Oilers 5 Stars 4 (SO) post game
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 7, 2009 12:20 AM MDT
in Game Reports
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PrintWe'll take the two points.
That was one fugly game, at least as seen on a very choppy Internet feed. Hard to tell how much of the choppiness was the feed and how much was the actual hockey. Lots of coverage problems, lots of ugly goals, and not much in the way of top notch saves. The highlight was probably Marty Turco's airmail pass to James Neal for the shorthanded 2-on-1, which was still pretty ugly from an Oiler perspective.
Interesting to see the contributions of the lines in a couple of key statistical categories:
Jacques-Horcoff-Hemsky -- 52:01 TOI; 1 shot, 1 hit, 0-1-1
Stone-Comrie-O'Sullivan -- 48:14 TOI; 5 shots, 7 hits, 1-0-1
Penner-Brule-Nilsson -- 42:04 TOI; 5 shots, 3 hits, 1-1-2
Cogliano-Gagner-Stortini -- 36:14 TOI; 5 shots, 6 hits, 1-2-3
One of these things is not like the others. The top line had a brutal night, at least until the third when Penner started to spell off JFJ who had a very rough time. After being a disinterested spectator for two periods, Ales Hemsky emerged the shootout hero, which I guess is why they pay him the big bucks.
Looking at the defence:
Souray-Staios -- 48:45 TOI; 3 shots, 1 hit, 6 blocks
Grebeshkov-Gilbert -- 45:17 TOI; 4 shots, 3 hits, 5 blocks
Smid-Visnovsky -- 36:05 TOI; 1 shot, 3 hits, 3 blocks
That's a little more balanced. The third pairing had the fewest issues in their own end of the ice.
Bruce's Three Stars:
1. James Neal
2. Brenden Morrow
3. Stephane Robidas
Oops, let's try that again ... Bruce's Three Oilers: :)
1. Dustin Penner
2. Sam Gagner
3. Ladi Smid
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Dustin Penner: the most surprising Oiler so far this year to people who didn’t actually pay much attention to him the last two seasons except to make fat jokes. To the rest of us, his two goals and great play are as surprising as the sun rising.
Sam Gagner: actually really “wtf did you get that much giddyup?” surprising. Plus he beat up a giggling, likely concussed Craig Conroy.
Check the right-hand column for a new sidebar category.
Gagner has yet to be on the ice for a scoring chance against…
Corsi/15 Top 3:
Penner: 10.44
Gagner: 6.29
O’Sullivan: 2.67
Corsi/15 Bottom 3:
Jacques: -7.79
Horcoff: -4.87
Staios: -2.15
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
SC Diff/15 Top 3:
Gagner: 2.8
Visnovsky: 2.16
Comrie: 2.01
SC Diff/15 Bottom 3:
Jacques: -5.84
Horcoff: -5.42
Hemsky: -4.05
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Total Corsi
D. PENNER 17
S. GAGNER 9
T. GILBERT 5
P. O’SULLIVAN 4
L. SMID 4
A. COGLIANO 3
E. MOREAU 1
G. BRULE 1
L. VISNOVSKY 0
S. SOURAY 0
M. COMRIE -1
Z. STORTINI -1
R. NILSSON -1
R. STONE -2
D. GREBESHKOV -2
A. HEMSKY -2
S. STAIOS -5
S. HORCOFF -9
J. JACQUES -12
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Corsi is the measure of net scoring chances right??
OK that being true, I am not surprised by the high corsi numbers of gagner. Currently, he is probably the most skilled 4th liner in the league. This is season Gagner has a chance to do what Bobby Ryan did last season. Dominate with every line and work his way upto the 1st.
Again Penner has been great this season. Firing of MacT re-ignited the fire within him. I only saw the 3rd period last night( as i have a mid-term 2day) and he looked like the player from 1st game. So consistency was there.
Another thing I saw was that Stone was more visible last night(again 3rd period) than Jacques. Though he is a somewhat of a slow skater, he is effective in dishing out hits and that impressed me last night.
James neal was all over the oilers. He was probably the best player last night followed by Brendan Morrow.
Vishnovsky is struggling in the same way as Thomas Hickey was in the WJ last year. May be smaller skilled D-men and Quinn’s system dont go along very well.
Souray was good. Gilbert was fine.
Is it just me or the oilers look very unorganized in the defensive zone. Often I notice more than one player chasing after the puck carrier.(Sometimes even upto 3, May be the new Mantra is to crowd the player and hope he is claustrophobic). May be its a new system and co-ordination will take some time.
