Crapshoot Summary

First Period: Detroit 5 - Edmonton 0

The Oilers skate around like a bunch of headless chickens on skates. They don't anticipate - they react. In no way do they dictate any aspect of the game, as the Red Wings dominate them offensively, defensively, and physically. They win all the battles for loose pucks and almost all their passes are tape to tape and they crash the net at every available opportunity.

On the other side of the ice are the Oilers: who wouldn't know a pass if it hit one of them; flinging pucks into danger zones and turning offensive chances into defensive liability; making blind passes to players who aren't there; passing off what could be clear shots and potential rebounds. Nobody on this team (save Hemsky, Cogliano, and Cole) cuts to the middle - nobody crashes the net. Same old ring around the rosie along the boards in the offensive zone. Nothing doing - nothing happening.

Second Period: Detroit 6 - Edmonton - 0

The Oilers begin to win puck battles and start to take the puck to the middle and crash the net. Still too many fancy passes that don't go to anybody on the same team - if you're going to try to "thread the needle" make sure the pass goes to somebody.

The increased intensity and attention to detail on offensive breakouts means the Oilers show to compete in the second period.

However, the Oilers still give up a goal near the end of the period.

Third Period: No thanks!

I turned it off at this point. It's like watching a slow and gruelling boxing match that is heavily lopsided in favour of a one competitor. The loser is good enough not to get knocked out, but has no weapons of their own to fight back with. As a result, the loser gets pounded and pounded until his own mother wouldn't recognize him. In this case, it's a 60-minute obligation to play through a hockey game where the Oilers never really showed up.

The Summary:

When you react and don't anticipate (or dictate!) the other team will always pick you apart. Doesn't matter if you're playing Detroit, San Jose, Buffalo, Chicago, or Florida. Doesn't matter if your the Oilers, the Rangers, or the Stars. The game plan was non-existent, another reminder that the Oilers under MacTavish will always be a fringe team because their place in the standings reflects their play on the ice - inconsistent and without purpose, without meaning, without intensity.

I don't care if the Oilers lose - but it's the way they've been losing: listlessly; apathetically; sleepwalkingly (is that even a word? It sure describes the Oilers...).

The Oilers play on the fringe - pass it around on the outside without taking it to the net. Without Hemsky or Visnovsky, the Oilers will usually avoid taking it to the middle, hoping that somehow Souray's point shot will aways turn into something - anything! But often that added pressure to the point shot just forces Souray to turn the puck over either directly or as a ill-advised pass to the man along the half-boards or to the other point man who is probably not open at this point in time.

This fringe personality - it's directly a result of playing a 60-minute penalty kill where the Oilers react - and don't anticipate. It's also directly a result of the coaching staff mentality - because with the quality of players we have on this roster, no fricken way we should performing this poorly. Fire MacTavish already.

However, I'm beggining to think that unless the Oilers lose hardcore, the boys on the bus will never be kicked out of town. They're so entrenched in their safe little jobs that poor performance means a promotion to another position within the franchise (aka. Kelly Buchberger, Kevin Lowe, Jeff Truitt is next) and that's probably what's due for Craig MacTavish. Honestly, nothing will change until the day Daryl Katz gets fed up with this administration - but will he ever be?

The Good News

Niklas Kronwall, Pavel Datsyuk, and Ty Conklin are in my pool. It's sad when your favourite team loses and you're already calculating the amount of points you're going to get in your pool because of it ...

3:10 Update ...

So the only Oiler to get a goal is Zachery Stortini...

Disgusting

This is Mike Ricci. The only thing uglier than Mike Ricci, in the entire game of hockey, past, present or future, is this Oilers squad and their poor excuse for what would normally be called puck control. A perfect example was this ridiculously disgusting 9-2 loss to Chicago.

This wasn't a hockey game. This was the Oilers - a highly paid bunch of skilled players parading around on a 60 minute penalty kill with no consistency, intensity, or desire.

The Oilers came off of a 3-0 win against Vancouver, the Northwest division leaders, on Saturday night. Craig MacTavish called it the Oilers best game of the season.

I recommend he get his eyes checked.

Let's keep it in perspective here. The Vancouver Canucks very blatantly went on air and called it their worst game of the season. I think they're right. They have been handing our asses to us so far this season and they will continue to do so the next time we meet them. Roberto Luongo is still injured. Two of the goals against Curtis Sanford were somewhat flukey. The Dustin Penner goal was the result of hard work but easily could have been a routine save 99% of the time. The Robert Nilsson goal was a classic cherry pick and even he admits (TSN) that he had no idea what he was doing back there.

