OILERS AT AVALANCHE G8 (12-13) 2.2.13
The Edmonton Oilers are 1-0-1 on this three game road trip and inside the top 8 in the western conference. Its much too early for us to be thinking playoffs, but a 4-2-1 record is a very nice start for a terribly young team with no track record for winning.
OFFENSIVE ZONE STARTS
Now that we’re 7 games in (after today, the Oilers will have played 1/6 of their season!) this chart looks MacTavian in nature. Kids with bullets get the push, older men with less offensive weapons but the experience of war getting the longer road.
CORSI REL
Big improvement in Corsi Rel from the last listing: Nail Yakupov, Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner, along with the Petrell. Major downturns include Paajarvi and Hartikainen.
PICARD AND DATHON AT EL-ADREL
I think the item we’re going to talk about down the stretch–and the item we’re going to be hammering on in the summer–will be “Picard and Dathon at el-adrel” and I do wonder if Ryan Smyth and Shawn Horcoff can fill this role on a championship team.
Please understand, I think Horcoff and Smyth represent the very best of the 2000′s Oilers and would dearly love for them to be part of a championship team. I also think this Oiler team could enter the window of opportunity fairly quickly–they have so much elite level talent under 24–and the usual problems are the usual problems.
If Ryan Smyth and Shawn Horcoff could combine with a Daniel Winnik to form that low-event, tough-minutes trio that we know an NHL team needs, then Hallelujah that’s one more hurdle in the past. I don’t know it to be true, guess we’ll find out.
Horcoff’s zone start/corsi rel is encouraging, Smyth’s death defying. It’s early.
The Qual comp numbers are here and the 5×5/60 numbers are here. Once again my sincere thanks to Gabriel Desjardins and behind the net. It’s the window for adults to enjoy hockey on another level.
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Among the names who might be interesting trade acquisitions this spring is Dustin Penner. The big man is in the doghouse out on the coast and is on a one-year deal. By the deadline the Oilers should have a better idea of:
- where Teemu Hartikainen fits in the top 9
- if Paajarvi fits at all
- if Eager can perform despite the concussion history
- if they’ve finally figured out Darcy Hordichuk’s too expensive just for the roster spot
and adding a guy like Penner would give them a nice option for the top and bottom 6. I admit to always liking Penner (he scored such a sweet goal one night I was in the Journal suite–it was right in front of me) and he’s miles from being a spent force (he is 30). Can’t imagine he costs much, bet MacT would have nice things to say. 
He’s a poor man’s Frank Mahovlich. That’s still a damn good hockey player.
Oilers need to find a way to win this one. Not end of the world if they don’t, but gotta win as many of these divisional games as possible, especially ones against a hobbled team.
That was brutal.
Feels like a Oilers game from 5-8 years ago. Nobody doing much except Hemsky.
You mean early ’00s Oilers game, right? Hemsky isn’t THAT old. 13 years ago he was 16!
Edit: Damn you.
To be fair though, Dubnyk is helping out!
This game has felt like an endless penalty kill. Will the Oilers ever leave their defensive zone?
Lucinius: yeah, I had that same thought then hit the edit button.
Nuge doing nice work defensively. Duchene had nothing against him.
I think the Oilers lose here, but that first period might have been more productive (but it didn’t happen). They look done here. Another fine effort by Dubnyk, but the Avalanche have come close to making it 3-1 and unless there’s a miracle I suspect they will.
This is probably going to come down to fatigue, bad luck, and NBA officiating.
I think the biggest thing that bothers me is that, sure, the lack of calls are hurting us this game, but the reffing has just been appalling in general league wide almost every game I’ve watched. Whether it is the Backes call or some of the no-goals that have happened, it’s just been really terrible. It’s hurting us this game, but it could just as easily be us on the receiving end (and likely will be some games). But the seeming capriciousness of it all is pretty distressing for me as a fan. I can’t imagine how it is to be on the ice dealing with it.
Nice miracle que. Now all we gotta do is wait.
Well.. can only blame the officials so much. We’ve had a couple powerplays and couldn’t cash. The first line has had chances, but couldn’t cash. It happens, just unfortunate.
We seem to benefit when the refs are getting their money’s worth out of their whistles. When they’re not calling anything we always seem to get the short end of the stick.
If we win it, it’s either the fourth line or Hemsky doing it.
They look beat. Nuge is snake bit
Call for the lucky bounce.
RNH… you can’t shoot that right into the goalie.
Oh my goodness what a bullet by Gagner.
Good play by Gagner to get a decent SH shot off but not cause the play to come back the other way with the Avs having numbers.
could really use Jones or PRV in this situation rather than Hordichuk.
Sadly, Oilers will see more powerplays when they learn to better sell them.
Well I guess something is really amiss hey DSF lol ya right.
Hulk Smash, Nail Shoot.
What a wicked shot.
I’d suggest RNH has trouble shooting because he plays with such a short stick; it gives great stickhandling and passing but terrible velocity/precision.
Pat Lafontaine, Adam Oates etc
Yes!!!
Better be a penalty.
Well, about time one of these calls goes the Oilers’ way.
Massive chance for the Oilers now. Urgency, men!
It’s a stupid rule, but I’ll take it.
Mcginn is a hack.
Now we get to see if the Oilers have enough talent to salvage a point out of a game they have no business being in.
Faceoff violation against the other team, well that’s a new one
gotta score here
If the story about him switching sticks this season is true, he needs to switch back. He has missed the net from inside 15 feet a ridiculous amount this season.
Three horrible passes in a row by Hall.
Ah well, young teams. They go up, they go down.
