voiceover tells us that RNH can now buy housplants, another young player is trying to secure a place of the club. The shot goes from Peckham and Potter taking pictures with a bunch of fans to Jeff Petry (eeeeee!) being interviewed about being back up with the club. "We were actually at pregame skate this morning in Oklahoma, and I got called off and they told me to go to the airport and they would call and let me know if I needed to board the flight or go back and get ready for the game there. You've always got to be ready, got to be prepared. It feels good to be back and whatever I can do to help my cause and stay here is what I'm going to do." <3
Voiceover that hockey is a team game and that usually it's the top players but in this game, it's the supporting characters who step up. Barker gets a goal, Petrell and Sutton team up for a goal. This is the game that had Gilbert throwing punches at Erik Johnson in front of the net and the announcer had the best line of the night: when a Gopher and a Badger get into it, you know neither is going to back down. Oilers win their fourth straight. Renney tells them they've got something special going on, and to take it into their next game with them.
Pre-Halloween game against the Blues. The voiveover tells us that the kids, OKC call-ups, battle-toughened vets and the league's best goalie in the league for October all contributed to the win. Five in a row! It's like they're a real team now, or something. Petrell does an adorably terrible impersonation of Tom Renny after the game. It's terrible both because of the Finnish accent and the fact that he can't seem to stop giggling. "Happy Halloween. Whale of a game at Rexall! Skate optional!" He turns around and walks away, as the team cheers.
More about the arena/arts complex that needs to be built to replace Rexall place. While I know how important these discussions are, as Winnipeggers we went through this a few years ago went we built a new arena downtown and it can be mind-numbing when it's your own city, never mind someone else's. Lots of shots of citizens talking to council, and in the end the mayor saying "well, we'll go through with this part of the plan. It could be better, but it could also be way, way worse." ~ paraphrasing. He also mentions that lots of younger people who came out to support it talked about it being good for the future of the city which I think is true.
*commercial*
Road trip! 6 games in 11 days. First game is in LA and Smyth's first time meeting his former team. ~~DRAMA!!~~ or not so much. It's easier to come back when you're playing well and the team is winning. The guys are loose and ready, and the league has noticed. So has the media, and we see them descend. One of the cooler bits of this episode is an interview with Annika Greder Duncan who covers Swedish players in the NHL for radio back in Sweden. "And of course the Oilers have two of the most promising young players in Paajarvi-Svensson as [they] call him, and Anton Lander," who was the captain in last year's World Junior championship. A shot of Annika interviewing Anton in Swedish, and then putting the microphone in Ryan Jones' face as he looks bewildered. More international media as Lennart Petrell is interviewed in Finnish.
The play LA and Smyth is telling everybody all of the Kings' habits and plays they like to do. "yeah, they love the little plays, boys." BE MOAR CANADIAN, Ryan Smyth. Just try. He scores the first goal in true Smytty fashion, a dirty one from behind the net that banks off 2 opposing players and goes in. NHL rookie Lennart Petrell gets his first too (I feel weird just calling him a rookie, since he's been playing in Finland for ages, so.) Smyth: "Lenny, great work, bud." Khabby gets another shutout.
Someone from the team hands Petrell his puck and tells him that they'll put it on a plaque when they get back to Edmonton. Lennart interviews that it's great to play in the NHL, and he's glad that the timing's worked out for him to be here.
Off to Phoenix! Last year the dads flew down with the team to LA and Phoenix, this time the moms are meeting up with them. We see the ladies hanging out together, and man. They seem like a fun group. Dubnyk and his mom! Cam Barker and his mom! Ryan Jones and his momma! Ryan Smyth and his mom! T.D. Forss says "So you got the boy closer to home." and she replies that she loves it. Aww. Tambellini talks with Maria Paajarvi, and she interviews about how Magnus moved away to play hockey, and it's been hard, and basically when everybody else would be partying he'd be practising or training and that he loves to compete. It's hard for the mothers, and oh. In all of these interviews you can see how much they love their boys and the work and sacrifice not just from the players but their entire families. <3
(Also shallow, but Magnus is dressed sharply, and you can see where he gets his good looks.)
