Oilers vs. Red Wings - Stat Leftovers

*Click to enlarge

You're looking at the head-to-head scoring chances chart against the Red Wings in NHL Game 20185 from last night.  As a whole, the team kept their head above water, except for the Sam Gagner line and the Jason Strudwick pairing.  Given that Gagner had Paajarvi on his wing, and given that Strudwick is Strudwick, well, both of these results were expected.

• In this case, I bring some of the blame back to Tom Renney.  Gagner spent 13 minutes on the ice at even strength and he was matched against Franzen or Datsyuk for 80% of that time.  Leaving a line with a young center and two rookie wings exposed to the Red Wings like that is terrible bench management.  I've talked about the Rawhide line management before, but like the penalty kill, this is something that is so easy to fix.  Why he won't remains a mystery.
• I mentioned this in the post-game thread, but Horcoff was outstanding in the faceoff circle, especially against Datsyuk.  Horcoff had six wins and one loss against Datsyuk.  
• Through two periods last night, Sam Gagner had 5W 4L in the circle, however he went 0W 5L in the third period to end 5W 9L on the night.
• Ladislav Smid was high event last night.  The Red Wings directed 45 shots at the net, and he was on the ice for 18 of them  The Oilers directed 38 shots on net and he was on the ice for 17 of them.
• Tom Gilbert led all players with 7 blocked shots, as many as the entire Detroit team had.  Gilbert had 7 of the Oilers 17 blocks.
• Zack Stortini had 3 hits in just 6 minutes of ice time.
• With Whitney spending 17 minutes in the penalty box, Tom Gilbert had to take up the slack - Gilbert finished with 26:23 of ice time.
• Last night's penalty kill performance leaves the Oilers with a 69.2% kill rate, last in the league.
• Nikolai Khabibulin's penalty kill save percentage is now .746, which would be a record of ignominy.  Jonathan Willis says it's bound to get better.
• Edmonton's even strength goal differential is -1 through 11 games.  They are tied with the San Jose Sharks for 19th in that per game rate, and they very narrowly trail the Lightning and Canucks for 17th.
• The special teams' goal differential is 28th in the league and the overall goal differential is 26th in the league.