Few too many Oilers are accounted for in crushing 1-0 loss in St. Louis.

Lineup
Smyth	Horcoff	York	Brewer	Smith
Torres	Nedved	Dvorak	Ferguson	Staios
Moreau	Stoll	Laraque	Bergeron	Ulanov
Isbister	Oates	Pisani
			Markkanen
			Conklin
Scratched: Reasoner, Cross are day-to-day. Hemsky, Chimera, Semenov

Postgame

It won't be a successful season for the Edmonton Oilers. Anything less than making the playoffs isn't accepted by the Oilers brass. So in that regard this was most likely the icing on the stale cake. Sure there's a mathematical chance that Edmonton could still get in but they'd need a win in Dallas on Wed night to further the case.

So you get the picture.

It's hard to play with a gun to your head but that's how the Oilers have been successful in this frantic stretch run. 10 wins and no regulation losses in their last 16 games headed into Tuesday night's game in St.Louis.

But the signs were there this team was cracking and they first reared their inevitable heads during a lacklustre performance in a win last Monday at Los Angeles. Then the Oilers gassed a lead with less than a minute left in an eventual overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Wed.

And then this happened.

The Oilers, for the most part, no-showed in what was their second biggest game of the season with the first being the eventual 5-4 victory two Fridays ago versus the visiting Nashville Predators.

Maybe the Oilers players will see it differently and that's certainly their right. I don't care how much accountability there is in that room, no one will say what everyone saw to be obvious.

It was basically Jussi Markkanen and then everyone else.

Brad Isbister was one of the very few who imposed his will in this contest and his hustle almost jumped the Oilers out to an early lead. He bustled in off the left wing and threw it in the crease to waiting Fernando Pisani. But the red hot local boy couldn't get his stick on the offering and this was an early sign that things weren't to go the Oilers way.

St. Louis did pressure Markkanen early and would eventually break the seal when two old friends of the Oilers came by for their usual road visit.

Edmonton was trying to find its legs and was currently enjoying a powerplay when Eric Brewer took a penalty that lead to a 4-on-4 that would precede a Blues PP. Did I mention the Oilers road penalty killing is fourth worst overall but an even more putrid second worst on the road?

Chris Pronger further hammered home that point when his pointshot was deflected by Doug Weight as the former Oiler finished off a sequence that saw the Oilers turn a potential advantage into a 1-0 deficit.

One they ultimately couldn't overcome.

The second period was predictably a tough frame for the Oilers as it has been all season. The Blues outshot the road squad by a 10-3 mark and it was only for outstanding saves on both Weight and Pavel Demitra that Edmonton had any chance of hoping to content in the third. For the Oilers their only chance came off a rush early in the period when Jason Smith joined the fray only to push an Osgood rebound just wide of a somewhat open cage.

St. Louis looked much hungrier in the third and it looked like the old bad Oilers when Edmonton took two penalties in the frame to suck up some of the time they needed to mount a comeback. But Jussi held the fort and gave the club a chance.

Unfortunately they couldn't grab it and now the Stars stand in Dallas holding the shovels and we know they are skilled when it comes to burying the copper and gold.

Three Stars

Jussi Markkanen - 27 saves and a noteworthy performance in a game of this magnitude.

Murray Baron - It would be easy to give it to his defense partner Pronger but Baron looked like a rock out there. Over 21 minutes of icetime for the former Canuck.

Doug Weight - In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king and it's hard not to credit the guy who scores a game's only goal. He also had seven shots on net.

Out of Town Scoreboard

I like Mike York, I really do. When he's healthy he's one of the few Oilers who can pick a top corner. But he isn't right now as evidenced by two of his fingers being taped together so it makes little sense to have him on a line with Ryan Smyth let alone have York play the point on the PP where, ironcally enough, you need someone who can pass and shoot the puck with dexterity. York finished at 14:23...Petr Nedved played 18:05 and didn't register a shot on net one game after looking so effective versus the Yotes on Sunday...Eric Brewer played a team high 26:48 but really had a poor game.

Oil Gauge

Nashville beat the visiting Hawks so they stand tied with the Oilers at 87 points but they lead the Oilers in wins by a count of 36-35 and they have the game in hand. Plus they win the second tiebreaker which is head to head. So bascially at this point the Oilers trail the Preds by a half of a point. The Blues win means the Oilers can basically forget about 7th place. St. Louis leads them by two points, three wins and tonight's win means they have the head to head tiebreaker as well. For the Oilers to claim 7th place, this would have to happen: Oilers win both their remaining games while Nashville gains only three points in their remaining three games. Meanwhile the Blues can only gain one point in their last three games and one of them is versus the Preds on Saturday. The Oilers have been getting basically zero help on the out of town scoreboard so why expect any now?

Next Game

Wed in Dal at 6PM MST and you can see the game on TSN. The Oilers haven't won in Dallas since Jan of '96. Don't expect that to change tomorrow night.