Playoffs bound

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Clear the parade route! Make no plans for playoff time! Everything has turned around and is right with the world! Dogs and cats are living together! OK. Back to Earth. After falling to 27th place in the league and losing Ales Hemsky for the remainder of the season, the Oilers have emboldened fans by putting a three-game winning streak together. A 3-1 win over Detroit was followed by a 3-2 shootout win in Dallas and capped by a 3-2 shootout win in Florida. Three road wins at this point may not vault the Oilers into playoffs and out of trouble but they do calm the nerves.

Good news/Bad news A week ago, when the Oilers were within smelling distance of the bottom of the league table, some fans started rationalizing the potential value of such a disappointing fall. I even entertained these thoughts. The past three seasons saw the worst possible outcome as far as NHL standings go. Not only did the Oilers and fans miss all the playoff fun but they also failed to stink up the joint enough to land a meaningful draft pick. The Chicago Blackhawks, on the other end of the spectrum, are now reaping the results of some awful seasons. Those lean years resulted in high draft picks that garnered Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane (is there any single player on the Oiler roster close to either of these guys?). Some Oiler fans already started counting the days until the draft and lobbied for the team to divest what veteran talent remains (Shawn Horcoff, Ethan Moreau, Steve Staios) for draft picks and prospects. A depleted team would also be more likely to finish poorly and increase the probability of acquiring a future superstar in the draft. This mini-streak of winning games, however, will not help the team dive to the bottom five in the standings. There's just no bright side here, is there?

Czech List It's taken 230 games in an Oiler uniform and four seasons, but Ladislav Smid got another goal in last week's Dallas game to increase his total to four (count 'em ... four) markers. Scoring is not his job. Smid goals don't happen often so it's a big deal.
Here's a capsule of all four Ladislav Smid Oiler goals:

Thursday, February 22, 2007: Home win vs. Columbus. Early in the second period, Smid notches the first of what are presently four career Oiler goals to increase his team's lead to 3-0 over the Blue Jackets. A third period Horcoff goal made it a 4-0 win. Victim: Frederik Norrena
Wednesday, March 7, 2007: Home loss vs. Tampa Bay. Laddy scores the only Oiler goal in what would eventually be a 3-1 loss to Tampa. The goal, scored late in the third, made the game 2-1. An empty netter by Vinny Lecavalier followed. Victim: Marc Denis

Saturday, April 7, 2007: Home win vs. Calgary. Smid scores with 10 seconds remaining in the second period to tie the game 2-2. Fernie Pisani and Tom Gilbert assisted. Patrick Thoresen (remember him?) added a goal in the third period to give the Oilers a win over Calgary in the last game of the season. Before that goal was scored, Calgary clinched a playoff spot due to a Nashville win over Colorado. The game meant nothing to the Flames after that point but it was the second Oiler win in the final 20 games that season. Victim: Miikka Kiprusoff
151 games and two dry seasons later ...

Saturday, December 5, 2009: Road win at Dallas. Our boy scores a tying goal late in the third period during a matinee game in Dallas. Ethan Moreau and Ryan Potulny assisted. The game goes to a shootout which is successfully won by a Shawn Horcoff goal. Horcoff was the 10th sniper to shoot.

Oiler player of the week: OPOTW has got to be Ladislav Smid. He doesn't chip in with goals often and even added two assists in the past week. Honourable mentions: Patrick O'Sullivan (two goals against Detroit), Shawn Horcoff (two shootout winners). V

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Playoffs bound

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