OKC V TEXAS 21.11.12
Tanner House didn’t look too good the other night and will miss tonight’s game against the Texas Stars. Tyler Pitlick and Antti Tyrvainen are also out, which means the recently recalled Cam Abney will no doubt be dressed and could have a full dance card.
The Barons enter play in 2nd place in their division, with a modest 8-5-1-1 record and a 45-45 goal total. They’re solid on the PP (16 goals in 15 games and a 25% success rate–second in the AHL) but a league worst 75.4% on the PK. At evens, OKC is 26-28 so far this season.
Most of their problems have to do with lack of experience, but I think the addition of Teigan Zahn and Jordan Henry has settled the defense down and Yann Danis is finding the range again. Adding Taylor Hall–and his improved performances as the rust wears off–no doubt helps too.
The Barons are on the road, and with Hall closer to 100% and the other wonderkinds like Nuge, Ebs and Schultz all hammering on all pistons a winning streak may be on the horizon. Interesting game tonight. Texas is 5 points back in the standings with 2 games in hand, and haven’t scored a lot so far this season.
It’s hockey night! Enjoy.
Sometimes feels like so long between games. I guess they pack em in/ stretch them out to save on travel costs.
Has anyone been able to find the video of House getting KO’d? Hockeyfights doesn’t have it so that usually means that there isn’t one.
There was a lot of talk the last couple years about the damage playing on a losing team does to young players; I wonder if some of the Barons’ struggles reflect that? Maybe part of the problem is the a lot of the Barons’ best players are used to losing (in the NHL) and that is an extra hurdle for them to overcome?
Oklahoma City Barons @OKC_Barons
Projected #OKCBarons lines: Hall-RNH-Eberle; Paajarvi-Lander-Teemu; Hamilton-Arco-Rajala; Byers-Vandy-Abney
defence pairings: Marincin & Schultz; Fedun & Teubert; Plante & Henry
Nice to see Rajala get a veteran like Arcobello.
Anyone have a feed to the game?
http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/154640/1/watch-ahl:-oklahoma-city-barons-vs-texas-stars.html
No game yet, but soon they say!
That 4th line could be a disaster if the bad Dane Byers shows up. Reminds me a lot of an Eager-Belanger-Hordichuk line. But yes there’s hockey on tonight so that’s a good thing!
Eberle!
Eberle (Hall, Marincin)
The revenge of Barker!
I’m confused. Where is Schultzie’s point? We did score, right?
anyone having problems with the feed?
Mines good. There’s a secondary audio that’s annoying in the background, but have her piped onto the big screen and it almost feels like hockey night!
I’m having issues with the feed, might be my internet is too slow tho.
Abney looks a little overmatched in AHL fighting.
My keeps cutting out and having to catch up. It does this a lot, though. Extremely frustrating.
Also, I hope Rajala has learned the lesson not to pass to Abney on a 3-1. Good play otherwise, though.
Wow keep an eye on Oleksiak, what a beast, 6-7, 254 lbs!
That guy killed it at musical Chairs LOL. Just took the whole chair at the end! Probably won a truck…
Crap. I want to see more of Rajala but I have to go give the Pub Quiz on a blizzardy night when we will be lucky to get half a room. The more descriptions you guys can give of this game the better (I’ll keep half an eye on the thread). Thanks to all and enjoy the game!
Go Toni-o!
Edmonton needs a headbang cam. No question.
Gagner’s Canada team on TSN
wow ugly goal by hartikainen
That must have gone off a leg.
Finnish!
What a wrister from the wing by Harski! Lander no pt lol.
Rajala!
Arco just bounced of of Oleksiak as he tried to hit him behind the net!
Rajala!
Beautiful play by Arcobello and Rajala
Raggish!
Haha! I think they thought that was offside, which it may have been. Good work Toni, for reasons that aren’t even clear to me I’ve been rooting for you since the draft.
Did you see Arcobello with all the momentum hitting Oleksiak who was standing still behind the net? Hahaha Arco flew 3 ft backward on his butt.
P.S. Finland!
I was just thinking as soon as we get our Schultz point we’ll have the lead.
At will…
Schultz on a roll
There’s no way Schultz”s wrister can carry over into the NHL is there? Is there?
