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EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers werent as good as they looked in their first 14 games of this season and they arent as bad as theyve often appeared over their last 14. wholesale jerseys from china . The trick for coach Tom Renney is to find the happy middle ground between the extremes. After getting out to a 9-3-2 start, the Oilers have staggered to a 4-9-1 record since, with the latest mis-step coming in a 5-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday -- a defeat Renney deemed the most disappointing of the season. Consistent, the Oilers are not. "As much as our goaltending was good, our defensive game was very good to start the season," Renney said. "Our goaltenders had to worry about less chances against, less bona fide chances. That made a real difference. "We do have a reference point with how we played. We have clips that would suggest we know what were doing and the results sort of speak to that. Certainly lately, they dont." Put the distinctly different 14-game segments together and the Oilers today sit in 10th place in the Western Conference with a 13-12-3 record as they prepare to close out a six-game homestand against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday. Losers of two straight games and five of their last six, the Oilers are just two points ahead of the 27 points they had after the same number of games in 2010-11, when they finished 30th overall for the second straight year. "I dont think youre really ever as good as you look and youre never really as bad as you think you are," Ryan Whitney said. "As a team, I think its about realizing that the same group of guys that did that earlier is here now. "Sometimes you get too confident. You think the league is going to be easy. I know when I was young, you have some success and you kind of lay back and you think its going to be roses the rest of the way. Its not. Its a hard league. Theres no easy games." Beaten 5-3 by the Calgary Flames on Saturday, the well-rested Oilers talked about starting fast and making amends against the Hurricanes, who came into Rexall Place languishing in last place in the Eastern Conference and on a seven-game losing streak. The Oilers were instead listless, flat and unable to match the energy level of the Hurricanes, who had lost 7-6 the night before in Calgary. Special teams struggled again. Renneys top two lines accomplished little. "Were looking for some consistency together," captain Shawn Horcoff said. "Weve had good games here and there. We need longer periods, where you throw three or four (games) together. "Were going through a bit of a tough time and this is where you need to turn it around and start finding ways to win some games. I dont think were as bad as weve looked this last stretch, but I think we can be as good a team as we were early, but it takes a 20-man commitment to it." To say the Oilers have been streaky in the extreme is to understate. They had a six-game winning streak early. They followed that by losing five of six games in November and have duplicated that stretch, one win in six games, with the loss to Carolina. "When you start thinking that youre better than you are, as a team or as a player, thats when it comes and bites you," Whitney said. "I think thats just what happened with us. "We probably thought we were going to play the whole way like we started the year. All of a sudden, teams get better a month into the season and we stopped doing some of the things we were doing." If the Oilers were guilty of being a little too confident after a surprising start, thats not an issue now. The power play, so hot to start the season, is still ranked eighth, but was held off the score sheet on 10 attempts in the losses to Calgary and Carolina. The penalty killing has slipped to 16th. One constant has been that goaltending duo of Nikolai Khabibulin and Devan Dubnyk has faced too many shots. More of those shots are finding the back of the net now. "We certainly cant feel sorry for ourselves and we cant go out and fall on our swords either," Renney said. "This is the NHL. This is what we do, so lets just buckle down and come back to a real sound, fundamental game of hockey and allow the rest of that innate stuff, that instinctive stuff to emerge from good, sound, basic hockey. Thats when were at our best, when we play the game that way." wholesale nfl jerseys . Nestor and Mirnyi, the second seeds, rallied to beat Frances Michael Llodra and Serb Nenad Zimonjic 3-6, 6-1, 12-10 at the Shanghai Masters. It was the first doubles title for Nestor and Mirnyi since winning the French Open in June. wholesale jerseys . "The opportunities are going to come," he said Monday on a conference call from Slovenia, where the team was preparing for a friendly. "If we werent creating chances then it would be a different conversation.Munich, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Bayern Munich continued its dominance of the Bundesliga by cruising to a 2-0 defeat of Freiburg at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. Bayerns last defeat in league play came on April 12 when the club suffered a 3-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund, but a run of four straight wins helped the Bavarians complete the campaign in style, while a 16-match unbeaten streak to start the new season has seen the club continue its impressive domestic form. The hosts were made to wait until the 41st minute of Tuesdays affair for an opener, which came from Arjen Robben. The Dutchman got on the end of Franck Riberys headed cross and nodded home from close range, breaking the deadlock with his 100th goal for Bayern. The club doubled the advantage in the 48th minute when Juan Bernats shot wwas saved by Roman Burki, but Thomas Muller was well-positioned to nod the rebound into the back of the net. wholesale jerseys free shipping. Manuel Neuer was untested in the Bayern net, keeping the clubs 13th clean sheet of the season. Bayern improves to 42 points on the season to move 12 points clear of second- place Wolfsburg, though the nine-point gap can be restored with a victory over struggling Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday. Stuttgart climbed out of the cellar on Tuesday as Florian Klein recorded the lone goal in the clubs 1-0 win at Hamburg. Hannover, meanwhile, received a first-half goal from Salif Sane and a second- half penalty from Joselu to earn a 2-0 home win over Augsburg. Wrapping up Tuesdays Bundesliga action, Mainz and Cologne played to a 0-0 stalemate to share the points on hand. wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' ' |
