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Gritty win for the Oilers against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. Here's some key highlights, comments, and such:

- Devan Dubnyk stood tall in the Oilers net. Actually, he could stand tall in any net. Something about him being 6' 6". Anyway, he played his first solid 60 minute game in a while. This is the Dubey Oilers fans need if the team hopes to be successful. He stopped 42 of 45 shots during the game and should have been 1st star.

- Taylor Hall played with emotion. He's almost impossible to handle when he's skating hard and is playing motivated. A goal and an assist for Hall. Ryan Smyth had a goal and a helper too, and Jordan Eberle had two assists. The usual suspects contributed offensively.

- It's amazing how much better the Oilers are defensively when Andy Sutton is playing. Sutton added a goal to his great game. Played a physical and effective hockey game for the Oilers.

- Call-up Teemu Hartikainen played his first NHL game of the season. He had two shots and was -1. Didn't get much ice time, but I liked what I saw from him.

- I might as well get to the bad Oilers moments: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins injured himself after skating over his own laces. Weird play. He just sorta tripped and crashed shoulder-first into the boards. Didn't look like he hit the boards too hard either. He was out for the rest of the game, and he has what the Oilers are describing as an "upper body injury." I don't think it's a concussion, thankfully, but he might have dislocated a shoulder, which would almost be as bad.

- Tom Gilbert was injured after a ridiculous hit from behind in the second period by Dan Carcillo. Oh, he'll be suspended for a while. That's a 10-gamer, maybe? It was ugly. There is no official word on the extent of the Gilbert injury, but he might have a broken everything. The Oilers, who were down by a goal before the play, scored twice during the five-minute penalty assessed to Carcillo.

- The Oilers played a gritty game, which was a welcome change from some of their recent non-efforts. Players were sacrificing their bodies to make plays, and got up in the face of several Hawks throughout the game. A few key Oilers didn't do much for me: Ales Hemsky was a non-factor; Eric Belanger can win face-offs and do nothing else right. The Oilers D was soft at times...45 shots against speaks for itself. But overall, this was one of the better Oiler efforts I've seen all year. Let's see if they can carry over this kind of play into tomorrow against the Sabres in Buffalo.

Quick Notes

- Edmonton-area media are getting grumpy again. I got two emails in the last 24 saying Joanne Ireland from the Journal and Dan Tencer from 630 CHED are running me down. Sigh. I'm a blogger. Just some guy. A hockey fan who writes his opinions. I'm not a reporter. I don't get paid to follow the team around, nor do I get the access they do. Good news is, I don't have to suck up constantly in fear for my job like they do, and I have the freedom to print what I think instead of being forced to be nice. There are benefits to blogging, and downsides. However you see it, I wish they'd let it go. I know it pisses off the "legitimate media" that people read bloggers, but blogs aren't going anywhere. Everytime I hear someone from CHED run me on air, I feel embarrassed for them, because their jealousy is obvious. To be clear, I am not saying they are jealous of my readership, of my writing or anything to do with me specifically. They are jealous of the format. I can be honest in my work, and they need to constantly defend the team, like it or not.

- Speaking of stuff the "legitimate" media write, there was a neat article by Jim Matheson the other day quoting Steve Tambellini. Apparently, the goal now is not to get a lottery pick. Sounds good. But the challenge is to improve the team without making deals. Yep, The Oilers are going to stay out of the standings toilet by moving players up and down from the minors, and not by making trades to get quality players. Delusional.

I liked the call-up of Teemu Harkitainen, but I hate that they sent down Lennart Petrell to do it. I realize other players they could have sent down would have had to clear waivers first. I'd rather they would have sent down Anton Lander, and played Sam Gagner at center, moving Eric Belanger to the 4th line, but that's just me. If Nugent-Hopkins and Tom Gilbert are injured for any amount of time, there will be more call-ups in a hurry. Maybe Petrell comes back and Colten Teubert returns? It's so hard to keep track nowdays. Taylor Chorney is more of a Gilbert-type of player than Teubert, and might be a more fitting call-up.

After reading the interview with Tambellini, I've lost all confidence that Oilers management will do anything immediate to help the team. They're pretending like the "make the playoffs" talk this summer never happened, and the bar has been lowered to "just being better than last year." Yep, just be better than last year. Now there's a message season ticket holders can get behind.

Hey, on the bright side, if Nuge is hurt, Eric Belanger will get more ice time. Winning streak, here we come.

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