If you figure there may well be a cause-and-effect relationship between the two, go to the head of the class.

Yes, it’s facile to identify this particular weakness when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is missing owing to a severe bout of the flu, when veteran centre Shawn Horcoff still is not nearly 100 per cent after missing 15 games with a broken knuckle; when another veteran, Eric Belanger, is just back from a groin injury; and Ryan Smyth, normally a left winger, is filling in as the fourth-line pivot.

The only centre the Oilers have operating at full throttle is Sam Gagner, the 23-year-old, six-year NHLer who is having a strong year, by any measure.

Anyway, this litany of ‘the-centre-cannot-hold’ woe certainly provokes the question: Why did the Oilers not claim yet another veteran centre, Jeff Halpern, off waivers on Sunday, as a depth move?

The Montreal Canadiens, sitting in first place in the Northeast Division and second overall in the Eastern Conference, claimed Halpern, a solid faceoff man and good two-way player, instead. Halpern’s salary is $700,000 and he will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Whatever the issue was, it certainly wasn’t cost that inhibited the Oilers from putting in a claim for Halpern.

The good news is, or seems to be, that Nugent-Hopkins will be back for the Oilers brace of road games — on Monday night against Nashville; and Tuesday night in St. Lous, the strong-on-the-puck, stingy group that shut out Edmonton 3-0 on Saturday night.

“He had a good day,” Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger said during his post-game news conference. “So we’re expecting him to be on the plane with us (Sunday).
“We’ll put him on a bike, we don’t have (practice) if he does join us. We would make that call after the pre-game skate in Nashville.”

As ineffectual as the Oilers were against the Blues on Saturday night, their power-play struggles were particularly glaring. They went shotless in two manpower advantages, as their once lethal power play continued to bumble along.

How much do the Oilers miss Nugent-Hopkins on the power play, where he can animate the play, and feed teammates, even if his efforts don’t always show up on the scoresheet?

“Nugent-Hopkins has been one of our leading all-round players away from the puck, on the power play, he’s a setter,” Krueger said. “His numbers (two goals, nine assists for 11 points) don’t reveal the value he is to this group.

“He’s a loss, but we’ve had losses of all different sizes and shapes this year that we’ve been able to fill the hole.”

Well, yes and no. The Oilers, for example, are 7-3-3 with Horcoff in the lineup this season, but a dismal 4-8-4 without him. Now, they have him, but he’s obviously gutting it out with one hand, more or less, which doesn’t help.

“It is what it is,” Horcoff said. “It gets better every day.

“It’s not a problem, that’s for sure. It’s not where I’d like it to be. But, it’s good enough.”

It was good enough for Horcoff to win five of nine faceoffs (56 per cent) against the Blue, but it sure looked sub-par on the one good, open look he had for a shot at St. Louis goalie Jaroslav Halak.

At least he got a shot off.

Belanger took a drop pass inside the St. Louis in the second period, aimed and fired a slap shot that hammered into the right-wing corner boards. On another play, he had a partial breakaway and fanned on the shot altogether. Belanger, another strong faceoff man, a veteran presence and tough competitor, has not delivered even modest offence with the Oilers.

He played his 100th game with the Oilers on Saturday night and has produced four (4) goals over that span. After more than a decade of scoring 12-15 goals each year of his 12-year NHL career, Belanger makes very little impoct on offence.

Smyth, of course, is a winger whose best days are behind him, as well as the ultimate good soldier, so he has been filling in at centre, while the likes of Belanger and Nugent-Hopkins have nursed injuries.

No doubt, Krueger and his medical staff will be mighty anxious observers Sunday when Nugent-Hopkins gets on the stationery bike to demonstrate his fitness after being knocked on his back by the flu.

His team obviously needs him badly.

His team needs something else, as well, more depth at centre. With the April 3 trade deadline approaching, that should be right at the top of GM Steve Tambellini’s shopping list. If he can obtain a better player than Jeff Halpern, more power to him. We’ll see.

"It's always good to get back in action in a game, especially coming here and winning the game. It's a big win for me and for the team. We need to pick up our road games for sure, and we've got one more big game coming up before we go home," said Halak after the game.

The Blues took a 1-0 lead just over three minutes into the game as Stewart elected to shoot on a three-on-two, beating Oilers starter Nikolai Khabibulin with a long wrist shot from the top of the circle for his 15th of the season.

After that the Blues went into shutdown mode, but did get insurance markers from Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie.

“When we’re getting pressured like that it seems like we give up alot of opportunities and we give them alot of turnovers,” said Oilers forward Taylor Hall.

“It's really hard to get offense like that and against a team like this. When we’re not getting much we just have to be okay with that and make simple plays and not turn over the puck like I did on that second goal, “ explained Hall.

Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff said it was a disappointing way for his team to close off their four game homestand.

“Give it to them, they took it to us. But we didn't have enough intensity and that's unacceptable in the situation we're in.”

The Oilers finish the homestand with a 1-1-2 record.  

Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger says it was definitely our weakest performance in a long time.

“We came out flat. It was a dream road game for them."

The Oilers now find themselves four points back of the Dallas Stars who hold the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Oilers head to Nashville on Monday, and they will battle the Blues again Tuesday in St. Louis. (Brenden Ullrich,The Canadian Press)

So after the pre-game skate on Saturday, the veteran talked about building his game shot by shot.

Khabibulin, who will start against the St. Louis Blues, is appearing in just his sixth game of this lockout shortened season. He was a late addition to the team because he was still working his way back from off-season hip surgery, then after a 31-save outing against the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 25, he headed back to the medical room to treat a groin injury.

When he has been in the lineup, he has been solid, registering a 2.12 goals against average and a .935 save percentage.

“I’m sure hoping (I’m ready). I felt pretty good in practices so I’m just going to try and keep it simple again and build a game shot by shot,” he said.

“It’s never easy to miss that much time in a short season. But it is what it is,” he continued. “My game was where I needed it to be when I played last but there’s been a little bit of time since then.

“I need to come out with a simple game plan and try and stop the shots I’m supposed to stop and go from there.”

Devan Dubnyk has started the last 11 games and could use a pinch hitter, especially since the Oilers do have a back-to-back set coming up this week with a game in Nashville on Monday and another meeting with the Blues the following night.

“In the five games he has played this year, he was been very competitive. We have to be smart how we put him into play and how we use him respecting the fact he’s coming off another injury and the age factor but right now, he’s looked excellent in practice,” said coach Ralph Krueger.

“We really feel he’s ready to give us a high energy game.”

Nugent-Hopkins may miss road trip
A decision will be made on Sunday morning as to the whether or not Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will even travel with the team.

The sophomore centre, who has been ill since Wednesday, was moved to the injured reserve list on Saturday, opening up a roster spot for Eric Belanger. He was not even at the rink, and it sounds like he may have a strep infection, rather than the flu.

“We’re going to have to see how he does. We’re just trying to get him feeling better,” said Krueger. “It’s very questionable whether he’ll be able to get on the plane with us tomorrow.

“He is getting better but whether he’s strong enough to travel or whether the travel would be risk is a decision we’ll make in the morning.”

jireland@edmotonjournal.com
Twitter.com/jirelandEJ

The Edmonton Oilers sophomore was a late scratch on Wednesday and was not on the ice Friday. Ales Hemsky and Nick Schultz were also absent but are expected to be good to go.

Meanwhile, it looks like Eric Belanger will be back in the lineup after missing two weeks with a groin injury.

“That will be a huge help,” said Sam Gagner. “You’re asking a lot of guys to jump from the wing to centre and guys have done a really good job . . . but it will be good to have him back to take some pressure off.”

To get Belanger back on the roster, the Oilers will either have to put Nugent-Hopkins on the injured reserve list, or, move Teemu Hartikainen to the Oklahoma City Barons, which is the probable course of action.

“What I had hoped was a 24-hour flu, which has hit multiple players here, is deeper than that. (Nugent-Hopkins) is still extremely weak today,” head coach Ralph Krueger said. “With that being at least three days, we expect he will need as many days to get back.”

Ewanyk signs entry level deal
The Oilers announced earlier on Friday that they had signed 2011 draft pick Travis Ewanyk to his three-year entry level contract.

“That’s one weight off my shoulders,” he said, not long after he had wrapped up a pre-game state with his Oil King teammates, who open their post-season against the Kootenay Ice at Rexall Place.

“It couldn’t get better,” the St. Albert native continued. “Just growing up, the greatest thing ever is getting drafted by the Oil Kings then I was drafted by the Oilers then I signed with them. It’s just one more step. It’s awesome.”

Ewanyk, a gritty defensive forward, will report to the Oilers rookie camp in the fall then will start his pro career with the Oklahoma City Barons.

Teammates Keegan Lowe (Carolina Hurricanes) and Henrik Samuelsson (Phoenix Coyotes) signed deals recently.

“It shows how we’ve grown as a team. We all got drafted a couple of years ago, now we’ve got our contracts and it’s kind of cool to go through it together. You can’t overlook the importance of playing all these playoff games. Their huge when it comes to development and experience.

“But the role I’ve played on the Oil Kings is definitely a role I know the Oilers see me playing at the next level.

jireland@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/jirelandEJ

Starting goalie Devan Dubnyk has started the past 11 games for the Edmonton Oilers.

