Canes lose Cup rematch, Captain

On Wednesday night, the Canes lost to the Oilers 3-1. Turns out my prediction was pretty lousy.

I got home just in time for the third period and haven't gone back to watch from the beginning yet, but based on the third period, the Oilers were the much better team. They completely dominated the flow of the game and completely shut down Carolina's speedy skaters.

At some point in the second period, Rod Brind'Amour suffered an injury (which I haven't seen yet) that kept him from returning to the game. I can imagine the jubilation in the BoA headquarters as the Oilers won the game handily AND their least favorite player in the league got knocked out with what has only been called a "lower body" injury.

Mick McGeough is a terrible official. Oilers fans don't need to be told that. Even as an extremely biased Canes fan, there were two times during the third period that Canes players should have been penalized. With about 6 minutes to play, there was a blatant slash committed by Scott Walker behind the Canes net that was let go. There was a blatant trip committed later that was let go. Moments after the non-call with the slash, Marty Reasoner caught Mike Commodore with a blatant high-stick, opening a cut on Commy's nose. It should have been a four minute penalty, but there was none. This was the same crew that officiated the Canes-Flames game and let A LOT of stuff go for both sides. At first, I thought it was just that there was a slightly different rules interpretation in the Western Conference. After two consecutive nights, it's obvious that it's just McGeough. He's a lousy lousy official. I know he's pissed about having to wear a lid this season, but that's no excuse for being a worse ref than he already was. The thing with the phantom hand pass a few weeks ago was absolutely disgusting, and the way he called the game tonight, you wouldn't blame the players if they decided to take the law into their own hands. The League and the Officials Association need to do a better job of holding the refs accountable for poor performance.

I don't think the officiating had anything to do with the fact that Carolina lost. They lost because Edmonton was better. Like I said, I saw two obvious penalties against Carolina that weren't whistled, too.

The goal scorers for the Oil were Brad Winchester (2:30 of the second), Jason Smith (19:00 of the second) and Saint Fernando Pisani (1:44 of the third). CrAdams had the lone goal for the Canes.

Now I have to go back and watch the game from the beginning and also try to find out what happened to Brind'Amour.

Carolina will have Friday off, and will be happy just to get out of Alberta. On to BC, where they'll take on the 'Nucks on Saturday night. Hopefully, McGeough won't be anywhere in sight.