Ryan Jones introduces his momma to the entire group, and immediately you can tell 1) he got his size from his dad, since she seems pretty tiny, and 2) he got a good part of that outgoing charisma from her. She seems like a force of nature. Ryan jokes that she probably bough 99.9% of the Jones jerseys sold. Tom Gilbert intraduces his mom, and "she's the reason I'm here and I'm so appreciative of it," and she kisses him on the cheek. Shawn Horcoff talks to them about how great it was to have them meet them when they came in, and how they waited up for them and one of the moms (I'm betting Jones) speaks up "it's not the first time we did," and everybody laughs.
Renney jokes about asking Shanahan if he could get the mothers to stand behind the bench and that Shanny said "no way, I've already had too much trouble with headshots." They really appreciate having the moms on this trip.
At practise, the moms crowd around the entrace to give everyone high fives as they come out onto the ice. Voiceover: "They've done this before, of course, but today they don't have to drive the boys to the rink or tie their skates." Maria Paajarvi interviews that he's taking this next step himself and that when she goes back she's feeling more comfortable and knowing that they're taking good care of her son. Sorry, it's just a little dusty in here. Horcoff's mom asks him to sign her shirt. Man, Horcoff's mom is awesome. All the moms high five Renney as he comes out through the tunnel. "Holy smokes, that's a first."
"I remember teachers asking him, you know how they write reports on what do you want to be when you grow up? Devan would always say 'I want to play in the NHL,' and teachers would always say 'well, you know what, that's a little unrealistic,' and I used to get really upset when they'd say that, I'd say 'you know what, how do you know he's not going to play?'" Barb Dubnyk. You guys, the moms are awesome.
The game starts, and Kim Strba, Taylor Hall's mom, thinks that they're nervous since the moms are there. They're a really cool split screen effect of showing the play on the ice and the mother's reactions. "Go Hallsy! ...I don't think I've ever said that before." Taylor Hall's mom is really awesome too. Oilers score, and the moms go nuts cheering and high-fiving and dancing. Suck it, boring dads trip from last year. Oilers lose and the streak is broken, but the moms are happy that they got to see their sons play and get to know each other.
*commercial*
Oilers in Montreal, and the Kid Line does a photoshoot on their day off, and it's ridiculous. Taylor Hall did it himself last year. They joke about RNH's celly in Phoenix, "I've never seen that out of you" Hall jokes. The boys look at the plates that celebrities have decorated and signed that are displayed in the restaurant, and they draw one of their own. It's terrible. It's a good thing the're hockey players, because that Oil drop is terrible. All three of them interview about having to take it day by day. They finish their plate and I think it's Eberle who says "actually, I think it's pretty good." No. No it's not.
Montreal! Hemsky is back from a strained shoulder. Ryan Jones cores their first shorthanded goal of the season. They get three, andKabby is sharp, facing twice as many shots. They win, and head off to Boston.
Colton Teubert is interviews and they show Steve Smith working with all of the defensemen about putting in the extra time, especially if you're not getting the higher minutes. Teubert talks about the extra work being put in and learning from the more experienced players on the team. shots of him doing drills and there's that awesome clip that, if you're in fandom you've probably seen of him gliding behind everybodyarms and leg raised in the air. Hilarious. I love Teubert. He keeps interviewing, and Andy Sutton looms in and mocks him. Team! <3
Boston! The first of three games in four nights against the last 3 stanley Cup winners. They lose, but Renney thinks they could have won. Head back into Detroit, and Renney coashes that winners come out of difficult times and that thiese hard times are good for them. They lose to detroit. Into chicago, and we see Eberle score. "As our team improves and shows that we can win games other teams are going to start to play us different, they're not going to take us for granted. They're going to come at us hard, they're going to do everything they can to push us out of games." They lose 6-3 in Chicago.
