CANUCKS AT OILERS, G9 (12-13) 4.2.13
The first time Edmonton and Vancouver played each other, the power in the division belonged to Chicago. The “Smythe” division predictions for 1979-80 had the Blackhawks #1, followed by three very young clubs in this order: Vancouver, St. Louis and Edmonton. Winnipeg had been crushed in the expansion draft and the Colorado Rockies weren’t expected to score goals under new coach Don Cherry (but they did lead the league in trades).
The first game between Edmonton and Vancouver was played Sunday, October 14, 1979 in Edmonton’s Northlands Colisuem. It was a 4-4 tie.
I bet Risto Siltanen drilled the end boards with slapshots 11 times that night. This is a nice boxscore because it includes Allan Hamilton, Gretzky, Messier, Dave Dryden and of course Stan Weir. Nice.
We’re beginning to get some insight into how Ralph Krueger is using his defense. With a rookie in Justin Schultz, a veteran with issues in Ryan Whitney and a top pairing that is -3 (each) after 8 games, there’s room for improvement.
QUALITY OF COMPETITION
They all look pretty closely clustered, especially the top 4D as listed here. I’m not certain there’s a lot of information we can gain yet via this graphic (anyone?) save for the TOI/60 at 5×5 is pretty damn close. RK seems to be rolling, rolling, rolling based on time-on-ice and this qual comp graph after 8 games.
ZONE START
This gives us some confirmation of what the F zone starts showed us: Krueger is more interested in getting his best players into offensive situations than any matchup advantage he might gain. All of the pairings you’d expect to get a zone start push (any pairing with J Schultz) gets it, and then the veteran pairings take the rest. Great idea, I just wish Krueger had 6 healthy men.
CORSI REL
This looks like a decent match for the F Corsi Rel if the Nuge line and the Schultz party of two lined up a lot of the time
Good match, right? In a thread below (the Martindale one) Woodguy posted a link that showed the top 2 D pairings playing most of their 5×5 time with the Nuge line. Conclusion: Ralph’s a wizard. And the top pairing of Smid and Petry should be doing better, correct?
Dubnyk is having a nice start to the season but I’m not certain we should expect a major correction anytime soon, at least at even-strength.
- 11-12SP EV: .927
- 12-13SP EV: .922
- 11-12SP PK: .854
- 12-13SP PK: .926
So at evens, Dubnyk’s current level of play is less than what we saw one year ago. His penalty-killing SP ranks 5th among goalies who have played 3 or more games so far this season–that total may have some correcting to do.
–
The Oilers have to get this roster situation straightened away. Currently, the 23 man roster looks like this:
- G Devan Dubnyk
- G Nikolai Khabibulin (has not played)
- D Ladislav Smid
- D Jeff Petry
- D Nick Schultz
- D Justin Schultz
- D Ryan Whitney
- D Corey Potter
- D Mark Fistric
- D Theo Peckham (has not played)
- C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- C Sam Gagner
- C Shawn Horcoff
- C Anton Lander
- L Taylor Hall
- L Nail Yakupov
- L Ryan Smyth
- L Teemu Hartikainen
- L Darcy Hordichuk
- R Ales Hemsky
- R Jordan Eberle
- R Lennart Petrell
- R Magnus Paajarvi
IR: C Eric Belanger, L Ben Eager, D Andy Sutton, R Ryan Jones
Khabibulin will play soon, but the Peckham situation is galling. I understand the need to protect depth and Peckham shouldn’t be shuffled for nothing. However, the club should either IR Ryan Whitney or risk waivers on Peckham or Potter. That extra roster spot, combined with Hordichuk being on the roster at all, make it difficult for the coach to make moves that give the hockey club their best chance to win.
And, as a fan, that’s frustrating.
–
I think management of the current team could learn a thing or two from the 1979-80 crew, who had some veteran savvy up the middle.
–
With Belanger out, we have to assume Horcoff the warrior is back in. The lineup might look like this tonight:
- RNH-Hall-Eberle
- Gagner-Yakupov-Hemsky
- Horcoff-Smyth-Petrell
- Lander-Hartikainen-Paajarvi
- Smid-Petry
- Schultz-Schultz
- Fistric-Potter
- Dubnyk with NK backup
- HS: Whitney, Peckham, Hordichuk
PRV with a big hit and driving the net. Wow.