Devan Dubnyk has started 11 in a row, and in the third period against San Jose, looked like he was fighting it a bit. Made some fine stops, but Tommy Wingels beat him short side in the third period to tie it 3-3.

Is it time to see Nikolai Khabibulin in the Edmonton Oilers net?

I say yes.

We’re not talking a mop-up backup here. Khabibulin was playing very well until he tweaked his groin in Chicago Feb. 25, after he made a couple of excellent stops  in overtime on Patrick Sharp, then on Marian Hossa, before Hossa swept his rebound past the 40-year-old goalie.

Khabibulin has stopped 144 of 154 shots in his five games, which is a .935 save percentage. He hasn’t given up more than two goals in a 60-minute game yet. Dubnyk is still the Oilers No. 1 — there’s no issue there — and was very good against Colorado (shutout), Detroit (3-2 OT loss) and Nashville (3-2 win), giving up only five goals in 94 shots, but I think this is the perfect time to try Khabibulin. Shake things up after two tough extra-time losses against Detroit and San Jose, sandwiched around the Nashville victory.

Dubnyk played in St. Louis March 1, losing 4-2.  He’s never beaten them. He’s 0-7.

Khabibulin is 21-16-4 in his career against the Blues.

Oiler coach Ralph Krueger, like most coaches, doesn’t like revealing who’s in net, although I’ve never quite understood what the big deal is. Major league baseball teams know four days in advance who’s on the mound, even in the post-season and the World Series. Are teams going to prepare that differently for Khabibulin over Dubnyk?

So, getting a definitive ‘yeah, Khabby’s playing against the Blues’ is highly unlikely. Krueger, when talking about the sardined schedule and his roster, did say after the San Jose shootout loss “we have 18 games in the next 33 days, and we’re going to need every body here to continue on this pace and continue to fight for the (playoff) line ahead of us.”

“We re-evaluate the lineup after every game,” said Krueger. “We’ll take a look at it. Nikolai is close to 100 percent,” he said. Dubnyk has started 25 of their 29 games.  Khabibulin, who could be goalie insurance trade bait at the deadline if the Oilers fall out of the playoff hunt, is ready and rested.

I say, play him. If he beats the Blues, ride him.

Expect Nugent-Hopkins back in lineup against Blues following bout with flu

Krueger says Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s flu is only the 24-hour variety and he should be back for the game against the Blues on Saturday, but the Oilers should probably be sending winger Teemu Hartikainen to the AHL club and bringing up centre Anton Lander in his spot, just in case. As it is, they’ve got winger Ryan Smyth playing centre with Eric Belanger (groin) out. Belanger is iffy for Saturday. If the Oilers are going to only carry 13 forwards, the extra one should be a centre. They can always move to the wing. It’s tough the other way around, having a winger play centre as Smyth is doing, as Lennart Petrell did against the Sharks on a fourth line.

They definitely needed RNH with the man advantage which was 1-for-5 in 8:36 and only had four shots, doing little with a four-minute PP in the second period when Marty Havlat got a double minor (interference, then unsportsmanlike conduct for arguing the call). “The other centres did quite a good job for of course we missed Nugent-Hopkins on the powerplay and 5-on-5 with his defensive stability,” said Krueger.

“We’ve had some players touched by the flu, but they shook it off. Nuge has been hit the hardest. We’ve had symptoms a week back (Ryan Jones) but I don’t see a (team) problem now,” said Kreuger.

Hartikainen posts lowest on-ice time vs. Sharks

Hartikainen had one early shift where he ragged the puck and fought off a string of checkers deep in the San Jose end, but he only played 4:15 on a fourth line.

That’s the fewest minutes he’s had in his 19 games.

Krueger said it was more the Sharks double-shifting some big-body offensive people, then any problems with Hartikainen.

“It (having him sitting on the bench) had nothing to do with how he was playing,” Krueger said.

“With the experience we had at centre, you could see when Petro (Petrell) was out there, they were trying to sneak Joe Thornton out a couple of times. I didn’t want to do that to Lennart (who got just 7:45 even-strength, and 1:49 on the PK). Using 11 forwards had nothing to do with Teemu.”

Fistric escapes serious injury in loss to Sharks

Defenceman Mark Fistric appeared to hurt his knee when he took a run at Andrew Desjardins in the Sharks’ game, but he escaped serious injury.

“His stick got caught on my knee and it went numb for a bit,” said Fistric, who had an eventful night.

Logan Couture’s first in a goalmouth scramble appeared to hit him as he rushed into the fray.

“Appeared to go off my skate,” he said.

