Tuesday, October 11, 2005

 

Win at home, split on the road, be happy.

Meh. A pretty uninspired game, overall. It looked like shinny out there for most of it. Lots of tired third-game-in-four-nights lazy penalties early on.

Jason Smith had a pretty nice game (3 hits 6! blocked shots), but few others really shone. Ty should have had two of those goals, but with the rest of the team only generating 4 shots in the third I'm not going to pin the loss on him. I actually thought he was pretty solid for most of the game.

A few thoughts:


Anyway, a 3-1-0 record after 4 is pretty darn nice.

I've no doubt that the energy will be back up on Friday. Dallas always generates some excitement in Rexall.

As always, more post-game thoughts are provided by the good people over at Covered in Oil.

Comments:

I heard an interesting discussion on Short's radio show about a month ago, and the gist of it was that it has long been felt in the Oilers organization that the BG doesn't do enough to protect his team. He just seems to lack the willingness to start things unless absolutely required. Short also said that the Oilers are just waiting for fans to turn on BG so that they can trade him. They can't do it until then because he is just too popular of aplayer.

When I first heard Short say that, I thought, "is he crazy?" Well, after tonight, I think Short may be on to something. Everyone knows that Avery pissed Georges off with his comments about French players, and it was also fairly evident that Avery was avoiding BG like the plague tonight. But Georges has to be more aggressive in his role. I thought the Oilers got beat up tonight, and that they never really responded to the challenge. As far as I am concerned, this game was lost to the Oilers the moment Gator got that 4 minute penalty against Avery. It never should have happened. Georges should have found his way to Avery and taken care of things. He also should have taken care of Dustin Brown, who kept going after Pronger without facing any reprecussions. Pronger actually asked him to go at one point (I could read his lips), but Brown just skated away. With a visor on, ironically. BG should have handled him too, even if it got him kicked out of the game. Personally, I think he should have skated in front of the Kings bench and challenged anyone to come out against him. Georges is best when he is setting the tone, whether it is a big fight or a big hit. He doesn't seem interested in much of anything right now, and that has me worried. The last thing this team needs is another Louie Debrusk. I understand that opponents are afraid of fighting BG, but they don't seem afraid of pushing the Oilers around. That needs to be rectified. Torres, Gator and Pronger shouldn't have to do it for Georges.

Watching the first three games, I felt that the Oilers were getting lucky on the PP. They were being very predictable in moving the puck out to the point, and they weren't moving their feet. The same happened tonight. There are too many point shots that are not getting through or missing the net, and there is too much play on the perimeter. Even when the D do hit the net, there is no one there for a rebound,because guys aren't skating and finding holes. I am willing to accept that the team was tired tonight, but I sure hope it doesn't continue.
 


I guess I can downgrade my accusations of Oilers nepotism since I already had guessed Buchberger was going to be the conditionaing coach. As you point out, Chad Moreau has a bunch of letters next to his name so that's good. He lives in LA though, which is weird.

I don't think the Oilers got pushed around at all. Presumably by all the blood over Avery's face someone got to him at the bottom of that dog pile in the second period. Gator dished out plenty of hits and the Kings looked silly avoiding fights all night. There's only so much Laraque can do, especially when he's on the ice for five minutes. Poor Georges, like a debutante all dressed up for the cotillion and he's got nobody to dance with.
 


Man, BG can't please anyone. Last game he gets aggressive and pops a Coyote in the head, and everyone jumps on him for taking a "selfish penalty".

Today, he's in trouble for not smacking folks.

I think the days of Tough-Guys fighting just to "set the tone" are gone. With the instigator penalty and the last 5 minute rule, starting a fight is getting pretty costly.
 


From this morning's San Jose Mercury:

'Edmonton came into the contest with five power-play goals in their past two games, but were shut out all six times they had the man advantage.

'"Hit their forwards that like to wheel around and not get touched. That was our plan," said defenseman Joe Corvo, who scored his first goal of the season in the first period.'

In other words, pretty much what Sacamano said.
 


Yep, I expect the book is out on the Oilers' powerplay. I'll be interested to see how Dallas plays it.

The good news is that if our guys ever do get good at handling the puck under pressure, there should be lots of holes as the d-men pull themselves out of position.

The zone is just too big these days to sit back and let people fire pucks at the net, but it is also too big to get really agressive.
 

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