*commercial*
Back to Edmonton! Shots of snow all over Edmonton. voiceover: It's not windchill that they're feeling. After three losses in a row, this team is cold." Did Gene Principe write that line? The Ottawa Senators come to town, and they score twice in 9 seconds and another before the end of the first and the Oilers are completely deflated. They have a closed door meeting where they talk it out. It would have been cool to see that, but completely defeats the purpose of "closed door meeting," so... yeah.
Rematch, as the Blackhawks come to town. FUCK YEAH, this game. Voiceover: "[Hemsky scores] There are moments in a hockey game when the tide turns [Jones scores on the backhand] The momentum shifts [Eberle steals the puck, passes to Smyth who scores] [Keith hits Hall from behind into the boards] To everybody looking on [Hall scores on the powerplay] {RNH on a breakaway passes to Eberle who scores] the outcome suddenly appears inevitable. [Hall scores] Inexorable. Perhaps even fate. [Hall scores a third time.] Sometimes these moments echo well beyond the game [Taylor Hall goes for a fourth and does his Kingston Cannonball into the goal post] and go on to define an entire season." Through that last bit, you can hear the crowd chanting "WE WANT TEN." Fuck yeah.
Season 2, episode 2
October 9th, 2011 (my birthday!) Opening game against the Penguins goes to a shootout and the Oilers win. Voiceover: "Coming off his team's opening night feast on penguin, the youngest Oiler arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Smyths house, ready to take on a different bird at Thanksgiving dinner." That is one creepy mental image superimposed over images of RNH looking tiny and awkward in a t-shirt while Ryan Smyth takes a turkey out of the oven and begins carving it up. Did the team ritualistically kill Brent Johnson and feast upon his flesh?
RNH plays ping pong with Andy Sutton while Smyth looks on. They bond as Andy beats RNH (in ping pong, not with his fists) and and hugs him and man. I know that while he looks small, RNH is actually bigger than me and Andy Sutton makes him look tiny. Also, he looks like he's a pretty decent dude, and this just makes me wish he wasn't always so Andy Sutton when on the ice. :(
Dinner! As the paterfamilias, Smytty leads grace. It's actually one of the better graces I've ever heard (not that that's saying much.)
Edmonton's mayor and the Oilers owner are in NYC for yet more talks about building a new arena. Things seem to be progressing.
The Oilers touch down in Minnesota to take on the Wild, where they haven't had much success in the last few years. Cam Barker is looking forward to playing his old team, and trying to prove that he's worth his high draft position. He gets stopped outside the arena by autograph seekers. He does an interview and, look. I'm sure Cam Barker is a good guy, but damn. He's quite boring to listen to.
Oilers score first, but it ends up tied, and goes to a shootout and they lose. Of course.
Back in Edmonton, and Darcy Hordichuk is looking forward to playing an old team Adorable shots of his son passing a puck around and being adorable while he studies tapes of fighters on other teams and talks about the role of the enforcer, not just fighting after the fact but being a deterrent to other teams running the young skilled guys. He also talks about how he used to listen to tapes of himself talking about his training and preparation to get charged up for games and dude. I'm not keen on the idea of enforcers, but you can't say that there isn't a certain amount of skill and mental/emotional preparation that goes into the job.
Adorbale little moment where wefind out his son loves the goalies the best and Darcy jokes it's because if they lose they can always blame to goalie. You can hear his wife admonishing him in the background.
Before he leaves for the rink he rubs noses with his son, and then the kid sings "Oh Canada" into a microphone and it's just adorable. It transitions into "Oh Canada" from the Vancouver game and we see Hordichuk go out for his first shift, and go in for a check only to hurt his knee. Damn. "I kind of heard it crack a little bit." D: Voiceover: "No one ever said the game of hockey is fair."
*commercial*
SMiiiid! Smid and PEEEETRY!!! In shorts, walking down a hallway. One week in, and the Oilers record is 1-1-1. And, my favourite little interview bit comes here, Ladislav Smid and Jeff Petry, driving around talking about how amazing Edmonton is and how everyone loves them. As long as they play well.
(gifs from here on tumblr) Jeff, I don't really think it's that funny but I love seeing your dumb face so whatever. Smid can be fucking hilarious, I admit.
