Too Little Too Late - Red Wings Hold Off Oilers in Win

This is an image from this website which sells sports merchandise. It's Bobby Orr's famous "DIVE." Kris Draper dives too, but that's because knows a thing about drawing penalties dishonestly. Bobby Orr would frown on you, Draper.

The exaggeration from Samuelsson and Draper, combined with the officiating at tonight's game whioch was plain atrocious, made for a gong-show, phantom penalty filled afair. Most of the Oilers actually played really well tonight except for M.A. Pouliot. Best Oilers tonight were Souray, Hemsky and Staios. I was at the game courtesy of Suneil Parmar of Addicted to Oil. David Staples was there, and so was Danny On, Jermine Paglicauan, and Travis Yano (alphabetically).

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Suneil Parmar, David Staples, and myself all agreed right before the game that Roloson would not play well and it was Garon's turn in net. It took a while, but our prediction came true. The long-established rules of (1) don't give the same team two consecutive looks at the same goalie and (2) don't play Roloson more than 3 or 4 games in a row were not dutily followed by MacTavish. Not that we doubt Roli or anything. But common sense would indicate that Garon should've got the start.

The story of the game was that the officiating was horrendous. Phantom calls were made everywhere and calls that should've been made weren't. And don't tell me there were 7 penalties for each team - just because the numbers are even doesn't make the officiating fair. Save that for the NFL.

Here's a quick summary of the officiating B.S. tonight:

Stuart cross-checking on the back of someone's head NOT CALLED

Detroit D-man boarding on Hemsky NOT CALLED

Penner's "slash" on the Detroit D-man's hockey stick nowhere near his hands, gloves, or body, which resulted in Penner's stick exploding and not the opponents CALLED SLASHING

Draper holding the stick on Reddox CALLED HOOKING

Draper interfering with Moreau and holding him down away from the play CALLED ROUGHING

Not to mention the Oilers had bad luck tonight. Dump-ins were hitting linesmen. The puck had two bad careems off the boards - one that barely missed the Detroit net and one that ended up right on an open Hudler's stick for a goal.

Roloson had 7 saves and despite the poor save percentage had no chance on some of the goals. Not to mention the wicked glove save he made through traffic despite being screened.

The Oilers need to MOVE GUYS OUT FROM IN FRONT OF THE NET. Yes, I'm talking to you Strudwick. First the Samuelsson goal on Monday and now the Kopecky goals tonight.

The Oilers have a bad habit of being too nonexistant on penalty kills. I know MacT and Huddy have the "let them pass it around the perimeter" strategy going strong on most nights, but it's simple hockey to get into passing lanes and to not let guys get set up in front of your net. Even if you let them stand there, it should just be the illusion of a passing lane.

Watch the Detroit PK and learn.

Another thing is that Detroit is really good at staying on-side. It's not something that involved great skill to do. After you pass it to a guy trailing the play (because you're getting forechecked in the neutral zone) skate laterally and stay behind the blue line until the puck crosses the line. The little twirl the Oilers do near the blue line actually puts us off-side more often than not.

Ryan Smyth was good at this: he'd pass it off, skate parallel to the blue line, then turn and crash the net hard after the puck gained the zone. This way, he could keep his speed but stay on-side at the same time.

It was a particularly good perforance from Hemsky and Souray, but they too had some bad plays during the game.

Souray lets too many guys skate around him on icing plays and without communication to Gilbert allowed an icing call to be beat by a forechecking Detroit player. He needs to be aware of the guys coming down the wing behind him and communicate with Gilbert.

Hemsky, during the extended powerplay late in the third, had a chance to dump it deep and make a safe play. I understand that the Oilers had come storming back and he was feeling it, I suppose. But that was a poor decision trying to dangle the puck through 3 Detroit Red Wing sweaters. He did make Niklas Lidstrom look foolish a couple of times though.

Another thing: turnovers. The Oilers need to simplify their game. For a team that can barely get out of their own zone the last thing they need to do is make cute passes to nobody and turn it over to the Detroit Red Wings - of all teams.

