Saturday, November 18, 2006

 

Oilers Game Day-Open Thread

Record: 12-5-1Record: 10-8-1
Preview

Comments:

Joey MacDonald is starting on goal for Detroit with Chris Osgood hurt. Stefan Liv will be the Red Wings backup, meaning Detroit's tandem has all of 45 mins NHL experience.
 


Heh... they've said Hasek won't serve in the backup role, and with Osgood hurt and Hasek having played last night in Calgary, I'm almost certain the youngsters get the call.
 


I hate to say it as an OilFan, but no name goalie = loss. When was the last time the Oilers beat a no name the first time around?
 


When they beat Vancouver and Dany Sabourin a few weeks ago.
 


Smyth gets a couple tonight and he'll lead the league in goals scored...wild huh?
 


That just means that a loss is more likely this time around. Here's hoping the Oilers find the holes and not the pads. GOILERS
 


The Oilers always seem to suck when they play the backup or third-string goalie. Let's hope that trend stops.

(didn't the Oil lose to Phoenix's backup goalie recently? Ugh that was embarrassing!)
 


Sabourin isn't a no-namer!

Erhm.

Sykora is going to light it up tonight.
 


Liv's SP in the AHL is .894 which is below Greg Stefan territory. Corrado Micalef lived in the 894 area code.

Wonder why they didn't call up Jimmy Howard?
 


Well, MacDonald is the third goalie and the one getting the start, so I'm guessing they wanted Howard to actually get the ice time with Grand Rapids.
 


3.9? fuck.
 


That shootout Torres goal is the funniest hockey thing i've seen in awhile.
 


I thought I saw him nodding his head kind of weird. Looked pretty soft on the replay, actually.
 


I just heard some postgame comments on the radio, and Raffi said he was shaking on his shootout goal. He was so nervous. Anyways, he got it done so thanks Raffi for finally showing up.

What a crazy game. I still hate the shootout. I vowed to always leave the game if the shootout occured, but tonight I stayed. I'm glad I did. I still hate it, but don't hate it so much when the Oilers actually win, which is rare.
 


At the beginning of the season those who were realistic about this team said they needed to stay in the race long enough to grab a defenceman or more likely two when other teams started to bail on the season.

We are a quarter of the season through, five more games at home, and within a stone's throw of the division lead. I think things are going as Lowe has planned.
 


Man, we saw it all tonight in the shootout- the Zetterberg Swedish one hander and the Torres chicken walk. Hell, if it works...

Looks like an epic BOA at home on Tuesday. Glad I am going.
 


Howabout some love for Roli's incredible glove save? Fuck, that was the most awesome thing I've seen in a while.

Also, I hope tonight's game helps Raffi get some of his confidence back. For a guy with such big hits, he's really fragile.
 


someone forgot to tell Smid that Roli is the only goalie in the league that doesn't want a defenseman to give him his stick.... did you see him yelling at him about it? he totally just knocked it aside then niether guy had a stick to blog that cleary pass.

roli isn't even very attached to his own stick.
 


We are 9th in Goals Against A Game, and 15th in Goals For. The PP is 21st, and we are 26th in Shots Per Game. Why is the defence more of a concern than the offence?
 


I think the offence is going to come Andy - I mean we're talking a team wide slump (except Smyth and Sykora) that lasted, what, 12 games or so. You know guys are going to start to score and unless you're willing to trade a couple of your streaky guys for a money in the bank scorer (PPG+) then I think we live with what we have. Besides, who are you going to trade for - they're not trading guys like Crosby, Ovechkin or Sakic.

I'm with you on the PP, all I want is some consistency. Four goals in one game every three weeks bumps up the % but I'd prefer a nice goal a game with the odd two spot.

But this team definitely needs a Dman or two if it really wants to make some noise.
 


The defense is part of the offense. I'm beginning to agree with all those bloody announcers...they need that breakout pass. They have such a hard time getting out of their own zone, so the offense is suffering as a result.
 


I remain unconvinced that the "breakout pass" is having that much of a qualitative effect on the offence. If that was the case, we'd still be doing damage when and if we did actually enter the opposing team's zone. Does anyone think, "right on, here we go, when we enter the offensive zone? I don't.

I'm just not seeing the defence as the problem with this team, especially at the offensive level. Like I said before, we're 9th in Goals Against A Game, and 15th in Goals For. Other teams worse than us in Goals For A Game:

16th-Dallas (Sergei Zubov)
18-Calgary (Dion Phaneuf)
19-Boston (Zdeno Chara)
20-FLA (Jay Bouwmeester)
21-Detroit (Nik Lidtsrom)
22-LA (Rob Blake)
25-PHX (Ed Jovanovski)

Those are all teams with a top tier defenceman, and they score less goals a game than we do. The two teams with the most goals a game this season: Buffalo and Carolina.
 


Defencemen are like pitchers Andy, you can never have enough. Ask the Sabres.

Seriously though this team is a Smith/Shaggy/Staios injury away from having their #2 pair being Smid and well, who? Take your pick. Greene? Bergeron? Hejda? Gilbert?

Now this is true of a few teams, like the Canucks for example, but if they you have a plethora of chips to trade and an obvious lack of depth in a certain area then I think you should address it.

The offence hasn't been all it could be but as I said - you've got how many guys in out and out slumps and a totally shit PP (part of problem 1 imo) - not sure if the PP will come around as long as Simpson is running it but you can see guys like Lupul and Horcoff looking like they're getting untracked. I think the offence will be alright.
 


I wasn't suggesting that the offence wouldn't be alright, just that it isn't playing extremely well so far, and that it has been more of a problem than the defence. I also agree that the defence may be a problem; I just don't see it right now.
 


I agree with you there - but I'm a man who's always thinking about the future, Andrew, you know that.

Yessir, Mr. Forward Thinker, that's what they used to call me in high school.

Uh Huh.

I can't believe how crappy the PP is - all I want is to know that its good for a goal a game. That's all. These 0 for 30 streaks are costing them points all over the place.

Cost them the Cup.

Getting bitter again.

Seriously though, how hard can it be?

Although before the St.Lou game when the Oilers were 23rd or whatever in PP% you know who was below them?

Vancouver who can throw out the Mattress line, Salo and Ohlund.

Detroit.

Ottawa.

How weird is that?
 


I guess you could say the Vaunt has more goals for than Calgary, but they have played 2 more games. Their goals per game is only marginally better than my team (and my team has no Vaunt.) If the Oil had not run up the score against the emotionally shattered Manny Legace, their goals for would be something like 20th.
 


If Calgary had won their first ten games, they'd have won their first ten games. What's the point with the "if"?
 

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