Ginger kids can make you cry

Two for roughing, two for unsportsmanlike conduct and two for the Canucks. In a nutshell, that was Raffi Torres's forgettable two-for Tuesday at Rexall Place. And if you're looking to hang another debilitating Oilers loss on somebody in the home unis, the enigmatic winger who can be dangerous at both ends of the ice is certainly your man.
- Edmonton Journal

I know some well intentioned people despise Matt Cooke, but he was well worth every damn penny towards the cap last night. Besides, isn't what Cooke was doing precisely why you keep a guy like Torres around anyway? Torres could have done the same thing and forced the Canucks to over react, so it is what it is. Live and learn.

Special thanks to the Blackhawks for rising from the dead to steal a point from Calgary. Now, please go back to the grave tonight so we can retake first.

Three quick points:
1. I like that Dallas is within reach and San Jose is within striking distance too. The entire Northwest division is going to mess up the upper echelons of this conference. Mikey like.

2. Messier is like the Dick Cheney of the NHL: few outside his inner circle want him around, he maintains an indoctrination center to break the will of the young, and almost no one challenges the absurdity of his statements. Although it would be great to watch the Rangers fall flat with him at the helm, we've all seen that happen since the end of 1994 if I recall accurately (save for the few years he took off to kick the Canucks in the groin for $6 mil a season). Even questionably credible folks in NY are aware of this. (h/t Kukla)

3. As for the "Ultimate Canuck's Fan" contest, it took all of 24 hours for it to go from moronic to frightening and borderline illegal.

Didn't we just do this?

The Oilers are like the bad guy in the final scene of what's likely a crappy movie you catch on cable when you're bored. The hero (think Bruce Willis in Die Hard) shoots the bad guy (think Bruce Willis in The Jackal) directly in the face, he falls down a flight of stairs, crashes through a window and lands on the lawn three floors below. Bruce goes to check on the woman he no doubt will plow during the credit roll (think Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element) and the bad guy crashes through the side glass door with chicken wire to wrap around the hero's neck. Bruce (the good one) shoves broken glass through Bruce's (the bad one) neck and he slowly bleeds to death on some lovely kitchen floor tile. Bruce (yes, the good one) strolls off into the sunset with Milla in one hand and a cigar in the other while Bruce (yes, the bad one) flicks open an eye and growls...presumably at the shard of glass in his throat. Or the fact he doesn't get Milla and, yes, we understand this pain all too well.

So yeah, why won't the Oilers just go away? Oh right, because we're in the most ridiculous division in the damn league. Somehow the Oilers can lose all of December and be within striking distance of the Luongnucks. Seems about right.

On the plus side, the Oilers are useless on the man advantage against the Canucks (1 for 34 on the season) and have lose three straight since humiliating Sabourin some time ago. On the negative side, the Canucks sucked against the Flames on Saturday and lost out in the valuable Sean Avery sweepstakes. Damn you Sather, you win again.

At any rate, both teams will beat the shit out of each other again. Assuming the Oilers play with more anger in their strides, this goes to OT or a shootout in which Vancouver wins. The Oil will be happy with a point, the Canucks will be happy with the extra one.

Beauty has a twin

Don’t fret Dwayne, Mikka probably knows a good therapist.

It’s good to see the playoff atmosphere creeping into these divisional games now. Say what you will about Edmonton, that team is gritty as hell. A lot of good hits in both ends. Do they still even have Nedved? If he was out there, I never saw him.

Good to see the dual-headed maligned free agent monster known as Chouinard/Bulis both scoring key goals when the team needed it. Nazzy is slowing coming around which is a godsend at this time of the season. Best of all was seeing the team actually play an entire 60 minutes without sitting back and letting Luongo earn his money.

I have to go check eBay now.

You betta bring it. Oh it's already been broughten!

Vancouver should be angered at blowing a game against the Blue Jackets, the very same team that the ideally-tired Oilers just spanked last night. With three straight games against the stubborn Alberta teams, this is certainly no time to have confidence issues in how the Canucks have played the past few. Listening to 1040 during the day you’d think the Canucks were Los Angeles, the fair-weatherness is absurd. Last I checked we still have that long haired guy in net and Tomax and Xamot up front and clearly capable of leading this team. Time for guys like Pyatt and Bulis to step up and Mattias and Beeeska to clamp down in their end and this team will be fine.

Tonight’s Prediction: 4-2 Canucks. Cooke and Torres, respectively, punish anything that moves. Then they meet at center ice and Cooke removes more of Raffi's teeth. The teeth themselves get thrown in the stands and are on eBay this time tomorrow morning.