Wow. Hartikainen is taking vintage-Smyth levels of abuse tonight.
Here comes the garbage
What a terrible call.
The patented Smyth to Horcoff play. Works every time.
At least it’s 1-0.
Did elder just fall?
Honestly, what a horrible penalty call. I hate the Canucks.
Actually he has. But wow, you said that with the confidence of someone who has read and remembers every single post this blog and ON has ever seen!
;op
I don’t mind the Avs, the Yotes, the Flames even this year so far…but the Nucks just can’t be liked for some reason.
2 minutes for a Canuck’s fall leading to a scoring chance.
Justice.
SMYTTY!
Bahaha I love that it’s a garbage dribbler.
SMYTTYYY!!!!!!!
There’s one terrible call. Smytty!
RYAN. FREAKING SMYTH!!!!
Take that stupid refs!
Smytty!!!! With a one-timer!!!!
karma for that shit penalty call
Hell ya, atta boy Ryan!
Smyth (Lander)
Goes in off Edler. Fucking justice.
Still plenty of time left in the penalty – we can get another one.
GARBAGE! GARBAGE!
Hahaha, Smytty. Lander with the assist is gold.
Blistering shot by Smyth
A very smitty like goal.
Hey where did captain happy go?
OFF OF EDLER. fantastic
Look up rink rat in the dictonary and I swear to god there’s nothing there but a picture of Ryan Smyth.
Hee hee. Man, the Oilers aren’t supposed to be this good this early. This is nice.
What flavour is that muffin?
Smyth! from Lander, that’s the most beautiful goal I’ve seen all season.
I blame RK. He has the audacity to actually explain to the players what he wants/expects from them in their role.
Imagine!
Except for that stupid penalty on Yak, I’ve been giggling all game. Now I’m in hysterics.
DSF in 5…4….3…Hansen is a pretty good player.
Corey Potter is not good…
Nice glove save by Dubnyk there.
Captain Happy made it clear that he was a season ticket holder for about 20 years. He became tremendously disillusioned with the Oilers under Lowe’s leadership and essentially abandoned ship about the time when the Oilers were chasing Heatley around the country with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates.
Now he seems to get his kicks poking at Oiler fans, not so much the knowledgeable discussions/debates, he tends to drop out of them quickly, but he really feeds off of people debating his pseudo arguments and selective stats.
He shows a good knowledge for the game, but his bitterness for the Oilers is deep. He reminds me of the guy who started spying for the Russians to get back at his ex-wife. That is bitter!
Anyway, he has been off his game lately, he is slacking in his criticism and lots of time he is just lazily making stuff up. I think he is starting to like the Oilers again and is very uncomfortable with these positive emotions he is feeling.
He is old and retired now so its hard for him to adapt, but I expect he will be back being an Oiler fan again soon.
And Dubnyk decides to let in a shitter. Yay?
Nice response by DD
If MPS can be the player he is in this game for the rest of the season, he’ll be a pleasantly big plus on the year.
Both coaches seem to favor the Sedin-Nuge matchup. That means Nuge is going to pass Gagner before Horcoff lets go the coat. I think Gagner could handle it, but they’d need to give him Hall.
B S,
Seriously your gonna bust my balls for the smallest technicallity. And hiking, your comparing hard physical activtity to hiking. If you would have continued googling you would have noticed that Denver is at 5280 feet above sea level. But at this point I’m pretty sure you are argueing with me just to argue cause if you actually watched the game you would have noticed that without Horcoff and with Belanger either in the locker room or skating with a broken foot the team was just gassed halfway through the game. But in case your were wondering it takes about a week to acclimate fairly well, but not fully, to elevation but it takes about 120 days for those red blood cells to die.
They are getting murdered on faceoffs
Does anyone know why Paajarvi switched to forward. He seems like he would be a better defenseman.
bookjLe,
Wow. Just wow.
I vaguely remembered something about that, but you remembered that verbatim.
I’m more used to the friendly sarcastic Bookje, not the Chris Langan version.
GET OUT OF THE EFFING WAY.
That’s two breakaways for Hall stopped by a zebra tonight.
Are you that guy who has been arguing to make Paajarvi a defensman for the past 2 years?
