Oilers v. Predators - 2 Peter 3:8-10
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 4:30 PM MST
in Game-Day Threads
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PrintBut you must not forget this one thing, my friends. To God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. So you see, God isn't being slow about his promise to end this rebuild soon, as some of you might think. No, he is being patient; he doesn't want anyone to miss the beginning of this team's ascent, and so he is waiting for those who have become disillusioned to look upon this team with great joy. But when the day finally comes, it will come in a flash - the team will shoot up the standings without warning, everyone else in the league will be thoroughly destroyed, and every person who did not honor the Lord's patience and turned too late will be judged as a bandwagon jumper and treated with the contempt reserved for fans of the Canucks or Flames.
Nashville Predators (10-8-4) @ Edmonton Oilers (12-9-2)
Rexall Place, 7:30 p.m. MST
Television: Sportsnet West
More analysis after the jump...
Visiting Team Scouting Report:
As Derek pointed out earlier today, the Predators aren't doing so well this year when it comes to driving play in the right direction. But for Oiler fans, it's not just fancy number-crunching telling us that these Predators are a few steps behind from the last couple of seasons. These two teams have met twice already this season. In the first meeting of the season, the Predators mustered just twelve shots on goal in the entire game, and looked pretty awful doing it. This led to Jerred Smithson describing the club as "a hardworking team that doesn't work hard." And while the Predators earned some wins between that meeting and last week's meeting in Nashville, you wouldn't know it if you just watched the two Oiler games. In Nashville, the Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period (in which they outshot the Predators 13-3), and coasted to a 6-2 victory. It will be interesting to see if the Predators are able to turn things around or if, in fact, they really are one of the worst teams in the league this season after defying the skeptics for so long.
Expected Lineups:
Edmonton Oilers (12-9-2):
Paajarvi - Horcoff - Hemsky
Smyth - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Jones - Belanger - Gagner
Petrell - Lander - Hordichuk
Smid - Gilbert
Whitney - Petry
Peckham - Teubert
Khabibulin
Nashville Predators (10-8-4):
Wilson - Legwand - Hornqvist
Erat - Fisher - Smith
Kostitsyn - Spaling - Tootoo
Halischuk - Smithson - Hillen
Suter - Weber
Bouillon - Klein
Blum - Josi
Rinne
By the Numbers:
- Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk are both goons, but they've been treated very differently so far this season by head coach Tom Renney. Eager has averaged 7:34 in his sixteen games, compared to just 2:57 for Hordichuk in his first six contests. Eager is pretty close to the other fourth liners, and essentially takes a regular shift at evens. Seems like a significant shift in strategy from the coach depending on which guy is in.
- One of the advanced metrics that show how well the "kids" are doing is ZoneShift even though, at first glance, it looks terrible. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, for example, has started 69.0% of his end-zone faceoffs in the offensive zone, and has had just 58.0% of his end-zone finishes (i.e. a shift with a whistle) in the offensive zone. The thing is, everyone tends to regress heavily toward 50%, which means that his expected ZoneFinish is just 55.7%, a number that he's been able to beat.
- It's always fun to have players near the top of the league in a given category, and right now, the Oilers are just dominating in on-ice shooting percentage during five-on-five hockey. Ryan Smyth is second in the league (min. 10 GP) at 16.1%, but he's not alone near the top: Theo Peckham is third (15.8%), Jordan Eberle is ninth (13.6%), Jeff Petry is sixteenth (13.0%), and Shawn Horcoff is eighteenth (13.0%).
- The Oilers also have a few leaders on the other end of the PDO equation with Cam Barker sitting in sixth in on-ice save percentage (.980), Sam Gagner twenty-second (.960), and Eric Belanger twenty-eighth (.958).
- With a win tonight, Nikolai Khabibulin would move into a tie for tenth on the Oilers' all-time regular season wins list with... 27. Seems awfully low. The guy he's going to tie? Ty Conklin. But the real fun is in guessing the other nine guys (no peeking!).
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A punch in the face, please!
http://twitter.com/danlizee/status/141263385516978176
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
It’s funny because he should know better, dan’s a frequent commenter on this blog.
The Edmonton Oilers - All we do is win!!