That answers that.
well shit
1-1-1 on the road trip. I’d have taken it all day before the trip, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.
no
Not often you see Eberle hesitate with the goalie half-down and then take it behind the net.
Onetoomanypass-itis
To me it looked like the kids were hung-over.
Avs suck
Attaboy Yak.
Oilers need a tie and a win at home in the next 2. that’ll keep them at 3 wins per 5 games.
dammit. this team needs to win this game.
Winnable game out the window. Ugh. Well, shit happens, and this’ll happen again. Just hard to see. We needed that first line to score one today and they couldn’t, whether 5v5 or 5v4. Is it just me or has our powerplay been returning to the average in a hurry the last while?
Oh well.
At least Dubnyk had a great game, as did Hemsky.
Nail already has less fear and more aggression than Paajarvi.
these kids have a hard time playing well after a good game. they beat phoenix and compete with the sharks so they think they can win without trying hard against the more average teams. i don’t mind the scores so far this season, San Jose home opener excluded, but the shots have to be a worry.
also it drives me nuts when the oilers try to force passes where there are none , like Hall to j Schultz in the middle of that last power play, just throw away 20 seconds of pp time.
What bothered me most about that powerplay near the end of the game was tossing the first unit out there to start it, given how the game had gone. Start it with the second unit, as they had played better the entire game.
This is a bad hockey team. Two reasons:
First, the third and fourth lines are populated by AHL quality players. They never, ever, ever, create scoring chances. They are completely useless. In many ways the existence of Lennert Petrell is everything that is wrong with the Oilers. He has no business playing in the NHL but the the Oilers and their fans somehow think he has value.
Second, Ryan Whitney is terrible at hockey.
There isn’t a lot of hope right now. Hall and Eberle are already forces of nature. You can’t expect any improvement there. Hemsky and Gagner are playing near their maximum ability. No improvement there. Justin Schultz might be their best player. No improvement there.
Other than a 19 year old Yakupov who is a disaster at everything except for shooting and the overated Hopkins there isn’t anybody on the team who might play better than they already are.
This team needs real NHL players desperately.
CO: Should rename yourself to captain negative.
Captain Obvious,
Was that your post game hunter impersonation?
Playoff bound teams tend to win games that are winnable. This was such a game. Oilers are still a work in progress, of course, but with a short season there isn’t much time to correct things.
I knew it would be very much not likely that they would hold third in west. But I really really want them to be in the playoffs atleast this year.
Doesn’t look like Rome will be built in 48 games either.
I tought having Smyth out there in the dying seconds was assanine.
FPB94,
The sad thing is the window might close next year. Eberle and Hall are near their peaks now, Hemsky in his last year and no cap space to add complimentary players.
They miss Ryan Jones and Shawn Horcoff.
WHAT?
Ok first off if you think Hall Eberle and Schultz cannot improve at the age they are that just shows you know nothing about hockey. Nugent Hopkins being overrated is just laughable. You are nothing but a good TROLL DSF.
He be troooollin’
He hatin’
More trollin’
Trying to get us postin’ dirty
Oh, I get it now.
Captain Happy is DSF when he tells us how good Minnesota, St Louis, Vancouver (but apprently not Florida) are.
Captain Obvious is DSF when he tells us how bad the Oilers are.
Way to mix it up.
Wow… some TROLLS try to actually add something intelligent (though always negative). You sir, do an excellent job of looking ridiculous…
To suggest that HALL/EBERLE have peeked?!?!? and RNH is overrated? What planet are you on and have you actually watched/followed hockey… ever?
Well played though. Post such asinine comments after a poorly played game by the Oil always gets more of a rise and allows you to point out a HUGE sample size of… one game?!?!
LOL no Kidding hey at the top of his lame shtick too. Wow just wow DSF
Marc,
Very insightful! How someone has the dedication to post under three different names is impressive…
I must admire his dedication. He must truly hate (and fear?) the Oil.
This whole bizarre thing is just slapstick-like,
The Oilers didn’t seem to have as much zip today in the third, and the Oilers never do in afternoon games. Going back decades.
3rd game in 4 days at altitude does make a difference but the should have been able to handle the Av’s with 4 players missing in their top 6.
If DD doesn’t play well, could have been a blowout.
Agreed. Adding up afternoon game, bad luck around the net and everything else, without Dubnyk its a 4-1 game without an empty netter.
Omark: Leading scorer in the Swiss League.
Other day, check out move he pulls on a breakaway:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/linus-omark-scores-chip-move-swiss-league-video-165642063–nhl.html
Omark is a beauty. When he wins the Stanley with Detroit, I’m going to drink all the liquor.
Zharkov with a goal and an assist tonight.
Man, is he ever streaky.
He could be something if the light bulb ever goes on (or stays on). Size, skill, can play a physical game when he wants to. Definitely not the sum of his parts yet though, and looking a lot like a guy who may never be. Still just 40-15-10-25 with those points tonight. Round numbers are nice, but he’s even behind last years pace.
Might as well just accept it, eh? Decades of data but nothing to change the pattern. Oh well, just have to learn to live with it.
Since when do kids get tired? They’re kids. They don’t get tired and they don’t wear coats in the winter.
In a compressed schedule vs. only the super-competitive West, our roster weaknesses will be exposed from time to time.
Such as being paper-thin at center throughout the system, weakness in the bottom six, and questions with our goalies. Only Dubnyk has made that look different so far.
Hartikainen needed to bury at least one of those pucks on his stick in the crease. I wonder if Paajarvi would have… The rest of his game so far has been pretty good NHL bottom-six level, but he either lacks skill around the net or can’t use those skills under pressure, which you kind of need to have with your big net crashers. Maybe extended practice with Smyth is in order.