No offense to Bobby Nilsson, but the Canucks passed the puck right to him.

Subtracting those two flukey goals, we're sitting at a 1-0 win without Roberto Luongo in net. What's the score if he's in net? 0-0 going into a shootout?

Furthermore, if we can't outscore the Canucks by more than 1 legitimate goal with the Saviour Luongo himself out of the lineup, there's no way we will win games when we play a team with their #1 goalie in net and playing on top of their game.

We saw that tonight against Chicago.

What's the difference you ask?

Let's see here...

needless panic - sometimes the safe play is the easiest play

wayward passes: if your passes don't go to someone, they're not going anywhere except the other way as an odd-man rush into your own goddamn zone

we're chasing the puck, not playing the man

we're going where the puck is - not where the puck is going to be

the penalty kill continues to be atrocious

no intensity, no desire, no anything

we're not skating - just watching Sam Gagner and Ethan Moreau turn the puck over inside our own blue line makes me sick to my stomach

not challenging passing lanes: we're not only screening Garon and Roloson, we're also letting people pass the puck in circles around us

hitting to hit - not hitting to gain possession of the puck: if you're playing physical without using it as a means to the end (acquiring the puck) you're just wasting energy and time

we're not utilizing our team mates well: guys are chasing their own dump-ins, and their linemates are trailing badly and not providing any puck support whatsoever leading to clumping and odd-man rushes in the opposite direction

and why are guys beating us to loose pucks in our own D-zone?

Trust me. We did not beat the Canucks because we played well nor did we lose to the Blackhawks because of their stellar play. Let's be honest here. The Oilers have no puck control, no puck support, panic more often than they should, and make outlet passes to nobody. We played bad against the Blackhawks and the Canucks played worse on Saturday.

Nor is the team using common sense. MacTavish sat Penner for parts of the third and opted to play Cole on the 1st line again.

Remember? That experiment failed miserably. It's not like it's Penners fault that the Oilers suck. You can't put him back in the pressbox and expect the whole team to haul ass.

The same goes with putting Gagner back on the 2nd line. Last time I checked, people get benched for lack of performance. But no, on this Oilers team, you split up lines that play well in favour of the poster boy Gagner. We had a line which was producing - the Schremp-Cogliano-Pouliot line - remember them? Gagner couldn't keep up with the Cogliano's and Nilsson's if his life depended on it. When MacTavish started playing the kid line against tougher competition this season it became clear which component on that 3-piece line was underperforming: Sam Gagner. Cogliano and Nilsson have both seen time on other lines and performed. Gagner hasn't performed anywhere this season. Bench his ass.

But hey, if we're gonna play like this for the rest of the season, let's just trade away our pending UFAs and sit tight until Jonathan Tavares is ours. Otherwise, fire this whole defunct administration which has no clue when it's time to pull the trigger, starting with Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish.

That is, unless you want to watch more peewee crap like this for the rest of the season, because I'm sick of watching the Craig MacTavish's, Kelly Buchbergers, and Kevin Lowes get promotions for mediocrity.

P.S. I'm sorry I had to do that Oilers, but it had to be said. Fire your coach and move on.
P.P.S. Ales Hemsky, Lubomir Visnovsky, and Ladislav Smid played well tonight, on a night that will go down as the worst game the Oilers played in recent history.



"It was the 125th consecutive regular season game to sell out in Edmonton."

How much longer?

Intensity

Gagner crashing the net - now that's intense.

There's a couple of players who need a little more intensity on this team:

Gagner

Brodziak

Strudwick

Penner

Penner was playing very well after MacTavish called him out. He scored a goal against Vancouver, but for the most part has been a bit sluggish with the puck. Strudwick's fighting is a plus but as a forward he needs to get in on the forecheck and frustrate his opponents. Often times I see him hanging back when he should be pressing. But I also noticed this of Smid when he was playing F. A natural consequence of filling dual roles of F and D, I guess.

What happened to the Gagner of 2007? If he can't find his scoring game right now I would suggest he should do more of the little things to get back on track:

throw the body to frustrate his opponent

crash the net

score on the empty net

That last one is a bit cheesey - I know it depends on MacT putting him out there to defend a lead in the dying minutes, which probably wouldn't happen.

Gagner's no Esa Tikkanen, but just because he's not producing on the scoreboard doesn't mean he should get frustrated - he should take it out on the other team.

And good things come to those who crash the net. Rebounds. Deflections.

And perhaps, with some confidence, we can see the same Gagner who was deking out opponents last year.

Maybe.