Voiceover talks about how it was supposed to be Edmonton's offence that would win them games, but it's the defence that's been the team's bright spot allowing on average 2 goals a game. Petry's talking about how the teams is figuring each other out and forming lines and supporting each other and jeeze, I really don't want to be that girl but I keep getting distracted by the sun on his thighs and I'm sorry but just... damn, Petry. Damn.
Smid talks about learning to be smarter with the puck, because if he makes a mistake the only person behind him is the goalie- if he makes a mistake, then everybody sees that. They both laugh, because having Khabibulin and Dubnyk trying to cover up your mistakes is hilarious.
Game four, Nashville come to town. There's a terrible pun about a country hurting song, but more important cheerleaders! Handing out Ryan Smyth bobbleheads! A battle against the Preds seems mostly a battle against Weber and Suter, while the Oilers own #1 Dman is Ryan Whitney who is clearly tired of being injured and just wants to play. It's sad. "You go down and the guys don't treat you different but you feel a little dfferent, like you're not part of it." He does like what he's seeing from the team this year, especially the strong defence.
That strong defence keeps Nashville to only 12 shots and one goal, while Horcoff is busy being the captain, getting three assists and generally being a boss.
Next night is in Calgary, and Whitney is suiting up for his first game in about 300 days. He feels slow, but that's to be expected at first. The team has a 1-0 lead for 54 minutes, before the Flames score twice. Damn. Also, Whieny coming back means one guy gets sent down to the AHL: Jeff Petry. *sniff*
Petry interviews that he knows he can play in the NHL, but he's looking forward to being able to play more in the AHL and improve so he can take advantage of his opportunities when he's back up with the Oilers.
Speaking of coming back from injury, here's Sam Gagner! I have such a soft spot for Gagner you guys, ever since I saw this video about him training and not being naturally fast and his dad saying "you'll never be a rabbit, but we can make you a really fast turtle"
Click to viewWhat if Sam never wanted to be a rabbit? What if he wanted to a a gopher working in a bookshop or something? I really hope that hockey is what he actually wanted to do with his life, and he didn't just play because of his dad. I mean, I assume that he wouldn't have ever made it to this level or been on the WJC team if he didn' truly want this, but damn. I have all sorts of feelings about Sam Gagner's happiness.
Anyway, he's back and everybody is training and working on being a team. Tom Gilbert Talks to Steve Smith about how much better they're doing, and preparing to take on the Wild. Again. Again, they take a lead and protect it by blocking shots. Eric Belanger is interviewed about shot-blocking and how Smid and Sutton are two of the best in the league and how in this game he went down to block a shot, went headfirst and very nearly took it in the face. In the fifth game of the season. I love/hate shotblocking.
The Wild tie the game with half of a second left. MOTHERFUCK. Shootout again, lost again. Tom Renny (ILU RENNEY!!!): "You can't play outside the system for a second, the league is too good. Let's learn from this," which is his mantra for everything, I believe. All of them need to take respnsibility for what happened.
The New York Rangers arrive, with Glen Sather in tow. He approves of the rebuild, letting the kids develop at their own speed and not to rush them.
The last time these two teams met, Avery punched Smid in the head, and this year Avery's in Connecticut and Smid's playing his best hockey ever. Shots of him playing, taking contact, getting stiched up and singing (badly) on the bench. Goaltending duel between Lundqvist and Khabibulin. Seriously, did anybody expect that at all? A goal by RNH, and then a second by Corey Potter (so handsome!) against his former and his first with his new team. Shots of him after the game on the phone with his grandparents, who are both so very proud of him.
Shutout means an optional skate the next day. Kelly Buchburger hams it up and shows off some of his moves, while for Theo Peckham and optional skate is more "strongly reccomended," since he's been a healthy scratch. He's the youngest defenceman there and has a lot to learn still (and would probably be picked up on waivers if sent down, unlike Petry who isn't in danger of being snagged just yet.) He understands why, eve if it's obvious that he would rather be playing. He's only 23 (seriously, I forget how young both he and Gagner are, when you remember that they're actually multi-year veterans on this team.)
