Edmonton - Calgary postgame: @#$%^&*
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 25, 2009 2:30 AM MDT
in Game Reports
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PrintWell that was fun. Not.
Oilers have a hard enough time handling the Flames at full strength, but down a few guys to an injury bug and a few more to a flu bug the squad was more than a few "actual NHLers" short of the task at hand. Throw in two Calgary goals scored immediately after Flames infractions went uncalled and yet another video review going Calgary's way and obviously it was not to be the Oilers' night.
The game had a few good things:
- Jarome Iginla was held in check for the third straight game against the Oilers (3 GP, 0-1-1, 6 penalties, 15 PiM), and was flattened by a great Zack Stortini hit to the chest which resulted in Iginla taking a retaliatory penalty. Some think Zorg's hit was a microsecond late -- I don't, it was less than one steamboat -- but so what if it was. At least he hit him face to face which is a lot more than lginla can say about his dangerous hit on Sheldon Souray last time out which still has last season's leading goal scorer sidelined with a nasty concussion.
- Lubomir Visnovsky scored a beauty powerplay goal and played well at evens, with the Oil outshooting Calgary 11-3 when he was out there.
- Shawn Horcoff played perhaps his best game of the season, going 15/23, 65% on the dot, dishing the puck effectively, blocking shots, and ringing a drive off the post. Guy can't get a bounce just now, but his game is coming around.
- Stortini played 16:28 (a career high by more than 3 minutes) and was a thorn in Calgary's side, drawing three Oiler power plays in addition to thumping Iginla. He was a very unlucky -2 on the night, twice being an innocent bystander on Gilbert-Grebeshkov miscues.
- Taylor Chorney spent much of the night looking like an honest-to-goodness NHL defenceman.
... but more that weren't so good:
- Tom Gilbert had a dreadful night, coughing up the puck frequently, making poor decisions, shying away from physical contact. His -2 was all-too-well deserved. I wound up almost hoping he does have the flu, he sure needs an alibi of some sort.
- Denis Grebeshkov wasn't a whole lot better. Oilers were outshot 7-1 at evens with Gilbert on the ice, 9-2 with Grebeshkov. That doesn't include the shortie the pair allowed.
- "Flame killer" Nikolai Khabibulin lost to the Flames for the third time in three weeks. Calgary has lit him up for 12 goals. It's hardly all his fault, but he did not have a strong game tonight.
- Andrew Cogliano went 2/13, 15% on the dot, and Oilers were outshot 10-1 at evens while he was out there.
- Robert Nilsson was similarly outshot by a 10-1 margin. Not a good night for some of the Oilers' "skill" players.
- Theo Peckham looked tentative when he didn't appear flat out rusty.
- The non-Horcoffian faceoff men won just 13 of 40 draws.
- Calgary's depth players outperformed Edmonton's again, led by Rene Bourque (3 points, 4 shots, 4 hits, 3 takeaways), Dustin Boyd (1 point, 3 shots, 5 hits, 3 takeaways), and Mark Giordano (on ice for 11 shots for, just 1 against).
- Oilers have not outshot an opponent since Game 1. Tonight's margin was 25 for, 38 against, including 19 Calgary shots in a scrambly middle frame.
- The refereeing was brutal, brutal, brutal.
Oh well, for all that went wrong it's just one loss. Even if it was to effing Calgary again. On to Vancouver to finish a tough back-to-back that will test the team's resiliency and resolve.
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Nilsson made me extremely nervous this evening. How many times was he steaming along the half boards only to inexplicably try a centering pass to no one in particular through several Flames? Just awful.
I thought the refs ended up doing a half decent job given how chippy the game was. Some blown calls, certainly, but when they started handing out penalties to Flames left and right after the cross check to Jacques’ head and resulting scuffle a la Smid I was quite pleased. Oilers didn’t capitalize on their power play chances at the end of the second/beginning of third and I think that skews our perspective a little. Oilers score then and it would have been a completely different game.
at least he was on the puck and battling all night.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Still, the shortie in the first came off a blatant cross-check at the blue line. Should’ve been whistled dead before they hit the red line.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
I honestly don’t understand the complaining about the reffing. It was bad, yes, but both teams got shafted and in the end Edmonton got more powerplays and Edmonton didn’t do much with them. The blame lies there, calling this out on the reffing is just weak.
From a Flames fan’s perspective, there were three egregious calls in particular:
- Iginla runs over Khabibulin just outside the crease going for the puck, and it’s a penalty. Within three minutes an Oiler ran over Kipper outside the crease chasing the puck, and there’s no call.
