Without Cole this might be the game that stuck the knife in the Oiler's hopes. He scored multiple own goals prior to tonight, then had two basic clearing opportunities that he flubbed to lead to Miller's penalty that cost them the first goal. Apart from that, he's been just terrible throughout.
Knock on Juulsen was he gets out of position to make big hits, and he's cost them tonight with that.
How is it that they're paying OEL to play for Florida, a team that's a lot better than them--and somehow there he's decent and even features on the power play. One of the best Florida dmen is Forsling, who Canucks gave up on and traded to Chicago for Adam Glendenning. Carolina, a pretty solid defensive team, has Chatfield, another guy Vancouver gave up on, on their third pair. Oh, and Hutton, another guy they jettisoned, has a cup ring from playing a couple of playoff games with Vegas last year.
How much better would any of these guys look than Cole right now. We took for granted how wonderful it was to have Benning in Vancouver for so long.
|