Live Blog: 1990s NFL Matchup

This is not going to be an article where we talk about NFL at all other than mentioning the two teams' names tonight as the Jets and Oilers get ready to tangle in Winnipeg. The Oilers are looking to secure their tank position as they work towards one of Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel joining their team despite their need for Noah Hanifin. The Jets, having made a blockbuster deal, brought in two players who were key in their win over Detroit while stocking the cupboards a little more. These two teams are moving in opposite directions, but we'll live-blog tonight's game between the cellar-dwellers and a possible playoff team!

PRE-GAME STUFF

• No Rob Klinkhammer for the Oilers tonight as he's back in Lethbridge with his wife as they are expecting a baby. Kudos to MacTavish for letting him go home to be with his wife.
• Michael Hutchinson will start for the Jets tonight.
• The Oilers are starting a hot dog vendor who played street hockey as a kid. I wonder if they know that they're playing in Winnipeg and the vendor is a Jets employee? 
• The Oilers have decided to start working on their golf games because they heard that the team that finishes with the lowest score in the standings win!
• Drew Stafford will be on the top line tonight, replacing Blake Wheeler on the line. Wheeler will slot in beside Scheifele and Perreault. It's similar to how the Jets finished in Detroit. Not surprising since they won that game!
• Looks like Myers and Stafford will start the game tonight. Classy move, Maurice!
• Jets beat the Oilers at home in overtime by a 3-2 score in their only meeting thus far. The Oilers, at that point, hadn't started the tank job.
• As a note, Jay Harrison is listed as a healthy scratch. Good to see he's out of the injury bay and ready to roll for the Jets down the stretch.

FIRST PERIOD

• Eberle with an early chance, but he doesn't care about scoring any longer.
• Wheeler and Perreault almost open the scoring. Perreault needs just a little extra stick on that attempt, and Winnipeg would be up.
• Have all the Oilers spent time in the AHL this year?
• Did the Oilers as a team win some promotion from the AHL? 
• You gotta feel bad for Craig Ramsay. He's been with some bad teams. Including Atlanta. He might not ever see the playoffs again. 
• Tyler Myers: everything Bogosian wasn't.
• Speaking of Bogo, the guy had a monster game against Philly with Buffalo last night. Congratulations to him for settling in with his new team. 
• Mathieu Perreault was hit by Jeff Petry, and he's laboring. Jets will be down a forward as Perreault heads to the dressing room being helped by trainers.
• Perreault is walking with a bit of a limp down the chute. He might be back. I'll keep you posted as to what I see. 
• Remember how much we heard about how great Mark Fayne's advanced statistics were? The guy is a pylon. Not sure what advanced stats would have pointed to that. 
• Jets on a power play as Keith Aulie was called for tripping. Cheater. 
• Pouliot without a stick and playing the weak side of the diamond. I'd be setting up one-timers all day on his side. 
• What did I just say? Enstrom rips a cross-ice pass from Wheeler that Fasth just gets a piece of, and Bryan Little taps home an easy goal for his 22nd of the season! 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Had Little not got a stick on that, we'd be talking about an Andrew Ladd goal. Hi, Edmonton. You need to play defence occasionally too!
• Edmonton would struggle against most WHL teams this season. Do they just give tickets away in Edmonton now? I'm not sure I'd pay to be a fan of these guys. 
• Dennis Beyak: trying to be the new Pierre McGuire with all that useless info. 
• Keith Aulie didn't see enough of that power play from the sin bin, so he volunteers to watch some more. Interference on Aulie, and the Jets will go to work. Cheater.
• '80s band reference #1: INXS fans and Oilers fans both love Bitter Tears.
• Nothing doing on that power play. Fasth stopped four shots. He'll be called to MacT's office between periods to go over the finer points of tanking. 
• Maybe it always was Eakins? Nail Yakupov with a great set of hands as he walks around Chiarot and finds a seam on Hutchinson. 1-1 TIE GAME.
• Andrew Ladd will sit for being a dirty hooker. Oil Tankers to the PP!
• Yes, I have renamed the Oilers as "Oil Tankers" for the rest of the game.
• Can I just say how irate I get when I see lazy stick infractions? If I were Maurice, I'd bag-skate any player who takes a lazy penalty. You don't want to move your feet? Then bag-skate in practice. 
• Anton Lander scores on the power play. Maybe the Jets are trying to ruin the Oilers' tank job? That was garbage defence. 2-1 EDMONTON.
• And we have a scrap! Anthony Peluso and Luk Gazdic are tossing fists at one another. It should be noted that Ottawa's Chris Neil broke his thumb on Gazdic's head earlier this week. Peluso should take note.
• Wow. That one went on forever. Both men look exhausted after they danced for over a minute. Neither went down, and both connected. Great scrap! 
• Jordan Eberle will sit for two minutes as he tried to dig Byfuglien's eye out with his stick. Winnipeg to the power play. Cheater.
• And Tony Enstrom will bag-skate tomorrow for tripping Pouliot. Dummy.
• Viktor Fasth is handling that puck like a grenade covered in butter.
• Something that hasn't been heard since the late-1990s: Derek Roy makes a defensive play. He breaks up the rush by Wheeler. 
• MTS Centre ice surface looks like a lumber yard with all the broken sticks. 
• Dear Byfuglien: try hitting the net. Thanks. 
• That'll do it for one period. Winnipeg played horribly. Man up.
• '80s band reference #2: INXS is playing in the MTS Centre. Need You Tonight. Beauty!

