Hockey writers in Edmonton are notorious for being complete and utter morons who see the Oilers through rose-colored glasses, and rarely acknowledge the failures of their club.

The team misses the playoffs? Ah, there is always next year! The owner wants to gouge taxpayers to buy him a new arena? Oh, but it'll stimulate the economy in downtown Edmonton!

Witness this recent article by Robert Tychkowski, one of the biggest apologists for the reign of error that has plagued the Oilers for years. This 'mediot' takes time out of his busy schedule of ass-kissing and needlepoint to pen a gem about how the Dustin Penner deal ... wasn't so bad.

This year's playoff chase is quickly turning into one of the wildest - and weirdest - ever.

How else you define what's gone on on the fringes of the race, where teams like the Oilers, Maple Leafs, Panthers and Capitals, all well out of the race a month or so ago, are the NHL's best over that stretch?

Since the trade deadline
Florida: 8-1-2
Edmonton: 11-3-0
Toronto: 8-3-1
Washington: 9-4-0

Bubble team total: 36-11-3 (.750)

This one rates up there with crop circles in terms of the search for an explanation. How can four teams, previously inept, all turn it on at the same time and make unlikely runs?

The Oilers were the only one of the four in action last night, and - surprise, surprise - they pulled out a big 5-3 win at home against the Wild with some more big performances from the kids.

Thanks to HFBoards denizen, littleD, I've happened upon the news that the folks over at SI.com have done the unthinkable and put their entire archive online all the way back to their debut issue in August 1954.

Best of all: It's free.

That's right, 54 years of sports writing, including more hockey than you could ever dream of, just waiting to be uncovered again for the very first time. For my HFBoards friend, that meant scrambling for the first mention of Wayne Gretzky in the archive, a piece by E.M. Swift from February 20, 1978.

As for me, I decided to travel back a little further in time to January 25, 1955:

"For Pete's sake, shoot, shoot!" [Detroit General Manager Jack ] Adams cried despairingly, one eye on Howe, the other on the second hand of the stadium clock. Again Howe held back his shot in favor of faking a defenseman between himself and the goal, and then took a lazy half-stride in the midst of which he flicked the puck low and hard past the Chicago goalie. The buzzer, signaling the end of the game, sounded a split second after the puck had bulged into the cords at the back of the net.

"Gordie! Gordie!" Adams stammered in the dressing room after the game, thumping his palm to his forehead in the gesture of barely controlled exasperation made famous by Edgar Kennedy. "Gordie, you had two good shots you didn't take. What were you waiting for?" Howe waited a moment, then another, before answering. "Well," he finally drawled, "I guess I jus' wanted to make sure."

Even better, here's an NHL quiz from 1962. Can you imagine what it might have been like to answer these questions in a world without Google? Talk about ancient ...

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Prior to last night's action, the Edmonton Oilers were suddenly looking like they might just be able to sneak in and grab the 8th and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Despite a putrid goal differential of -15, the Oilers were just five points out of a playoff spot and had an essentially .500 record.

After four straight wins, the Oilers went to 8-2 in their past 10 games, and had that dangerous 'nothing to lose' mentality that helped their players relax and just play their guts out.

Of course, being five points out in this point in the season is a dangerous proposition, and one big loss, such as the 4-1 defeat the Oilers were handed by the Vancouver Canucks last night, can pretty much end your playoff aspirations faster than you can say 'Kevin Lowe Sucks!'

Admittedly, I don't give the Dallas Stars all that much respect among the playoff-bound teams in the Western Conference. Sure, the Stars are excellent in the regular season, play an air-tight system, and have great special teams, but they also have a tendency to choke it all away once the post season starts.

Despite finishing with over 50 wins each of the past two seasons, and 41 wins the season before, the Dallas Stars haven't been past the first round of the playoffs since 2003, when they were knocked out in just the second round.

Whether it's the lack of offensive depth, Marty Turco's overrated goaltending ability, or Dave Tippett's lack of fire behind the bench, the Dallas Stars are just a team that, like the Atlanta Braves of baseball, just can't translate their formula for success to the post-season all that well.

So, do my FanHouse colleagues think the Dallas Stars are legit contenders? Can any of the second-tier teams, such as Calgary, Minnesota, Vancouver, and Colorado make a dent?

It took a 48 save standing-on-his-freaking-head performance from Dwayne Roloson, and then an additional stellar performance in the skills competition shootout, but the Sharks 11-game win streak was finally brought to an end. Roloson stopped more shots tonight than he had even faced since February 2nd, playing in only three relief efforts since that time (save for his start on Saturday).