"Half of us have still never played in some buildings in the NHL." If there was ever a statement that highlighted how youn and inexperienced this team is...
Canucks again, Khabby scrambles in net and three goals chase Luongo and is enough to win 3-2. Of course, since nothing for the Oilers can ever go well, Whitney goes down with a knee sprain. Of course. So, next game with Whitney down Peckham draws in against the Capitals who, if you remember, were 7-0 to start the season (spoiler: I like to think that this is where is all went to shit.) (aside: this game also produced my favourite picture from this season so far.
Yeaaaaaah.)
Renney: "They're the best team in the league. I'm not saying this to scare you, I'm saying this because I think you can beat them and make a name for yourselves in the league." Tom Renney, fuck yeah! "Rely on a lot of things but above all, rely on each other."
Caps score first, then Khabby and the D close the door. Hall and Eberle score. In the third it's all the Caps but they just can't score on Khabby and the crowd starts chanting "KHABBY, KHABBY" and seriously, did anybody expect this last year? As the camera follows them in to the locker room Whitney tells the camera that "They're saying Khabibulin," and you can tell he's really happy for him too.
Oh team. <3
*commercials*
From beating the Caps the team gets on a plane to go to Colorado and they don't get in until about 3:30 AM. Horcoff interviews that this is maybe the latest he's ever gotten in to a city for a game. He does look tired and scruffy, as everyone walks in around 12:30 for a team meeting. everyone looks very spiffy in their suits. Paajarvi looks like a BAMF in his black suit and shirt. Tom Renney tells them that he's very proud of them, and that if he has any disappointment it's that they were kind of startstruck by Washington at first. (Well, Tom, you did tell them that they are the best and a team to be measured by right before the game...) Specialty teams were outstanding, Khabby terrific. Shots of Eager, Lander, Paajarvi all looking exhausted.
Announcement of "the worst kept secret in the league": RNH is staying up and not going back down to juniors. Woo! Nuuuuuuge. Renney interviews that as an 18-year old, they needed the 9 games to really tell if he should stay up for the year and.... uh. Renney talks about the sexiness of having him around and I lose the plot a little because I know what he means, but the sexiness can be interpreted in different ways and I can't even deal with Renney talking about RNH and the sexiness. Oh Tom. "It's not about sexy, it's about being right." Okay. They knew he'd be strong offensively, but weren't sure up until that point how physically ready he was to play in the NHL and how defensively minded he was too.
Renney congratulates the team on making it a comfortable situation for RNH to be able to do well and stay up with them. There's a shot of the assistant coaches at the back of the room all beaming like proud parents. N'awwww. And with that, it's back to business.
3 straight wins at home, so they're worried about a letdown. It's actually really cool seeing the team go over video- Renney points things out and they all talk it through. Taylor Hall is describing how one of their opponents moves across the ice and it reaffirms that while so much of the game of hockey is instinctive and reactionary, there's a hell of a lot of preparation that goes in before each game. All of the players walk out of the room, and near the end it's Horcoff, Potter, andRNH sitting in the chairs and Ebs walks over and fistbumps Ryan to congratulate him.
Voiceover tells us that RNH can now buy housplants, another young player is trying to secure a place of the club. The shot goes from Peckham and Potter taking pictures with a bunch of fans to Jeff Petry (eeeeee!) being interviewed about being back up with the club. "We were actually at pregame skate this morning in Oklahoma, and I got called off and they told me to go to the airport and they would call and let me know if I needed to board the flight or go back and get ready for the game there. You've always got to be ready, got to be prepared. It feels good to be back and whatever I can do to help my cause and stay here is what I'm going to do." <3
Voiceover that hockey is a team game and that usually it's the top players but in this game, it's the supporting characters who step up. Barker gets a goal, Petrell and Sutton team up for a goal. This is the game that had Gilbert throwing punches at Erik Johnson in front of the net and the announcer had the best line of the night: when a Gopher and a Badger get into it, you know neither is going to back down. Oilers win their fourth straight. Renney tells them they've got something special going on, and to take it into their next game with them.