Simple rules for dumping the puck into the opposition zone not being carried out by the team:
(1) no puck support: dump it into an empty corner where there aren't any players
(2) with puck support: dump it into an area where your supporting man can fight for the puck and then support him back the way he supported your puck dump by getting open or trailing him along the boards

In neither case should the puck go straight to the opposition D-man. This happened several times tonight. And when we dump and chase, there is little to no puck support. How is a cycle supposed to start up with everyone along the same half boards? We need the team to start helping their fellow teammates out.

When the puck goes straight to the opposition D the puck comes back the other way instantly and your man gets caught chasing a puck dump that doesn't exist.

Simple rules for dumping the puck out of the defensive zone not being carried out by the team:
(1) do not ram it around the boards with a man pinching on the point (Reddox is particularly good at following this rule)
(2) do not pass it up the middle in front of the net out of your zone
(3) do not make a cute backhand pass towards the middle high slot when on the half boards

These simple turnovers can kill any team's momentum, especially in your own zone.

Simple rules for playing on powerplays not being carried out by the team:
(1) cycling the puck down low works - cycling the puck when there are opposition guys along the boards doesn't
(2) do not pass it back to the point when the D-man is getting hounded by a backchecker (Penner needs to be aware of this)
(3) (if you're not Souray or Visnovsky) shoot the puck low so that there are more rebounds

These are all simple things that I thought everyone who watched hockey knew. But Horcoff, Gagner and Nilsson, though they played decent games, did not execute simple plays when the opportunity presented itself. They choose to do little spins and cycle it forever until the Red Wings cleared their zone.

The Red Wings are so fearless of the Oilers forecheck and backcheck that even Hossa tried to lay a big hit on Brodziak. They are that unconcerned about their defensive zone coverage.

Props to the Oilers for making it close against the defending cup champs. But "too little too late" is a tune that gets old fast. It's time to start coming through on games where you need to make a statement as a team.

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Pictured above are Suneil Parmar and David Staples. I was surprised too when I found out in real life they were really Zdeno Chara and Chuck Norris, respectively. Who woulda thought.

Keep it a secret between you and me, though.

Red Wings @ Oilers Preview; Smid on LW

This is Steve Staios as a Vancouver Canuck. He is seen playing RW here. The Oilers will be hosting the Red Wings tonight. Full preview here and here.

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Besides Strudwick, Staios' main D-partner has been Ladislav Smid, who happens to be playing on LW tonight against the Red Wings. Out of all the D-men, Staios has the most experience at the F-position. MacBlender has played with the D-man @ F-position idea before, suggesting Souray and Staios among others.

And he has played them there before. Staios (RW/D) a few times. MacIntyre (LW/D) the entire time.

Smid is among the defenseman more prone to rush the puck and keep it in the opposition zone. He hasn't done it often enough to get consistent results from doing it, but we will see what chemistry he has with it tonight. According to the Oilers web site, he hasn't done it since he was in grade 3. Not along history of success.

Now, the Oilers ripped up the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday with 7 goals on 19 shots. The Red Wings will most certainly outshoot the Oilers in much the same fashion as on Monday and as the Blue Jackets did on Tuesday and one wonders what kind of affect this will have on the team chemistry by moving Smid up.

There is also the possibility that the Columbus win was a fluke, considering Leclaire just returned from a high ankle sprain. But the Oilers have a chance tonight to (A) prove it wasn't a fluke and (B) get redemption for the Conklin shutout loss.

Here is the perceived lineup from comments on the Oilers web site:

Moreau-Gagner-Hemsky
Penner-Horcoff-Cole
Nilsson-Cogliano-Stortini
Smid-Brodziak-Pouliot

Souray-Visnovsky
Gilbert-Grebeshkov
Strudwick-Staios
(with short instances of 37-71 and 77-44)

Dwayne Roloson *starts
Mathieu Garon

Liam Reddox is a healthy scratch. Which makes me wonder why he isn't playing on the wing instead of Smid, but I guess MacT thinks Smid brings more spunk than Reddox. Whether that spunk will be useful, we will see.

Expect Penner to have a huge game.

I will be Live with hockey master-statistician Suneil Parmar of Addicted to Oil and we might meet up with hockey journalist-philosopher David Staples of Cult of Hockey.

See you there.

GOILERS!