Roloson was splitting time with Mathieu Garon for the first half of the season, but he took a back seat to Garon post-New Year's after Garon was the better of the two in December. Garon has faltered of late, leading to Roloson getting his first start since February 1st on Saturday night. He won that start in Phoenix and did the same thing again tonight in San Jose. He hasn't disappointed, putting in possibly his best performances of the year. 48 saves, three more in the shootout and only one actual goal allowed (he let in one, I guess you could say "scrimmage" goal in the shootout) tonight. On Saturday it was more of the same, 38 saves and only two goals allowed.

Along with Ty Conklin and the Carolina Hurricanes, Kristin Wilson is someone whose memories of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals are unforgettable. On June 18, 2006 -- after the Oilers won Game 6 of that series on home ice -- Wilson joined hundreds of revelers on Whyte Avenue. Police had instituted a zero-tolerance policy after some rowdy celebrations during the postseason. Wilson, now 21, claims that she was caught up in that policy: Asked by an Edmonton officer to get on a bus where unruly and inebriated fans were being detained -- though not necessarily arrested -- she said she was physically assaulted by Const. Shane Connor, knocking her to the ground and bloodying her face. The incident -- captured in an infamous photography in the Edmonton Journal -- was the catalyst for a civil suit filed by Wilson against the Edmonton police for more than $6 million, and an ongoing police disciplinary hearing.

Connor, 28, acknowledged that he delivered a head stun to regain control of Wilson, whom he said was attempting to flee custody. He has been cleared of any potential criminal charges, but has been the focus of a two-month internal hearing before RCMP Assistant Commissioner Ian Atkins. One of the two charges against Connor has already been dismissed: The use of profanity during the incident, which would have obviously been in conflict with the Canadian Politeness Doctrine (I kid, I kid); but a charge of using inappropriate force remains at hand.

To put this Edmonton rookie's achievement in perspective, Andrew Cogliano has scored more game-winning goals in his last three overtimes than Danny Briere has scored in 69 regular season games. From the Edmonton Sun:

Last night the Oilers rookie became the first player in NHL history to score three consecutive overtime winners as Edmonton defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-3 at Rexall Place. "I actually don't think my game was that good tonight, I don't think I was very good in the first two periods," Cogliano said. "I think the overtime was my best five minutes of the game. I had a couple of chances to score before that, but I was lucky to get open in front of the net and score the goal." Cogliano converted a pass from Sam Gagner with 4.9 seconds remaining in OT to salvage the victory.

As the regular season comes to an end -- and with Edmonton likely missing the Stanley Cup Playoff cut -- the emotional momentum for the Oilers heading into next season is stunningly positive, considering where their No. 1 draft pick this summer currently resides. Players like Cogliano, Gagner and Tom Gilbert are solidifying a core of talent that, when healthy, could have this team back in the hunt by next season -- provided that Mathieu Garon actually is the answer in goal and Kevin Lowe doesn't try his hand at the RFA market again. It's an impressive group of young players, and any time a talented group can grow together, it promises something special down the road. Gagner said it best, to the National Post:

"The team as a whole likes to hang out together; we like to be around each other. And as the year has gone on, we have got a lot better, and that's starting to show now, too. We're building that foundation for the future: a great group of core guys, we're getting better as a team and enjoying every moment."

Nice little tilt between two heavyweights the other night in Edmonton:



Thanks, as always, to Hockeyfights.com.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Back during the 2005-06 NHL season, the introduction of the shootout made Jussi Jokinen something of a household name across the league as he helped the Dallas Stars to a 12-1 record in the shootout. Thanks to those extra 11 points, the Stars wound up with the second seed in the Western Conference.

And while the Stars didn't stay for long in the playoffs -- getting bounced in just five games in the first round by Colorado -- something of a lesson had been learned. If you didn't take the shootout seriously, you could be leaving points on the ice that could kill you come April.

But this year, the name that folks are going to remember is Mathieu Garon and the team is the Edmonton Oilers. Last night in Edmonton, the Oilers set another NHL record when they won their 14th game in the shootout, a 4-3 win over Columbus. Overall, the Oilers are 14-3, but Garon, who was all but consigned to the NHL scrap heap after last season, is a perfect 10-0, yielding on 2 goals on 32 shots. Meanwhile, no other team has won more than eight (Atlanta).

But while Dallas might have used those points to move up to near the top of the Western Conference, all the Oilers have managed to do is to keep themselves out of the cellar -- something which is probably of concern to few anywhere outside of Edmonton other than Anaheim GM Brian Burke, the owner of the Oilers' first round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft.