Boy, I know what I thought when I first saw Dustin Penner's name in the scratches box for the Oilers on Friday night... "check the trade rumours, quick!" As it reportedly turns out, Penner was suffering from an illness, likely the flu bug, on Friday night, so he wasn't able to go against the Blues. Of course, the flu bug has been used as a clever guise to hide the fact that a player has been traded in the past, I'm sure. Penner's name has been circulated among the rumour mill for a while now, since the Oilers have been considered sellers for quite some time already.Nevertheless, if the reports of the flu bug are correct, I would assume that Penner will be a game-time decision tonight for the game against the Blue Jackets.
At no point in the 2011 season has Penner had dominant stretches, like he did in the 2010 season, which actually says a lot about the Oilers season as a whole. The Oilers won a few more games on the shoulders of Penner last season and with those games gone, it hasn't been quite the same. In 2011, Penner has 16 goals and 16 assists in 50 games, which is about half of his final total from the 2010 season, well over the halfway point of this season, so his scoring pace is down considerably. Going into Saturday's action, Penner ranks 119th in pool scoring, which could be one of the reasons why he is doing his rounds on the rumour mill.
Penner was Don D.'s 9th round pick in the draft this year and missing out on yet another game on Friday night, meant that Don could not get any closer to winning the second jersey of the season, falling back another point in that race. Don will be hoping that Penner is healthy enough to go on Saturday night, giving him an extra boost around the net for a goal or two.Link to the Injury/News Page
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