Pre-Halloween game against the Blues. The voiveover tells us that the kids, OKC call-ups, battle-toughened vets and the league's best goalie in the league for October all contributed to the win. Five in a row! It's like they're a real team now, or something. Petrell does an adorably terrible impersonation of Tom Renny after the game. It's terrible both because of the Finnish accent and the fact that he can't seem to stop giggling. "Happy Halloween. Whale of a game at Rexall! Skate optional!" He turns around and walks away, as the team cheers.
More about the arena/arts complex that needs to be built to replace Rexall place. While I know how important these discussions are, as Winnipeggers we went through this a few years ago went we built a new arena downtown and it can be mind-numbing when it's your own city, never mind someone else's. Lots of shots of citizens talking to council, and in the end the mayor saying "well, we'll go through with this part of the plan. It could be better, but it could also be way, way worse." ~ paraphrasing. He also mentions that lots of younger people who came out to support it talked about it being good for the future of the city which I think is true.
*commercial*
Road trip! 6 games in 11 days. First game is in LA and Smyth's first time meeting his former team. ~~DRAMA!!~~ or not so much. It's easier to come back when you're playing well and the team is winning. The guys are loose and ready, and the league has noticed. So has the media, and we see them descend. One of the cooler bits of this episode is an interview with Annika Greder Duncan who covers Swedish players in the NHL for radio back in Sweden. "And of course the Oilers have two of the most promising young players in Paajarvi-Svensson as [they] call him, and Anton Lander," who was the captain in last year's World Junior championship. A shot of Annika interviewing Anton in Swedish, and then putting the microphone in Ryan Jones' face as he looks bewildered. More international media as Lennart Petrell is interviewed in Finnish.
The play LA and Smyth is telling everybody all of the Kings' habits and plays they like to do. "yeah, they love the little plays, boys." BE MOAR CANADIAN, Ryan Smyth. Just try. He scores the first goal in true Smytty fashion, a dirty one from behind the net that banks off 2 opposing players and goes in. NHL rookie Lennart Petrell gets his first too (I feel weird just calling him a rookie, since he's been playing in Finland for ages, so.) Smyth: "Lenny, great work, bud." Khabby gets another shutout.
Someone from the team hands Petrell his puck and tells him that they'll put it on a plaque when they get back to Edmonton. Lennart interviews that it's great to play in the NHL, and he's glad that the timing's worked out for him to be here.
Off to Phoenix! Last year the dads flew down with the team to LA and Phoenix, this time the moms are meeting up with them. We see the ladies hanging out together, and man. They seem like a fun group. Dubnyk and his mom! Cam Barker and his mom! Ryan Jones and his momma! Ryan Smyth and his mom! T.D. Forss says "So you got the boy closer to home." and she replies that she loves it. Aww. Tambellini talks with Maria Paajarvi, and she interviews about how Magnus moved away to play hockey, and it's been hard, and basically when everybody else would be partying he'd be practising or training and that he loves to compete. It's hard for the mothers, and oh. In all of these interviews you can see how much they love their boys and the work and sacrifice not just from the players but their entire families. <3
(Also shallow, but Magnus is dressed sharply, and you can see where he gets his good looks.)
Ryan Jones introduces his momma to the entire group, and immediately you can tell 1) he got his size from his dad, since she seems pretty tiny, and 2) he got a good part of that outgoing charisma from her. She seems like a force of nature. Ryan jokes that she probably bough 99.9% of the Jones jerseys sold. Tom Gilbert intraduces his mom, and "she's the reason I'm here and I'm so appreciative of it," and she kisses him on the cheek. Shawn Horcoff talks to them about how great it was to have them meet them when they came in, and how they waited up for them and one of the moms (I'm betting Jones) speaks up "it's not the first time we did," and everybody laughs.
Renney jokes about asking Shanahan if he could get the mothers to stand behind the bench and that Shanny said "no way, I've already had too much trouble with headshots." They really appreciate having the moms on this trip.