SECOND PERIOD

• Tyler Myers is back on the ice. Good to see.
• No Perreault yet. He might be done for tonight.
• And Beyak just confirmed Perreault is done. 
• Fasth might be a little sore after having six players collide with him.
• Fasth hangs in there. He'll be alright. 
• Aulie corkscrews Stafford. Stafford two-hands Aulie. Neither ref puts an arm in the air. Is this the old Smythe Division? 
• It appears Edmonton will ice the puck for the next 34 minutes to try and hold this lead. Not sure about this strategy, but it's working. 
• Every time Beyak says "Pakarinen", it sounds as if he's saying "Pekka Rinne". 
• Remember when the Oil Tankers won the Justin Schultz sweepstakes?
• Bryan Little finds iron on that shot. 
• Hutchinson improves his save percentage to .800 with that save. 
• It looked like a replay, but Chiarot goes down the left wing boards into the corner, tosses the puck to the front, and Little hits the iron for the goal! 2-2 TIE GAME.
• Andrew Ladd is being double-shifted on the fourth line. Or is it demoted?
• Does anyone actually know that Teddy Purcell is still in the NHL? 
• When you take a raise to play in Edmonton, just know that extra money will be used on green fees and golfing bets in May. Benoit Pouliot regrets his decision. 
• Dustin Byfuglien lays out Gazdic. Lots of hugging between the teams as they chat this one out. 
• Gazdic is off to the dressing room. He left a donation of plasma on the ice. 
• Myers: 6'8", uses a 6' stick. Enstrom: 5'10", uses a 6' stick. 
• Jets are playing breakaway pass right now. Oil Tanker forwards are lost in the neutral zone. Is that a Star Trek reference? 
• The Jets' fourth line is literally a Corsi nightmare. 
• Slater, Peluso and Lowry are the only Jets without a shot. Two of them play on the Jets' fourth line. Coincidence? 
• Thorburn just tried to pass the puck to Byfuglien who had lost his stick seconds earlier. This is the Jets' fourth line, people. Oi vay. 
• Third time tonight that Jeff Petry has been beaten on the outside. And this guy is considered to be one of the defencemen teams are looking at?
• The second period comes to an end. One period to settle this.

THIRD PERIOD

• Jets change lines like the Oil Tankers tank - POORLY. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fires one past Hutchinson early, and the Oilers are in the lead. 3-2 EDMONTON.
• I'm not sure if there are actual trained referees on the ice. Keith Aulie has groped about six Jets tonight, and has only sat twice. 
• Drew Stafford is now in the dressing room. Not sure what happened there. 
• TYLER MYERS WITH A BOMB! Face-off win back to Enstrom, and the big defenceman loads up the cannon! #57 with his first as a Jet! 3-3 TIE GAME. 
• This game feels like an old Smythe Division game. Bodies all over the ice, chances at both ends, and goals being scored. Thankfully, no Gretzky. 
• Sara Orlesky reports that Stafford is done. Upper-body injury. 
• If the Jets hit the net more often, it could be 10-3. 
• Fayne wears the "A" in Edmonton? How is that even possible?!? 
• Andrew Ference: prepping the "welcome to the team, kid" speech he's delivered to more players than he ever figured he'd have to in his career. 
• The Oil Tankers have a forward line of 51, 67, and 62 on the ice. AHL much? 
• Frolik is called for tripping Viktor Fasth by Mike Leggo from the JETS BLUE LINE! Kelly Sutherland, who is ten-feet away, makes no movement.Are you kidding me? Fasth fell, and Leggo rewards him for the dive? GARBAGE!
• On the replay, Frolik's skate caught Fasth's skate. It was a trip. But Sutherland had one job, and he failed miserably on it.
• The Jets' PK is garbage. Nail Yakupov off a cross-ice pass down low by Benoit Pouliot has his second of the night with a Jets defenceman watching. Yikes. 4-3 EDMONTON. 
• Well, Wheeler decides that won't stand. His backhander is stopped, but Andrew Ladd on the rebound slips it past Fasth as four Oilers watch. 4-4 TIE GAME. 
• 42 seconds between those goals. 
• Is Mike Leggo on the Oil Tankers' payroll? No call for about four seconds before Leggo decides to whistle Ladd for the trip on Klefbom. Wow.
• No one will argue that wasn't a trip. But what is with these officials? 
• Oil Tankers had about eleventy billion chances there. No dice, says Hutch.
• And this one will need overtime!
• More to come...

OVERTIME

• This is end-to-end insanity! Great action!
• Viktor Fasth is ridiculous. WOW. He's saved the Oil Tankers often.
• Hit the net! C'mon, Scheifele! 
• Viktor Fasth: 9700 saves tonight. 200 of them in OT.

SKILLS COMPETITION

• Blake Wheeler - puts on the brakes, dekes Fasth out of his underpants, and buries it. 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Fasth is down and hurt. This is a groin injury, folks. He's done. Underpants will be recovered from the seventh row later.
• Richard Bachman will come in cold for Edmonton.
• Nail Yakupov - slows up, shoots it wide. 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Bryan Little - comes down the left side, rings it off the bar! 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Derek Roy - dipsy-doodles into Hutch's pad. 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Andrew Ladd - down the left side, Bachman makes a desperation save. 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• Jordan Eberle - goes to the backhand, and Hutch with the save! 1-0 WINNIPEG.
• WINNIPEG WINS 5-4 in the shootout!
• Hutchinson improves to 14-for-14 in the shootout!
• Give the Jets 70 points on the season! WOOT!

That'll do it, kids! The Jets pick up another key two points as the Oil Tankers will leave with a single point, putting them seven up on Buffalo and five back of Phoenix!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!