Goaltending, Getting Outshot, and "Scoring at Will"

Since last season (even before the shoulder injury), Shawn Horcoff has found a new home on the right side faceoff circle where he one-times everything Ales Hemsky throws at him. And apparently, he's pretty good at it.

It's mid-November and by now we're familiar with the fact that the Oilers get outshot in most games. Our goaltending has not been a problem this season thus far but the goaltending rotation has been - with 3 guys raring to prove their worth to the organization and each having played well and played poorly in separate stretches.

Will Garon start against Detroit in the rematch? Roloson has been playing well as of late and he will undoubtedly want a chance at redemption but traditionally when you play a team twice in a short time span you alternate goaltenders.

But now I must pose the question of whether getting outshot all the time is a "good thing" for the Edmonton Oilers, or whether its a "bad thing."

Good goaltending and timely goals
VS
Good goaltending and scoring at will

Edmonton @ Columbus - 11/18/08 w/ 7-2 WIN
The Oilers handed the Blue Jackets their own livers on a plate yesterday night when they beat them 7-2. Regardless, we were outshot 39-19 in this game - a total of 20 shots difference. This is an example where we simply outscored the opponent and featured superior goaltending. Penner was unleashed and the rest of the team including Pouliot and Gilbert came around and played great hockey.


Colorado @ Edmonton - 10/12/08 w/ 3-2 WIN
This game was considerably closer and the Oilers beat the season opener against the AVs with a heckuva performance from Penner. Garon played great in this game and simply kept the Oilers in it, being outshot 33-19. The secondary scoring was not around in this game, as Penner and Garon singlehandedly won this game.

Edmonton @ Detroit - 11/17/08 w/ 4-0 LOSS
The Oilers were outshot 41-21 - a total of 20 shots difference, in this game against the Red Wings, the night before the Columbus game. Except in this version, they don't score 7 goals - in fact, they don't manage one. Perhaps getting shut out by Conklin was enough, or whether the ass-whooping itself was enough to let set the team free. Who knows. The fact is that Roloson was hung out to dry against the defending champs in this game.

Two other links:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=256461

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=256416

Conclusions:

The Edmonton Oilers are outshot in most games

The Edmonton Oilers play better when Dustin Penner has a good game

The Edmonton Oilers have good goaltending (given consistency as a prerequisite to personal success)

The Edmonton Oilers cannot afford to allow the Detroit Red Wings the space to outshoot them by 20 or more

Good goaltending doesn't always win games

That being said, there is still no answer as to whether the Oilers have been scoring timely goals or whether they are starting to finally "score at will." The next game against the Detroit Red Wings and subsequent games, whether or not we outshoot or get outshot by our opponents, will determine the answer.

Let's hope that this Columbus game is a sign of things to come.

GOILERS!

Conklin Shuts Out Decrepit Oilers 4-0

I'm so disappointed after this game I don't know what to say. I haven't felt this way about our Oilers since we went on that crazy post-Smyth-trade winless streak.

Oil Country is hurting and hurting bad.

More later tonight when I can form coherent sentences without f-words in them.

Steve MacIntyre

Steve MacIntyre says he will be working on his other skills. Until we know what those are, we definitely brings these skills to the table:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDkc6AodB18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti9oQifLcr4

Now the question is... can he skate well and play Oiler brand hockey at an NHL level? Since the answer is probably (but not definitely) no... one would imagine MacT and company would make him their project, as they have with Schremp and Stortini. Oilersnation is reporting that he skated on a line with Schremp and Brule at practice.

I liked this one quote from Robin Brownlee at 9:17 PM:

You’re stretching it a bit — a lot — when you say the Red Wings have never needed someone to take out the trash when they’ve had the likes of Bob Probert, Joey Kocur and Darren McCarty around, but your point is valid.

The problem is most teams don’t have the talent to consistently make opponents pay for being stupid by lighting them up on the power play. The Red Wings have that option, so they’ve done very well without having a tough guy for a decade now.

If the Oilers can climb into the top five on the power play, turning the other cheek becomes an option, but when you’re in the bottom 10 AND you don’t have a tough guy to keep teams honest, you’re screwed. You need one deterrent or the other.

Very insightful.