No, that was me. Honestly, I was one of them.
i’ve got a bad feeling about this.
My handle used to be lowonoil. I used to have that oilers blog too–lowonoil.com. Gone now.
Horcoff to the dressing room after blocking a shot as per Jason Gregor on twitter.
You know, I like the Canucks as a rival. I think tonight’s game has shown some of the elements of sublime hockey we all expect to be played in future between these two storied teams.
That’s been his story lately, and I would have to climb back through ancient HF threads to prove this, but it seems to me he was legendary even before Heatley.
Back in the Distinctly Silly Fux days.
There’s no damn way the Oilers only had 4 shots in that period.
Fk, is Arnott in shape yet?
Schultz sure doesn’t look like a rookie.
Would like to see a few of those knuckling wristers go in the net more often, but he’s been stellar for us so far.
Burrows looked surprised to see his shot deflected.
J. Schultz has a cloaking device.
spoiler,
I was never a part of the HF threads, but I do find Cap Happy interesting. He is so very dedicated to the craft of trolling and is so much better at it than most. I think he is very lonely.
Schultz covers a tremendous amount of territory, he’s like an old timey Hab that way.
The idea of Whitney returning is like…
Let’s put it this way. Compared to 2013 Whitney, Horcoff is Jean Beliveau.
Dennis King @DKingBH
2nd period chances: 3-5; 1-1 ST. After 40 min: 10-8; 2-2 ST
Schultz isn’t a noisy skater. So he can catch up to fast guys without the prototypical “zip zip zip” of skates ripping up ice.
If the Oilers had another Petry-Smid combo they’d be a really fierce team. Their forward group is turning into something really nice. They just need to pick up a cheap free agent Petry-Smid type combo this off-season and they’re in beautiful shape.
Canucks with 75% face offs. yikes.
Also, there’s a difference in Schultz’s play between OKC and here. In OKC he rushed the puck almost up to the crease before unleashing those lethal wristers, and here he’s being much more defensively responsible.
ManHorse!
Gret99zky,
That happens when you’re running out there with 2 and a half centers. Hopefully Horc can shake off his injury.
refs corsi must be through the roof tonight. they have touches in every zone.
The keys in this third period are being one D down and possibly Horcoff being hurt too. Dubnyk should be able to get this to OT with a little help, but the Canucks are beginning to swarm. If I had to make a guess, it would be a questionable call against the Oil and VAN scores early in the third to tie and late in the frame to kill.
But maybe that’s last year’s script, ladies and men.
I’m not sure if that’s awesome or terrifying.
Makes sense as he looks a touch Romulan.
Can Whitney play centre?
Most of this is true…except for your characterization of “knowledgeable discussions”.
Spent last week in hospital getting a tumour removed (no, not a brain tumour) so don’t have a whole lot of energy to respond when my bullshit meter gets pinned in the red.
But, I have been tracking what happens when Paajarvi touches the puck tonight…good thing he made that drive to the net because everything else has been an almost immediate turnover.
Oh don’t worry, I know you weren’t, lol.
I rarely visited HF, preferring OilFans till LT fired up. MJ is a close friend of mine, so I stayed there for a while, but the discussion here was far too good to avoid. Lots of posters here came from OF… Dennis used to write articles there. Miss the CIO boyz tho’, especially Latka Gravas, Vic Ferrari.
the injury situation is going to make surviving the 3rd very difficult.
oilers need at least a point out of this one, in order to maintain their shot at 3 for 5 in the second 5 game segment.
No, I think it’s more the Klingon ship from the sixth movie. You only know where he is if you see where the shot came from.
Captain Happy: Hope all is well.
dammit you’re right!
this explains so much.
I’m not going to race him. I’m going to put him out to stud.
Not sure how long I have been hanging out here, 4 years or something like that – its a blur, with a busy career, young kids, etc. its difficult to keep track of time.
I look forward to you becoming an Oiler fan again. Best of luck in getting back up to speed on the health front.
Well it’s been 2 horseshit calls per game so far so against Van I wouldexpect 1 more.
Alot of talk about horses tonight so I’ll add another: Lappiere is a horses ass
IOF. CIO was DMFB, Winterz, and Chris!.
Horcoff out. Frack!
