For want of a nail the shoe was lost
For want of a shoe the horse was lost
For want of a horse the rider was lost
For want of a rider the battle was lost
For want of a battle the Kingdom was lost
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richards Almanac of 1757

It was thrilling, it was action packed and it was on pace to be a great upset win for the Oilers and give me another win. Then Disaster.. Carolina's Andrew Ladd brought the puck into the Edmonton zone, cut in the front of the net and was hit by Bergeron and that drove Ladd into Roloson and knocked the net off its moorings. Dwayne Roloson went down with a series-ending knee injury. We won't even talk about the play by Ty Conklin.

I have had a great season in the NHL and so have the Oilers. I will win a couple more games before they present the Stanley Cup but it looks grim for the Oilers. One of the KEY players and the one I put the most weight on when handicapping a game is the Goaltender. Roloson has been excellent and with him in net I really liked the Oilers chances to win this thing. Now...

The Oilers will come out hitting hard in game two but the Hurricanes with Cam Ward in net may be just too much. A Goaltender makes or breaks a team. They can hit they can fore-check hey can score goals but unless they outscore the other team they will lose so the Oilers with a great defensive trap strong specialty teams will have to shift gears and change up their game plan if they wish to stay in this series and have any hope of taking home the cup.

This may or may not work to their advantage. They did after all score 4 goals last night. Carolina and Edmonton did not play each other during the regular season and now Carolina will face a different team in their style of play anyway in game two. I think we will see more attacks and beefed up zone defense as the goaltending will not be a position anyone on the team will take for granted as they did with Roloson. I say take for granted in that they rely on their goalie to do his job and do it at Stanley Cup caliber of play. With this gone I expect the defensemen to step it up block a few more shots ouch and try to bring it to the Hurricanes. I also think there will be even more hits and checks to try to keep the puck out of their zone.

Am I happy with this? NO Is this hockey or for that matter any sport? YES so those are the breaks and we will have to see. Do I still like Edmontons Chances to win this? Well it can still happen but I am not as optimistic as I was yesterday afternoon. Tough break for the Oilers now lets see of that other adage holds true.

When the going gets tough... the tough get going!