- Stortini gets cut by an accidental high stuck: 4 minutes. Boyd gets cut by an accidental high stick: no call.
- Johnson hits a guy in the back against the boards: call. Iggy gets mugged later and from behind by Stortini: no call.
It was a terribly reffed games, but both teams got screwed out of some legit calls and other calls were weak at best. The difference is the Flames capitalized on special teams, the Oilers didn’t.
by Dave from OpenIcehits on Oct 25, 2009 11:42 AM MDT reply actions
Put it another way: It’s a bit silly to complain about the reffing when the Oilers got 8 powerplays (including nearly a minute of a 5-3 on fresh ice), and the Flames only had 4.
by Dave from OpenIcehits on Oct 25, 2009 11:45 AM MDT up reply actions
If Calgary made three times as many dirty plays as Edmonton and Edmonton had twice the number of power plays, there’s an extremely good reason to complain about the refereeing.
by Benjamin Massey on Oct 25, 2009 11:47 AM MDT up reply actions
- Stortini gets cut by an accidental high stuck: 4 minutes. Boyd gets cut by an accidental high stick: no call.
Dave: Stortini got cut by Iginla’s accidental high stick … no call. Agreed they missed the one on Boyd. In other words, the zebras got 1 in 3 right, which was about their batting average on the night.
- Johnson hits a guy in the back against the boards: call. Iggy gets mugged later and from behind by Stortini: no call.
Stortini hit Iginla right in the chest, and Jarome then got up and started throwing punches. This after cutting Stortini in the face with that high stick. The 2 PiM to 0 was extremely generous to Calgary; it should have been 6 to 0. Except Iggy’s a good guy and he doesn’t really mean to hurt anybody. Like say, Sheldon Souray, who he tripped at full speed head first into the boards and then followed through hard, putting Souray on the shelf indefintely with a major concussion. For that he got two freakin’ minutes. Does the guy have diplomatic immunity or something?
But what I was most PO’d about last night were the non-calls on Calgary infractions which led directly to two goals: Bourque crosschecking Grebshkov on the crucial 1-1 goal, and Langkow tripping Strudwick on the 5-2 clincher. That kind of stuff gets my goat 100.0% of the time.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
If you’re going to be picky about every penalty minute then you ought to acknowledge that Stortini’s hit was late. Less than one steamboat is still a late hit! By the letter of the law.
Plus none of us were born yesterday. Zach Stortini had exactly one motivation in his mind to hit Iginla and it was not to take him off the puck.
If we really want to get picky then we ought to talk about how goaltender interference was not called in the same manner for Iginla (penalized in the first for toppling over Khabibulin) and Penner (not penalized for doing the same over Kiprusoff). Or the high stick on Boyd, which you casually wave aside as though it was inconsequential.
The Oilers got an 8-3 PP advantage despite getting dominated at EV. Most of those Calgary minors were deserved. They deserved a few more minors. Edmonton deserved a few more minors. And the only play the Flames fans have a (legitimate) beef about is the late Stortini hit.
If you’re going to be picky about every penalty minute then you ought to acknowledge that Stortini’s hit was late. Less than one steamboat is still a late hit! By the letter of the law.
Bullshit.
Plus none of us were born yesterday. Zach Stortini had exactly one motivation in his mind to hit Iginla and it was not to take him off the puck.
No, it was to finish the check, which he did fair and square. Listen, Iginla is a good player, he’s going to get hit. He’s especially going to get hit when he puts top players of other teams on LTIR with illegal and dangerous hits, as he did Souray. You expect nobody to touch him? Stortini didn’t go all Bertuzzi on him, he hit him right in the chest in the flow of play. If you got a problem with that, you don’t understand hockey.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 26, 2009 11:08 AM MDT up reply actions
If you’re going to be picky about every penalty minute then you ought to acknowledge that Stortini’s hit was late.
You gotta be kidding me. Iginla dumps the puck and admires his awesomeness. Stortini gets a step and is not impressed by Iginla’s awesomeness.
Illegal? No.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I was impressed by the awesomeness of Iginla going into the boards ass-first.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
The good news
If you want to call it that is that Gilbert apparently has the flu really bad which explains (hopefully) his outing last night.
I do call it that in one sense … he needed an alibi.
Won’t help him tonight, but explains a thing or too.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 25, 2009 5:57 PM MDT up reply actions
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