Nothing holding VDV back now!
Nor House. Stupid Pouliot. He’d be next up!
RK had a chance to change the Nordics against the Sedins but waived it off. Interesting.
Smid on Sedin showing us what a first pairing defenseman looks like.
Oil showing their malaise again
missing Horcoff AND Belanger.
what the hell, man?
Absolutely, you’re right. Was trying to beat the edit time on my phone with that paragraph and went with the first acronym that popped to mind.
I’d characterize it as lassitude, personally.
Phil Esposito.
FFS stick MPS in the slot just to cause havoc.
has RNH always taped his stick white?
Finally Christ
That was a great shift by L2. They had a total over-match, but they took advantage of it.
Yakupov is such a splendid young talent and he’s just getting started. Lordy.
Bolshoi Beckons for Nail post-hockey career.
Whoa. Yakupov drew a penalty. I was starting to think the rulebook contains an “unless you’re obstructing a Russian rookie” clause on every rule this year.
Oilers need to get a PP goal here, folks.
Stupid game. Refs take 2 out of top 3 stars.
PS: Say…Dubnyk’s looking like a keeper, isn’t he?
Well there’s the dumb penalty of the game
Hemsky with a really nice block out and then gets the puck down the ice on the PK.
Having been through it twice myself and survived 11 years free now, I wish you all the pleasure and joy I’ve been blessed to have since and more.
Am I sick of seeing poke checks at the Van blue! Dump the dam puck
If the Oilers manage to establish themselves in the zone… I would be SO happy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_17RHGKNTY
Dubnyk would kick ass if he started channelling his inner Billy Smith.
Waters part for J Schultz…
Beastly effort by Hall.
Can’t believe Luongo stopped Eberle.
The nice thing about not getting any shots is that we’re keeping Luongo’s save percentage down.
Taylor Hall is a 454 and 50 miles of open blacktop.
Hall is the Blackfoot word for lightning.
Taylor Hall!
I think Smyth has quietly been our best forward tonight.
I love how they stop the play when its us!!!!!
Rebilled,
Ref wasn’t looking anywhere near the puck.
As much fun the skill lines can be, its great to see those muckers creating chaos around the opposition net.
Seriously, can someone work out a chart that proves Whitney is as big a liability as I think he is?
MacT keeps in good shape doesn’t he? maybe he can win a draw. They have lost every dam one this period
The Hall line is starting to pound the Canucks after playing them straight up all night. Holy crap people this is going to be a fun few years.
Makeup call for the Yak – Edler incident; good time to keep up PP appearances
i’ve heard worse ideas.
No passengers tonight, this is balls out hockey by the Oilers. They’re going to have to put Smyth in stasis until Wednesday.
Oilers need to utilize the point shot on the powerplay more. Just to change things up. They’re getting easier to defend against on the powerplay because they are sticking with the down-low play for attempts on net. Which don’t work unless you force the pk to spread out due to point play.
Tangent: I’d like to get a helmet moulded and painted to look like MacT’s hair circa 1990.
PP seems to be too cerebral lately.
not saying they need to shoot more but the passes need to be quicker.
Missed the Fistric injury – what happened?
No No No, RNH has won 3 and Gagner has 1 this period, lol.
David Staples in a column a few days ago suggested Nuge set things up on the PP from behind the net. Be worth a try.
Agreed … doesn’t seem to be much danger of a wicked point shot coming in for the other team to worry about…
He butt-checked the boards.
The boards got a bit too truculent and he taught them a lesson.
Typical.
Lol, I was typing the question, when does Van tie it.
Well, shit. Wanted to keep a point from them tonight.
There it is. Sigh.
Crap. You had a feeling, though.
Ouch… what’s the injury? hip?
NEED to at least get them to OT.
ahhhhhh. no!
I think OT favours us.
Oilers steal a Bettman pt.
And played a great game of hockey, against a superior team, for now.
Sedins look like Beavis. Or is it Butthead?
Now that we’ve gotten Magnus to initiate contact, maybe we can convince him to follow through. Just imagine what he could do if he leaned into his hits and put his weight behind them.
Paajarvi rewarded for a good game with a shift on L2 at the end of the period.
At least oilers trying in last 2 min. Hope it carries into OT
I’d say getting a point in this game is a big thing. Lots of character shown with the injuries.