The goal was originally credited to Joe Pavelski, who has just one goal in his last 17 games, but it was changed to Couture when video showed the puck hitting Fistric’s skate boot.

Fistric missed eight games with an infected elbow after he smashed it to the ice in Dallas, during the Oilers’ marathon nine-game road trip this season. He played the whole third period there with the elbow bloodied from a deep gash.

“Hey, we’re up 5-1 in Dallas. I didn’t feel anything,” Fistric said.

Not until he took off his sweater.

Peckham seemingly odd man out of choice on Oilers blueline

The Oilers seem to have settled on Theo Peckham being a healthy scratch pretty much every night, even though his play has been fine in his four games, three times playing more than 18 minutes.

Frankly, he deserves to play.

Corey Potter is the swing-man. He’s been scratched 12 times and he’s played 17 games.

Carrying eight D has been problematic for the Oilers, who’ve had a run of injuries to forwards. Peckham and Potter have to clear waivers to be sent down.

Life was wonderful for the Oilers in the first six games.

Now, not so much.

When the games go to extra time, the Oilers don’t get the extra point. They’ve only won one of the last eight that have gone to extra time, in a shootout against the Coyotes at Rexall Place Feb. 23.

Seven losses in OT or shootouts. That’s a lot of points squandered, folks.

The last two where they blew 2-0 and 3-1 third-period leads to Detroit and San Jose at home are steak knives to the heart. They could have had four points and the Wings and Sharks none, which would have given them some breathing room. Instead, they flat out gave those points away.

Here’s the run down of the extra times:

Jan. 31, 3-2 shootout loss in San Jose on Michal Handzus’s deciding goal on Devan Dubnyk.

Feb. 4, 3-2 OT loss to Vancouver on Chris Tanev’s goal in the last few seconds on Dubnyk.

Feb. 6, 3-2 OT loss to Dallas on Jaromir Jagr’s bullet on Dubnyk.

Feb. 25, 3-2 OT loss in Chicago on Marian Hossa’s rebound of Patrick Sharps’ shot on Nik Khabibulin.

Mar. 5-4-3 shootout loss in Columbus on Dubnyk.

Mar. 15 3-2 OT loss on Pavel Datsyuk’s all-world ripper on Dubnyk.

Mar. 20 4-3 shootout loss on Dan Boyle’s deke winner on Dubnyk.

Little wonder Dubnyk’s pads were stacked in front of his locker stall when the media entered the Oilers bathhouse after the blown game to the Sharks. He’s probably getting a little tired of replaying the setbacks in extra time.

“We work hard at the shootouts. We actually did some practise on it yesterday (Tuesday). It is a bit of a lottery, we all know that. It’s tough, you get three shots. There’s all kinds of other discussions,” said Oilers coach Ralph Krueger.

The shootout loss to the Sharks was galling because San Jose chose to sit their best shootout guy, Michal Handzus, who is a career 50 per cent guy. It could have come back to bite them on the butt, but it didn’t. Logan Couture (bullet under the crossbar and Boyle, going wide on Dubnyk) scored.

Logan Couture was the best player on the ice, scoring twice, getting a power-play goal in the third with some deft work to dig a puck free in a dog-pile in front of Dubnyk. He’s really the leader on the Sharks, not Jumbo Joe Thornton or Patty Marleau.

***

Krueger said centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who missed the game with the flu, should be back Saturday for the home game with the St. Louis Blues, who are up in Whistler, B.C., after losing to Vancouver Tuesday night.

“He was at the rink in the morning and felt pretty good (he didn’t take the ice, however, because it was an optional), but it hit him about 2-3 in the afternoon. We felt his body was at risk for injury if he played,” said Krueger. “Just dizziness and a bit of fever.”

Krueger decided against putting Taylor Hall in the middle — the overriding theme for many fans who want to see if he can be like Mark Messier in the early Oilers days when he moved from left wing to centre after four years — and moved Ryan Smyth into RNH’s spot with Jordan Eberle and Ryan Jones. He had winger Lennart Petrell play centre on a fourth-line — Petrell played there some in Finland — and dressed Teemu Hartikainen as a 12th forward. Hartikainen played only seven shifts.

This is the second time this season they’ve run into problems at centre with either injury (Shawn Horcoff, busted knuckle, Eric Belanger, broken toes, Anton Lander, broken foot) or sickness and had to shuffle forwards around, without  another centre on their roster.  They’re carrying eight defencemen with Theo Peckham only playing four games this year and Corey Potter in and out of the lineup. That’s biting them on the butt, carrying eight D.

“With two centres out (Belanger has a bad groin and is on IR), we don’t have another guy in the mix. With Nuge going out, it made for a tough situation. We had some inexperience at centre with Petro. At times they tried to sneak Thornton out against him,” said Krueger. “But I thought Ryan did a nice job (almost 15 minutes work). We have the best possible lineup here right now.”

