Music: {allcanada} Edmonton (22-35-8) at Colorado (26-30-8)

Friday, March 4, 2011

{allcanada} Edmonton (22-35-8) at Colorado (26-30-8)

Edmonton (22-35-8) at Colorado (26-30-8)

TV: CBC, ALT

10:00 pm EST Sat Mar 5, 2011

The Edmonton Oilers drafted Taylor Hall (notes) first overall in June to pick up points, not fights.

The 19-year-old Hall's first NHL brawl went badly and could end his season.

With Taylor's status uncertain, the Oilers open a five-game trip Saturday night against the slumping Colorado Avalanche, who will try to snap their longest home losing streak in nearly two years.

Since failing to notch a goal in his first seven NHL games, Hall has scored 22 times and has 41 points over the last 58 contests - both team highs during that stretch. He had a goal and an assist in the opening 20:14 of Thursday's 4-2 victory over Columbus, but his night ended in the second period when he fell to the ice and hurt his left ankle following a fight with Derek Dorsett (notes).

The Oilers' 190-pound winger fought just twice in junior hockey.

"I've never had (a 'Gordie Howe hat trick')," Hall said of scoring a goal with an assist and a fight in the same game. "I don't know if I want to have too many more, especially with the repercussions."

Coach Tom Renney didn't blame the Calder Trophy candidate for showing some aggression.

"We drafted character, so we definitely expect character to show up and it did," said Renney, whose team has won two straight and six of nine. "Good for him. Scraps happen. He had enough of the liberties."

The Avalanche (26-30-8), meanwhile, have had enough of the mounting losses. They have dropped four straight and 14 of 15, and the only team below them in the Western Conference standings is the league-worst Oilers (22-35-8).

Colorado gave up the tying goal with 2:58 left in regulation en route to a 2-1 shootout loss at Pacific Division-leading San Jose on Tuesday.

"The hockey gods just aren't with us right now," All-Star center Matt Duchene (notes) said. "It's frustrating. It's almost laughable at this point. We work that hard, we play that well, with a team with that much offense, with so many guys having great seasons, we hold them to no goals with 4 minutes left and they find some way to score."

Duchene is second on the team with 21 goals but has none in the last six games for the Avs, who have scored two or fewer 11 times during its 1-12-2 skid.

Colorado, though, lost all three on its just concluded road trip by one goal.

"The compete level, every guy kind of playing for each other, I think has been there," center Paul Stastny (notes) told the Avalanche's official website. "That's the most important thing to get out of this thing."

Colorado, 0-5-1 at the Pepsi Center since beating St. Louis on Jan. 24, is mired in its worst home losing streak since an 0-5-2 stretch to end 2008-09.

The Avalanche's most recent home loss came to Edmonton, 5-1 on Feb. 23. The Oilers had lost their previous two trips to the Pepsi Center by a 9-0 score.

Devan Dubnyk (notes) led them to a win in that last meeting with 38 saves while Colorado's Brian Elliott (notes) turned away just 26 of 31 shots in his first start after being acquired from Ottawa. Elliott made 34 saves Tuesday before stopping two of three in the tiebreaker.