Holy hell Justin Schultz shoots bullets.
Oilanderp,
Hilarious. Guy is massive and didnt budge.
Arcobello is a first-line talent at this level, and he’s on the Barons third line. That’s why these crazy 4 goal periods they’ve been having might keep becoming more of a frequent occurrence
Arcobello looks great tonight.
Nice penalty draw by VV, the old ‘Oh you have your stick blade in my armpit? I guess I’ll hold onto it then and draw a penalty. Have fun in the box’ technique……. and now a 5 on 3!
Arcobello will be an NHL player one day, he’s too good at evens not to be
Let’s see if they do the old behind the net pass on the two man advantage. Worked well!
Oh that Powerplay
Great puck movement on the PP there.
Hall made that goalie look like a fool lol. Maybe they’re reviewing it because Hall made it look so easy it must be illegal.
So lucky these guys get to gel and refine their PP in the AHL on the small ice. Will give us a big advantage when, if, we get back.
Nice patience by Hall, too. He’s not a bad hockey player!
What patience by Hall on that goal, and we’re still on the PP! edit: *squawk* Polly wants a cracker! *squawk*
I thought that was nice D by Colt there.
Good play by Teubert. Not a penalty.
Petersen on the powerplay here too despite 14-1-1-2 and -6. Deja vu….
If Rajala keeps playing this well offensively I think it would be hard to send him back down, at least until he has an off game.
4-1? Ebs, Harski, Rajala, Hall, — Barker for Texas? Don’t have access, still working…
It’s 5-3 after 2 periods.
Eberle, Hartikainen, Rajala, Schultz, Hall with the goals.
Rajala and Schultz tied with the most shots at 4 a piece; impressive debut for Rajala.
Edit: No sooner do I give Rajala credit, he picks up his second penalty of the night
Barker actually seems to be having a pretty decent game.
OilLeak,
Your point still stands. I think Rajala’s strengths are on display, which is the most important thing to see from a rookie.
Comboing nicely with Arcobello too, despite the size they give up.
Schultz slowed by leg injury as per Corey Pronman
He’s having a really good game, these short flashes of good play have led many to think he’s an actual player at times.
Awesome by Hartikainen!!
Great move by Harski, that’s some Taylor hall jam there.
Well the play didn’t turn into anything, but you’ve still got like Harty buffaloing defenders like that.
Schultz is definitely a step slower since the injury.
TWO SHG against tonight? Wow.
Obstreperous.
He said it.
Harty has been the Barons’ best forward tonight, non? (I’ve only seen the second half of the game).
I don’t know quite what Eberle was doing on the shg against, but I was distracted, maybe it was not a big error.
Live box score here
http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=646131&navid=DL|EDM|home
Nice goal by Marincin. Thought that was coming for a bit.
Goat Horns for Barker, where have I heard that one before?
Walked right in there!
Obstreperous: A perfectly cromulant word.
Nice shot, there. The Barons D really like the wrist shot on the PP. I approve.
Hallsy with 3 points tonight. He’s probably trying to catch up to the lead so we can have 1-2-3-4 in the AHL!
And another 2 points for Schultz, as he pads his scoring lead.
Curses. Never fails. I get 3 Star goals, leave, and then Hall hits the set; Ebs, Schultz, Marincin, Harski and the Nuge deuce it out; and that large inkblot spread over the scoresheet just happens to be Toni Rajala. Natch.
Great game. Nice to see them assert themselves after out-shooting in the 1st but giving up three. Looking forward to seeing the highlights.
There’s almost no way he pulls it off for a full season, but Schultz is on pace over 16 games to do a Bobby Orr on the AHL. I mean, nobody is Bobby Orr, and it is the AHL, but damn that’s impressive.
Lots of ifs and buts, but wow, very impressive. And he doesn’t appear to be slowing down yet. His NHLE projection of 15-25-40 is looking rather low now.
i think his goal scoring is going to drop off almost by half, but that still leaves his insane assist totals and even slashing goal production in half still leaves a stupid number of goals for a defenseman.
point being, even if his very high shooting percentage falls off a cliff, he’ll still be collecting points at an elite level. even goals.