Things are kinda nuts right now. Am I talking about *waves his arms at everything happening in the world* or just hockey, because both the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup Finals are living up to the mythology as told by the great Jon Bois.
EDMONTON OILERS (2-2) vs FLORIDA PANTHERS (2-2)
ROGERS PLACE, EDMONTON, AB
5:00 PM PST/ 8:00 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET, CBC
I mean, you could make an argument that the Oilers are INSANELY fortunate to be tied in this series right now, especially after that winning scratch ticket tied to a golden horseshoe in a field of four leaf clovers of a goal by Leon Draisaitl the other night. I don't give a good god damn what any of the talking heads have to say. That was a fluke. So how do they keep this going now that the series is down to a best of three, and the possibility of two of them being on home ice?
Well, starting Calvin Pickard would be a good starting point.
Pickard is 7-0 compared to Stuart Skinner's 7-6 record, and has a better GAA and sv% than him as well, so is it just the shutouts that has kept them going back to Skinner? After giving up three goals in the first period of Game Four, it appears that Skinner's leash ran out of rope, and Pickard will get the start tonight in Edmonton. Now, if the Oilers lose tonight, well, the series is as good as done, so it's vital that the Oilers do everything they can to try and control the Panthers attack and keep them to the outside, along with not getting sucked into stupid penalties, which is hard when you have boneheads like Evander Kane on your roster.
Anyway, here's what the nhl dot com thingy predicts for lineups tonight...
Stanley Cup Final, Game 5
8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX
Best-of-7 series tied 2-2
Panthers projected lineup
Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer -- Tomas Nosek -- Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola -- Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt -- Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Uvis Balinskis, Jesper Boqvist, Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Nico Sturm
Injured: None
Oilers projected lineup
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Connor McDavid -- Connor Brown
Vasily Podkolzin -- Leon Draisaitl -- Corey Perry
Jeff Skinner -- Adam Henrique -- Trent Frederic
Evander Kane -- Mattias Janmark -- Viktor Arvidsson
Mattias Ekholm -- Jake Walman
Brett Kulak -- Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse -- Troy Stecher
Calvin Pickard
Stuart Skinner
Scratched: Joshua Brown, Cam Dineen, Ty Emberson, Kasperi Kapanen, John Klingberg, Max Jones, Derek Ryan
Injured: Zach Hyman (wrist)
The only change other than in goal is Kasperi Kapanen coming out for Viktor Arvidsson. No changes with the Panthers.
LAST NIGHT'S AHL ACTION
ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS 4 CHARLOTTE CHECKERS 3 (2OT) (Canucks lead series 1-0)
Again, please refer to the teachings of Mr Bois. What an insane comeback! The Canucks actually scored first, as Max Sasson keeps his incredible post season run going. The Checkers would respond about three minutes later though, and then again with just 0.6 seconds left in period one. The Checkers would get another goal seven minutes into the second, but the Canucks responded on the next shift, as Nate Smith got his 4th of the postseason. They would tie it in the third on a goal from Ty Mueller, and send it to OT, where despite numerous chances, they got through another twenty minutes with the score tied. It actually looked like the Checkers won it in the second OT, on one of the strangest calls you will ever see.
Insanity. I don't know why or how, but Silovs clearly wasn't ready, and my only guess was the officials were admitting they fucked up by dropping the puck with Silovs adjusting equipment with his back turned. Anyway, that gave the Canucks a second chance, and with it being the second overtime, the Canucks knew who to call, as Danila Klimovich scored his second double OT winner of the playoffs for a 4-3 Canucks win. Game Two goes tomorrow at 1:00 pm PDT on Sportsnet 650 and FloHockey.tv.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
From their gig at the Vogue Theatre back in November, here's OVERKILL with an absolutely smokin' version of 'Ironbound'.
Shit's gettin' weird out there. Protect yourselves, the ones you love, and the ones who can't protect themselves. We outnumber the fascists, so make sure they know. Enjoy the game. Fuck Trump.
