[Dion]

The knives are out in Edmonton

The Oilers lost 4-1 to the Abbotsford Heat, masquerading as the Calgary Flames on Saturday night. With six farmhands in their lineup, with no Jarome Iginla, no Jay Bouwmeester, no Alex Tanguay, no Curtis Glencross, with Miikka Kiprusoff on the bench and not in net, they slapped the Oilers upside the head. Max Reinhart, the brother of Oil Kings junior captain Griffin Reinhart, had his first NHL goal, and fellow AHL farmhand Sven Baertschi had his first this season, while Mikael Backlund and Dennis Wideman had the others for the Flames. They were playing their second game in as many nights, supposedly playing out the string, while the Oilers were healthy and rested after a 3-1 setback to Phoenix last Wednesday, and they laid a bigger egg than the one in Vegreville.

It’s like a kid working at, say, Walmart, who continually straightens the store shelves when the manager is in the vicinity. It’s all a con. The Oilers conned us into thinking they were a playoff team with five straight wins, actually popping into eighth spot for maybe a day. Now they’ve lost five in a row, scored four goals in the last 300 minutes, and another lottery draft pick beckons.

The party’s over folks, turn out the lights. If you thought the Oilers had even a glimmer of hope for their first playoff spot in seven years, it was extinguished here with a dispirited effort. They have 39 points, still in 12th place in the West, six points out of eighth, which is now held by Dallas at 45. Detroit and Columbus (one loss in their last 16 games) also have 45 and Phoenix has 43.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sport...464/story.html