If Belanger’s not ready to go this weekend, the Oilers could summon Anton Lander from OKCity to play against the Blues. “We’re close to getting Eric back,” said Krueger.

They led 3-1 in the 3rd period, only to fall 4-3 in a shootout to San Jose Wednesday night.

"We liked the start of the 3rd period and how we got a 3-1 lead but you can't give anything to that team,” said Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger.

Oilers forward Ryan Jones scored to give the Oilers that two goal cushion. He says as a team they have to find ways to win games like that.

“We knew they weren’t going to give up. They had a couple fortunate bounces that ended up in the back of our net,” explained Jones who picked up his first goal of the season. “We just haven’t played that well with the lead it seems. It’s just one of those games I felt that we deserved the two points, but we just didn’t get them for one reason or another.”

Sam Gagner, and Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers, while it was Logan Couture who did most of the damage for the Sharks.

"It's nice playing the Oilers,” said Couture who beat Devan Dubnyk twice in regulation, and once in the shootout. “They are like a measuring stick for myself to see where my game is. I wish I could play like this every single night, the pucks seem to go in and it brings out the best of me I guess."

Tommy Wingels had the other marker in regulation for the Sharks, who have now won just twice in their last eight games. If the Oilers would have beat the Sharks they would have taken over sole possession of 8^th spot in the West. With just the single point, they now sit in 12^th, three back of San Jose for 8^th.

The Oilers continue their four game homestand Saturday night when the St. Louis Blues roll into town. (Brenden Ullrich)

It’s certainly not going to be .500, which is what the Oilers are as they take on the semi-toothless San Jose Sharks Wednesday night at Rexall Place.

“We have a number in here but we’re not going to say,”  said captain Shawn Horcoff.

“Somebody in your management says 55 points?” somebody suggested.

“OK, then, if that’s what they say,  around there. Fifty-four, 55 points,” laughed Horcoff. “I don’t want to focus on what we’d need to get there because I’d hate to do that, then reach, say, 55 and have that not be good enough. All I know is we’ve changed our focus and intensity. When you start getting close (to the playoffs), teams get better.  That’s a given.”

The Oilers have 28 points with 20 games left. So, that would mean 13 wins and a shootout or OT loss to get to 55.

“I don’t watch all the other games on TV. So many things going on. That would make me exhausted. It’s too early for that. At this time it’s really irrelevant. Maybe if it comes down to five games and we need somebody to lose, then I’ll watch,” said Horcoff.  “There’s so many teams. It’s not like we’re chasing one team. There’s no separation.” Indeed, there’s six points separating fifth-place St. Louis and 13th place Nashville and only Chicago and Anaheim, who play each other tonight in the marquee game of the lockout season, are ahead of the pack with 51 and 46 points.

The math of the playoff race isn’t daunting, though. It’s not like the Oilers have to go, say, 12-3 in their last 15.

“True enough,” said Horcoff, “but we want to play good now. The goal now is to get above the cut line. When you’re above it, you have to a bit of breathing room. In the next 10 games, you’ll see some separation with teams. I think we could be down to five teams looking for playoff spots. We want to be one of those teams, and believe me, the teams that are going to make the playoffs will absolutely need a decent run (of wins).”

Sharks’ coach Todd McLellan figures 52 to 55 points will make the playoffs in the West. They started 7-0 and have won just five of the last 21 games.  They were never as good as their start and they’re not as bad as their record lately.

“We couldn’t expect to keep it going where Patty Marleau was scoring two goals every game and our powerplay was about 40 to 50 percent,” said Sharks’ defenceman Dan Boyle, who isn’t into arithmatic.

“I don’t look at home many points we’re going to need. We’re just trying to win games.”

They have 30 points, just into the playoffs in the eighth spot, but only two points clear of the 12th-place Oilers. They were clobbered 6-3 here on January  22, in their home opener, giving up six goals in the first 20 minutes, and they fell 3-2 in a shootout in San Jose Jan. 31, in game seven. “That was so long ago. I remember the first game…we broke down so many times defensively. You do that and you’ve got Joe (Thornton) passing to Patty  Marleau all alone in front of the net and he’s going to score goals,” said Horcoff.

“They’re similiar to what we were a couple of weeks ago, trying to turn their team around and make a push. We’ve made our push and want to keep it going,” said Horcoff.

***

The Oilers will go with the same lineup that beat Nashville 3-2, which means Devan Dubnyk in goal, Mark Fistric on defence and Corey Potter and Theo Peckham sitting and Ryan Jones on the wing and Teemu Hartikainen out.