At practise, the moms crowd around the entrace to give everyone high fives as they come out onto the ice. Voiceover: "They've done this before, of course, but today they don't have to drive the boys to the rink or tie their skates." Maria Paajarvi interviews that he's taking this next step himself and that when she goes back she's feeling more comfortable and knowing that they're taking good care of her son. Sorry, it's just a little dusty in here. Horcoff's mom asks him to sign her shirt. Man, Horcoff's mom is awesome. All the moms high five Renney as he comes out through the tunnel. "Holy smokes, that's a first."
"I remember teachers asking him, you know how they write reports on what do you want to be when you grow up? Devan would always say 'I want to play in the NHL,' and teachers would always say 'well, you know what, that's a little unrealistic,' and I used to get really upset when they'd say that, I'd say 'you know what, how do you know he's not going to play?'" Barb Dubnyk. You guys, the moms are awesome.
The game starts, and Kim Strba, Taylor Hall's mom, thinks that they're nervous since the moms are there. They're a really cool split screen effect of showing the play on the ice and the mother's reactions. "Go Hallsy! ...I don't think I've ever said that before." Taylor Hall's mom is really awesome too. Oilers score, and the moms go nuts cheering and high-fiving and dancing. Suck it, boring dads trip from last year. Oilers lose and the streak is broken, but the moms are happy that they got to see their sons play and get to know each other.
*commercial*
Oilers in Montreal, and the Kid Line does a photoshoot on their day off, and it's ridiculous. Taylor Hall did it himself last year. They joke about RNH's celly in Phoenix, "I've never seen that out of you" Hall jokes. The boys look at the plates that celebrities have decorated and signed that are displayed in the restaurant, and they draw one of their own. It's terrible. It's a good thing the're hockey players, because that Oil drop is terrible. All three of them interview about having to take it day by day. They finish their plate and I think it's Eberle who says "actually, I think it's pretty good." No. No it's not.
Montreal! Hemsky is back from a strained shoulder. Ryan Jones cores their first shorthanded goal of the season. They get three, andKabby is sharp, facing twice as many shots. They win, and head off to Boston.
Colton Teubert is interviews and they show Steve Smith working with all of the defensemen about putting in the extra time, especially if you're not getting the higher minutes. Teubert talks about the extra work being put in and learning from the more experienced players on the team. shots of him doing drills and there's that awesome clip that, if you're in fandom you've probably seen of him gliding behind everybodyarms and leg raised in the air. Hilarious. I love Teubert. He keeps interviewing, and Andy Sutton looms in and mocks him. Team! <3
Boston! The first of three games in four nights against the last 3 stanley Cup winners. They lose, but Renney thinks they could have won. Head back into Detroit, and Renney coashes that winners come out of difficult times and that thiese hard times are good for them. They lose to detroit. Into chicago, and we see Eberle score. "As our team improves and shows that we can win games other teams are going to start to play us different, they're not going to take us for granted. They're going to come at us hard, they're going to do everything they can to push us out of games." They lose 6-3 in Chicago.
*commercial*
Back to Edmonton! Shots of snow all over Edmonton. voiceover: It's not windchill that they're feeling. After three losses in a row, this team is cold." Did Gene Principe write that line? The Ottawa Senators come to town, and they score twice in 9 seconds and another before the end of the first and the Oilers are completely deflated. They have a closed door meeting where they talk it out. It would have been cool to see that, but completely defeats the purpose of "closed door meeting," so... yeah.
Rematch, as the Blackhawks come to town. FUCK YEAH, this game. Voiceover: "[Hemsky scores] There are moments in a hockey game when the tide turns [Jones scores on the backhand] The momentum shifts [Eberle steals the puck, passes to Smyth who scores] [Keith hits Hall from behind into the boards] To everybody looking on [Hall scores on the powerplay] {RNH on a breakaway passes to Eberle who scores] the outcome suddenly appears inevitable. [Hall scores] Inexorable. Perhaps even fate. [Hall scores a third time.] Sometimes these moments echo well beyond the game [Taylor Hall goes for a fourth and does his Kingston Cannonball into the goal post] and go on to define an entire season." Through that last bit, you can hear the crowd chanting "WE WANT TEN." Fuck yeah.