Great point. I think RK likes that 4line.
Actually, it was two shifts, with Krueger shortening the bench going for the win, then the tie.
That’s DDs point there
got the point they needed.
need a win against Dallas to win the 5 game segment, but at least they’ve put themselves into position to do that.
You mean like he did in the first period? Looked good.
So many people assuming we’ve lost in here. This team is built for 4-on-4. (well, 2 lines anyway)
Hunter: I believe it’s grammatically correct to say the Canucks got the Bettman point. In a tie, the most recent team to score a goal gets the “Bettman point”.
Yak for the win?
What’s Nuge got to do to buy a goal this year? Geeze the kid’s gone Adam Oates with the goal scoring on us.
Oilers not finding any rebounds
If that shot by Hall had gone in, it would have been Crosby-like.
PENALTY SHOT!!!!!
Hallsy’s rockets finally earn us a lil’ somethin’-somethin’.
Penalty Shot!!
Does it count for his shot percentage, lol.
Damn Hall kicks in the nitro….
Penalty shot in OT. Wow.
Wow. Just wow. About everything.
Can anyone take it??
Hal’s time is now
come on, kid. One time
holy Hall
Bah, man that would have been awesome.
Yea that wasn’t exactly the triple deke….
crap. Still time.
Can you imagine if Hall had Eberle’s hands?? Unstoppable
Could eberle have taken that? Hall looked gassed
It was, but I think the first shift was more about fresh legs. The second one was definitely a reward, although Kruges generally protects 64 late in periods of tight games.
The universe would cease to exist, I think.
This team will learn to put their boot on the throats of their opposition eventually.
Canucks can trade Luongo any time now
Start the shootout with Yakupov/Hall, FFS!
Great game whatever the score. Whatever, Oilers get a point and the Flames are bravely holding 15th in the Conference.
Hilarious watching just how useless the rookie Yaks is, unless he’s scoring a goal lol.
Yak and Eberle… not my… nm.
Not really good game =/
Fuck.
Eberle looked exhausted on that shift.
Bah…good effort, short handed and all.
This team needs another NHL defenseman in the worst way
Feh.
Got a point at least?
Oh, those kids. They deserved better tonight. Tremendous battle, balls out. I’m proud of this bunch and that’s for sure.
Holy. Taylor Hall is incredible.
fuck.
Well, that was a pretty good game, Edmonton.
heartbreaker
64 in no man’s land there
Nice effort on the attempted block for Yak, but I’m glad it missed him instead of giving him a concussion.
Sad. Bad teams find a way to lose. The illusion of those first 1/2 dozen games is gone. Playoffs???? Playoffs!?! Ha!
This last minute BS is so tired.
Aww fuck. Still I liked what I saw tonight. Shots for and against were the big issue again, but this is a young team and they’re meeting the challenges with lots of mettle. Everyone has taken a step up in terms of the qualcomp they’re facing and some struggling is a reasonable expectation.
Dennis King @DKingBH
Final chance tally: 18-18; 2-3 ST
The Oilers are playing hockey. The wins will come. I don’t mind the growing pains as much now that they are actually playing hockey.
Kevin Bieksa has the kind of face that just begs to be hit until it stops looking so douchey.
ok. so they got a point.
so they just need to beat dallas on wednesday and they end up winning the second 5 game segment.
dammit.
Powerplay is what let the Oilers down today, imo. I know, Hemsky’s goal. But the other two were so.. bleh. had the opportunities. Good goaltending stymied us. That and the first line needs to shoot the bloody puck. Marvelous players to a man, but they need to put those on net to score.
Nah, its not that bad. This team has some depth issues–center is a problem and we know that–but they were playing the class of the division tonight. I’ll give you the Colorado game, they needed to be better.
But this game? If you walk away with anything, know that this team is going to be in some very good places.
And soon.
Did they deserve better? 25 shots vs 40.
Before you yell injuries, I’m just going to kindly point out that Kesler is probably worth more than Horc and Belanger combined.
Eberle and Yakupov ? You’re such a prankster Ralphie.
Would the Oilers have been 10% in the FO circle tonight?
Thinking there’s something up with Nuge. Injury we haven’t been told about maybe.