**

The Sharks won’t have Ryane Clowe (shoulder) and will sit centre Michal Handzus, maybe a good thing. He’s dynamite in shootouts and he had the winner against Dubnyk in San  Jose on Jan. 31. This is the first time he’ll be scratched. Marleau had nine goals in the first five games, and has six in the last 23.  Joe Pavelski is in an awful slump with one goal in his last 16 games and only three points. He hasn’t scored since March 2. Scott Gomez has seven points in his last eight games, coming off after a bad start.

Ryan Jones - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Nail Yakupov
Taylor Hall - Shawn Horcoff - Ales Hemsky
Lennart Petrell - Ryan Smyth - Mike Brown

Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry
Ryan Whitney - Justin Schultz
Mark Fistric - Nick Schultz

Devan Dubnyk
Nikolai Khabibulin

“I have no other particulars, but I assume it was from the complications of two bypasses that he had in recent months,” said former Oilers’ chief scout Barry Fraser, a neighbour of Gordon’s at Cabo San Lucas for many years.

Gordon, also the Oilers general manager in their first NHL season in 1979-80 and in charge of selecting the players along with coach Glen Sather for the first Oilers NHL team through a dispersal draft, was on the private plane with Skalbania and Pocklington when Gretzky was up for grabs in ’78. He had played eight games for the WHA Indianapolis Racers, and Skalbania, who had signed the teenager to a personal services contract in June of that year for $850,000, wanted to get out from under the deal because the 17-year-old hadn’t  spiked attendance there.

“Pretty high stakes at the time,” said Gordon, who was on the plane and watching every move of the backgammon game. “I was cheering like heck for Peter. Peter was going to get Wayne and some other players if he won the game, and Nelson was going to get some of Peter’s art. In the end, Peter also gave Nelson some cash (reportedly $850,000).”

Gretzky showed up in Edmonton with goalie Eddie Mio and winger Peter Driscoll.

“The scouts all felt Wayne  could be a tremendous player, but I don’t of anyone in their right mind who thought he could be the dominating force in hockey,” said Gordon, who later was part of the Gretzky’s 18th birthday ceremony on the ice at the Coliseum (now Rexall Place) when No. 99 signed what Pocklington thought would be a lifetime contract.

Gordon, who was a driving force behind many of the international WHA games and often had Russian management people over to his house in the 1970s,  left the Oilers in the summer of 1980. Sather took over as GM.

Gordon moved to Wichita, Kansas, and ran the Oilers’  Central League farm team for four years. Charlie Huddy and others played there. Gordon later owned the Muskegon and Cleveland teams in the International Hockey League.

He had been ill health for some time with circulation problems in his legs and arms. He spent 18 days in hospital last month and had decided to stay at his home outside Rochester, N.Y., rather than return to Cabo San Lucas.

The centre has been on the injured reserve list since March 9 with a groin injury. He started the session with the team but left before the line rushes and was visibly frustrated.

“It wasn’t a new pop but it’s certainly a setback,” said head coach Ralph Krueger, who figures they’ll err on the side of caution with Belanger, particularly since there are is a two-day gap between games.

They close out their homestand Saturday against the St. Louis Blues.

“Having him back in would have given us some other options,” continued Krueger, who will instead keep Ryan Smyth between Mike Brown and Lennart Petrell.

Belanger’s return would have given the Oilers more depth down the middle, which would have been of significant benefit against the Sharks, who are third best in the NHL with a 53 per cent win percentage in the faceoff circle.

jireland@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/jirelandEJ

By eking out a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night, the Oilers, for example, moved into a tie for 10th in the Western Conference with those very Predators as well as the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the Oilers holding a game in hand on both those teams.

Next up the food chain for the Oilers are those Phoenix Coyotes, a 13-11-4 club (compared to 11-11-6 for the Oilers), but one facing a mighty nasty schedule over the next week.

Tonight (Monday) and tomorrow, the Coyotes are in Los Angeles, for a rare-back-to-back brace of games against the Stanley Cup champion Kings. Phoenix than has the Canucks at home on Thursday night, takes the weekend off, then plays the surging Detroit Red Wings, also in Phoenix.

So, you’d think the Coyotes are in tough over the next week.

The Oilers don’t exactly have a cream puff of a schedule this week themselves. The sputtering San Jose Sharks are at Rexall Place on Wednesday night and the St. Louis Blues visit Edmonton on Saturday, when the Oilers conclude their four-game homestand.

Next Monday, the Oilers take on those Predators again, back in Nashville, where they made shredded wheat of the Oilers on March 8, smoking Edmonton 6-0 during that nine-game road trip.