A couple of weeks ago David Staples had done a work on how this season’s PK is different from last one, but I dont see it. May be they did employ it during the pre-season. May be they still do and I am still inexperienced to notice the change.
The prodigal son is working hard and is slowly winning me over( I am harsh and I did not forgive him because of his great pre-season).
Is it just me who thinks Niskanen is a real good smooth skating intelligent defenseman?
Then again, I saw the game from a shitty internet feed too, Listening to uninspiring commentary from FS stars.
Corsi measures shots directed at the net (shots on net, missed shots and blocked shots) as opposed to scoring chances. That said, the two measures correlate very well so a player with a good Corsi rate will also do very well with scoring chances.
I agree that Stone has looked fine. He hasn’t looked good exactly, but he’s been pretty good positionally, he’s not afraid to be physical and he hasn’t been bleeding many chances against both in his first two regular season games and in the preseason games. Seems to know his role well.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 7, 2009 9:46 AM MDT up reply actions
Stone’s stats last night were 6 hits, 2 takeaways, and 1 fight. Nothing on the offensive side (shots, etc.) and his EV scoring chances were a 0-0 saw-off. Nothing earth-shattering in other words, but he’s doing his job and not getting burned. Which is more than I can say for JFJ at this point.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 7, 2009 10:09 AM MDT up reply actions
Souray was good
Souray and Staios got absolutely shelled last night.
-7 and -9 Corsi. -3 and -4 on the chances.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I just saw the last period!!! my thoughts are from that period of hockey!!!! He bailed staois out a couple of times in those 20 mins
Staios’ game is a mess right now and it’s dragging on Souray.
The fan in me hopes that they can hang on until mid-season when Colorado falls out of the race and flip an extra forward for the Clark for the rest of the season.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Corsi and chances are all team stuff so while Derek may have seen the Oilers lose the possession battle while Souray was on the ice, you may have seen Souray make some nice plays while he and his teammates lost the possession battle. Your comment seems to indicate as much. Different eyes seeing the same things and interpreting it differently.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 7, 2009 10:54 AM MDT up reply actions
Yeah, I phrased my comments poorly. I didn’t say Souray was bad, I simply said they got shelled.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Like what I see so far
Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the Oilers so far. The 2 games have been darn exciting. And it looks like the young guys that were expected to step up last year are doing so in a big way thus far (Penner, Cogs, Gagner). Good on all of them for their efforts. Hemsky’s skating but he’s gotta stop trying to beat 4 guys every time. The puck is not on a string for him right now. I can’t wait for O’Sullivan to start hitting his mark because he’s certainly getting himself into the right spots.
Defensively they’re running around a bit, but they are moving their buts and aren’t being passive anywhere on the ice as far as I can see.
I have no idea what the following is here, and what the liveliest forum for Oiler fans is… I just wanted to say that I converted this off-season from the Habs being my team for all 30 years of my life. Gainey sucks. I’ve been pulling for the Oilers for years, loved whooping it up during the Cup run with all the Oilers fans at the ESPN Zone in Vegas in ‘06. So excited that I’m following a team with tons of potential for prosperity. Eagerly await the arrival in a couple years of Eberle and the ‘09 Swedish draft pick. Edmonton’s a great city and deserves what should be a successful squad for years to come.
Welcome to the club. Your misery may be prolonged here, but at least there is try on this team now.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I mostly converted in 1997, after Todd Marchant’s Goal, but I refuse to give up my ancestral home team fully, even if I only watch them about 20 times per year (mostly on CBC). Call it a character flaw, call it romanticism for the times that were…they’re the only team I cheered to a Stanley Cup, I can’t give up on them fully, even if they have been kind of mediocre for most of the last 15 years. It’s not like they don’t share that quality in common with a certain other team. ;)
As for the most lively forum for the Oilers, it’s Lowetide, no question. 400 comments for a PPV game. Some of the commenters do bite, but try not to take it personally. =)
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
Yes, the Marchant Goal was a shining moment. Me too I suppose. I was anti-Oiler during the dynasty. They were just too powerful. Although i still preferred them beating the Bruins (being a Habs fan). Unfortunately all the years that followed, they couldn’t follow up the Marchant goal and lost year after year to Dallas. But it was fun that they kept meeting I thought, considering when they went to the current playoff format, it didn’t seem like you would have any more frequent playoff match-ups. Yes, yes, i see you there Ottawa fan. I know you kept getting stuck year after year having to play the lowly Leafs.
Todd Marchant must be some sort of Oiler missionary.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Well, him and Cujo. Cujo was out of his mind in those series. The day he signed with the Leafs was a dark one indeed in the home of little Doogie.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
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