Monday, December 19, 2005
Two things...
...that the Oiler coaching staff has in common with Oilers fans:1. A desire for the Oilers to be successful
2. Not the faintest frickin' clue what to do with their goaltenders.
I can't find any word on who gets the start tonight; judging by the past, MacT and the gang will stick with Juicy Rebounds. As for the Flames:
The Oilers have had a tough time solving Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. In seven career games against the Oilers, Kiprusoff has a 4-1-2 record with a 0.99 goals-against average and .966 save percentage. This season, his GAA is even better at 0.60.
Life is pretty good with Kipper running the show. It's rather remarkable: not only has he avoided any lousy performances in the past month and a half, but I can't even think of any bad goals he's allowed. There was a couple (one against Columbus, I recall) where the puck took a funny bounce off the boards and made him look a little silly, but no long shots that eluded him, no losing sight of a puck in the crease, no mishandling, nothing.
Looking over the chatter on Oilfans.com, most contributors seem to have pinned their hopes for success tonight on Kipper, you know, maybe being due for a bad game. It'll happen one of these days, for sure, but I think he'll keep living rent-free in Edmontonians' heads for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Flames fans can relax knowing that whichever of Edmonton's three goalies start, he'll be petrified of making a mistake, knowing that he'll instantly go to #3 on the depth chart, at least until the process repeats itself in a game or two.
# posted by Matt @ 2:45 pm 
Comments:
No doubt about it. The goalie situation up here is ridiculous. That the Oilers have been able to put up such a decent record without having any idea who is their real goalie says much.
The Oilers have put up a decent record lately, mostly because they take every game they play to overtime and seem to be pretty good at turning ties into wins.
Maybe if they had a proper goalie they could close out some teams in regulation (and thanks tons for letting the Canucks get an extra point on Saturday night).
Anyway, no overtime tonight, the Flames will take care of business in regulation. It appears from Kipper's numbers that approximately 2 regulation goals would be enough to avoid overtime tonight. Iggy and Lombardi should be good for at least that many.
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No doubt about it. The goalie situation up here is ridiculous. That the Oilers have been able to put up such a decent record without having any idea who is their real goalie says much.
The Oilers have put up a decent record lately, mostly because they take every game they play to overtime and seem to be pretty good at turning ties into wins.
Maybe if they had a proper goalie they could close out some teams in regulation (and thanks tons for letting the Canucks get an extra point on Saturday night).
Anyway, no overtime tonight, the Flames will take care of business in regulation. It appears from Kipper's numbers that approximately 2 regulation goals would be enough to avoid overtime tonight. Iggy and Lombardi should be good for at least that many.
# posted by 
: December 19, 2005 4:49 pm
: December 19, 2005 4:49 pm Post a Comment
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