In truth, that blowout loss may well have been the low point on the season for the Oilers, who rebounded, to their credit, to beat the Blackhawks 6-5 in Chicago and the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 to end their lengthy journey with a modest two-game win streak.

But despite stumbling in the third period against Detroit on Friday night, frittering away a 2-0 lead to lost 3-2 in overtime, the Oilers suddenly have collected seven (7) of a possible eight (8) points in their last four games.

The time is now to keep on adding to the points total. The good news is they remain in the hunt for a playoff berth in the Western Conference, just two points out of the eighth spot currently held by San Jose. Further good news is that just four points separates 11 teams, from third-place Minnesota (32 pts) down to the Edmonton-Nashville-Columbus triumvirate, all sitting with 28 points.

Put another way, the Oilers are a mere four (4) points behind Minnesota for the divisional lead. Mind you, Vancouver also has 32 points, albeit two fewer victories (13) than Minnesota (15), and both clubs have a game in hand on Edmonton.

In other words, that bunching up also is bad news, suggesting every point, let alone every victory is crucial. But, Oilers fans want meaningful games in April? They’re meaningful right now and will be to season’s end, providing the Oilers keep piling up points, not finding ways to squander them, as they did against Detroit.

The Oilers, as head coach Ralph Krueger is fond of saying, must “keep it (the focus) small. . .

“If you look at the standings right now, we have insane parity here in the West. You have to take care of your own business, no need looking at anybody else, it doesn’t matter what anybody else is doing. It’s what we’re doing. We’re going to be all about San Jose now for three days.”

None of which prevents the fans from keeping one eyeball on the out-of-town scoreboard, to see how the other elements of the ‘insane parity’ are making out, night after night. It’s the playoff race and it’s well underway.

Buckle up.

He’s been a one-handed shooter for a couple of weeks after Nail Yakupov’s shot smashed into his finger in Minnesota on March 3, during a 3-2 loss to the Wild.  He’s not into excuses, he’s into pucks in the net, but it’s  been painfully clear he’s been hurting around the net–stickhandling, getting pucks up–until Sunday when he blew one past Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne. Now that was the old Eberle, the kid who scored 34 goals last year.

It was like somebody had lifted the Zamboni and the driver off his back after the goal gave the Edmonton Oilers a 3-1 cushion against the Predators. What was he thinking when the red light went on? ” Well, I hadn’t scored a goal in a long time,”  said Eberle. No kidding. This was his first goal  of March. First goal in 10 games; his last one was against Phoenix Feb. 23, almost a month ago.

The goal was only his seventh in 28 games. Until the shot sailed past Rinne he was tied with Magnus Paajarvi, Yakupov and Taylor Hall at six. Not, exactly what Eberle was counting on after three goals in his first five games. This was only the sixth game he’d scored. He has 20 points–deftly setting up Paajarvi at the goalmouth for a powerplay tap-in– so there’s nothing wrong with his playmaking. But he’s a scorer,  a guy who’s  had 83 shots but little to show for it.

“I’m an offensive guy. It was weighing on me for sure,” said Eberle. “You see Horc’s (Shawn Horcoff) line scoring. You see Gags’s (Sam Gagner) line scoring, you want to get in on the action. “

“I’m a competive guy and  I want to be the best player on the ice every night. We have a handful of those (high-skill) guys. I want  to contribute and score goals. That’s what I love to do, put the puck in the net,” he said.

“That goal today was a Jordan Eberle classic. That broke the ice,” said coach Ralph Krueger.

” He’s been an excellent teammate all the way through this and his expectations are higher than we can put on him. He’s learning how to deal with that responsibility,” said Krueger.

“So about that hand…have you been unable to do some of the things you normally do?” Eberle was asked.

Little nervous laugh.  Foot-shuffling. Eyes darting.  He didn’t much like the question, deflecting it as if Justin Schultz was winding up for a powerplay wrister. “I, uh, it’s part of the game. Every guy in this locker room is playing through something. You can’t let it bother you,” he said. OK, we’ll let him fob it off. Let’s just say, his game is all silky hands and roof jobs and fancy tuck jobs around the net, and they haven’t been there. True enough, he’s had trouble connecting  even with two good mitts, but the last few weeks, he’s been hurting.

Eberle had a wonderful chance on Rinne in the first period after a giveaway deep in the Preds’ end, but he failed on a forehand deke on the 6’5″ goalie, who easily stuffed him. He was trying to go five-hole. “I usually do that move but he’s a big guy and he got across. You get chances like that, and you have to finish them,” said Eberle.

Eberle didn’t miss in the third period, though. And now the Oilers are in 10th spot in the West, tied with Nashville and Columbus with 28 points but having played one fewer game. They’ve picked up seven points out of a possible eight in the past four games.  “You’re right back in it (only two points out of eighth). I haven’t been in this situation before. This is exciting,” he said.

Entering the contest, Eberle had gone ten games without a goal, but he broke the money at a key time as his marker would be the eventual game winner.

“It was a big goal for our team; it gave us that cushion we needed,” said Eberle. “I thought my line played well, you know Jones got the forcheck and bumping going which was great. The other lines have been carrying their weight, and we had to start doing that, so it was good to see that tonight.”

Magnus Paajarvi and Lennart Petrell also scored for the Oilers.

Petrell’s goal came shorthanded, and broke a 1-1 tie in the third frame.

"I recognized that Sergei Kostitsyn gave up on the play, so I decided to jump into the rush, and we got a pretty clear two and one, and Gagner slide it over and I got a pretty good chance and ended up scoring," explained Petrell.

The Oilers have now won three of their past four games, and are just two points back of the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

“You know since that win against Chicago, there’s been a different swagger in the group and a different belief,” said head coach Ralph Kruger.

The Oilers continue their four game homestand Wednesday night when they host the San Jose Sharks, who hold the final playoff spot in the West.  (BU,RP,The Canadian Press)

Pavel Datsyuk scored the overtime winner as the Detroit Red Wings snapped a three game losing skid with a 3-2 come from behind victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Datsyuk scored 3:39 into the extra session as he made a nice move to get past defender Jeff Petry and blasted a shot past goalie Devan Dubnyk. Datsyuk came into the game on an 11 game scoreless streak, and says he's been trying not to think about it.

“I really don't think, I try to play for the team but I keep going and some of the media keep ask me, kind of remind me.”

It was a tough night for Petry, who scored on his own net to tie the game at two in the third on a goal credited to Detroit's Niklas Kronwall.

“It's happened to me and has happened to other players before. He's playing good. He can't let it get to him,” explained Ladislav Smid, chiming in on the tough Petry play.

It was a disappointing result for the Oilers, after starting the scoring just three and a half minutes into the game as Hall found a seam to slip past two Detroit defenders up the middle and beat Wings goalie Jimmy Howard with a low wrist shot.

“In the third it looked like we kind of sat back and we’re afraid to make plays. We had a 2-0 lead, we should have been calm and composed and we weren’t that,” said Hall following the game.

Ralph Krueger had this to say, “We never had the plan to sit back. They ended up with some offensive zone time. We ended up falling back then sitting back.”

Sam Gagner scored the other Oilers goal.

It was the first home game for the Oilers after a nine game road trip. They continue a four game home stand Sunday when they entertain the Nashville Predators. (BU, The Canadian Press)

Devan Dubnyk stopped 36 shots for his first shutout in nearly a year and Shawn Horcoff scored a goal in his second straight game since returning from a broken knuckle, helping the Edmonton Oilers beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 on Tuesday night.

Sam Gagner, Magnus Paajarvi and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who went 3-4-2 on their longest road trip in franchise history. Taylor Hall and Ales Hemsky each chipped in with 2 assists.

Dubnyk was in top form even after leaving early Sunday at Chicago with a neck injury following a collision with a teammate. He showed no lingering affects, stopping everything thrown his way for his fifth NHL shutout.

Colorado nearly scored on Dubnyk early in the third period, but Jan Hejda's goal was disallowed when Gabriel Landeskog was called for goaltender interference.

The Oilers are finally returning home, they open a 4 game homestand against Detroit Friday night. (BU,The Associated Press)

Ryan Jones - Ryan Nugent- Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall - Shawn Horcoff - Ales Hemsky
Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Nail Yakupov
Lennart Petrell - Ryan Smyth - Mike Brown

Ryan Whitney - Justin Schultz
Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry
Nick Schultz - Corey Potter

Devan Dubnyk
Yann Danis

Sam Gagner scored two of Edmonton's four goals in the first period as the Oilers beat Chicago 6-5, sending the Blackhawks to their second consecutive loss after their record-breaking start.

Ryan Whitney and Taylor Hall each had a goal and an assist for Edmonton, which snapped a five game losing streak. Captain Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers in his return to the lineup.

Oilers goaltender Devan Dubynk had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury. He was run into in the second period by Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa.

Head Coach Ralph Krueger says they were just being safe by removing Dubnyk from the game.

"It was a safety issue; we don't have a head injury. We'll know more in the morning but Devan seemed fine."

The Oilers were 3 for 4 in the game with the man advantage, to hand the Blackhawks their first regulation loss on home ice this season.

Next up for the Oilers is Tuesday night in Colorado. That will put an end to the Oilers 9 game road trip. (BU, The Associated Press)