Brian Engblom talking about how great Stamkos is shooting from bad angles. I’d love to see how/why he came up with that.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
tweaked a shoulder rolling around on his piles of money
by Passive Voice on Nov 28, 2011 7:32 PM MST up reply actions 2 recs
He started in both the previous games against Edmonton, didn’t he? They might just be trying for a different look.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 7:36 PM MST up reply actions
Aw come on. After I talk about him setting records? Follow my narrative!
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Holy cow, 1 start? Nashville certainly is putting all their eggs in Rinne’s basket.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
ಠ_ಠ
http://www.coppernblue.com/2011/11/28/2592134/pekka-rinnes-record-setting-pace
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Whoops, I must have skipped that one…there’s so many articles on the blog that I tend to scan the headlines for the stuff that looks the most interesting.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 7:45 PM MST up reply actions
Is this an apology or a burn on Derek’s writing?
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 7:49 PM MST up reply actions
Not at all…I actually read most of Derek’s articles, but sometimes I don’t have time to go through everything. Except for GDTs and game recaps, the only ones I read religiously are dawgbone’s strategy columns.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 7:50 PM MST up reply actions
And those ones aren’t even about religion!
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 7:57 PM MST up reply actions
So, not to be cocky, but…Nashville, Minnesota, Columbus, Calgary? If ever there was an easy week’s schedule, this is it.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
Columbus isn’t nearly as bad as you think and Calgary is close to getting their stuff together.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I notice you didn’t mention Minnesota, heh.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:15 PM MST up reply actions
Nashville, Minnesota and Anaheim have issues.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Did Legwand take a dive there or did Hemsky gently bumping into him actually throw him off balance?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Oh, and trivia answer:
Fuhr, Ranford, Salo, Moog, Roloson, Joseph, Markkanen, Garon, Low.
Unless of course you count the WHA years in which case Khabibulin falls behind Dave Dryden and a couple of others.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
I got 7 of 8. Did not get Garon, I thought it was Essensa.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
That second shot was disgusting.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Loved the spin from Nugent-Hopkins to maintain control.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 7:50 PM MST up reply actions
http://twitter.com/behindthenet/status/141348026580082691
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
http://twitter.com/dawgbone98/status/141348362342510592
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Paajarvi needs to learn to bust straight at the goalie’s nose when Hemsky comes into the zone dangling.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
At this rate, Horcoff is going to have career faceoff 11,000 in February
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Ex-Golden Bear and Oiler Ian Herber is the new coach of Nashville’s affiliate (Apologies if this is old news, but I hadn’t heard it until the radio guys mentioned it).
That’s been a really good AHL team for a while. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Lane Lambert get a head coaching chance in the not-too-distant future.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:00 PM MST up reply actions
Whitney still looks unstable in both ends. Doesn’t even look like he’s skating comfortably right now.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
That’s what it looks like to me. He’s not moving laterally in his own end.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Ugly giveaway by Jones. He’s got to get some accuracy on cross-ice passes.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
Look, either you get a vertical Jones or you get an accurate Jones. Life isn’t all gravy, you know.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Kind of surprised to see Renney playing a two-man forecheck with the fourth line.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
Can’t be sure that he is, really. They could be running around.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Yeah, but they went into it in a static set with the Nsh defender behind the net. Possible that Hordichuk is just really bad at understanding the game plan, but it seems more likely that they were told to do it.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:06 PM MST up reply actions
Paajarvi knocked Wilson down and took the puck there. Strong kid.
He and Hemsky haven’t figured each other out yet. When Paajarvi goes to the net, Hemsky throws and extra dangle in. When Paajarvi holds up, Hemsky wants to feed him.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Wasn’t too much fun to see him lose the board battle in the DZ though. Haven’t noticed that as a problem in his game, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:05 PM MST up reply actions
The one plus side of Hall’s injury is that Paajarvi should get a few games with high-quality linemates to silence his critics. If they click, I would be interested to see what a Hall – Gagner – Jones line looks like when Hall returns.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:07 PM MST up reply actions
There’s not much own-zone awareness in that line.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Gagner might be able to handle the lion’s share of the defensive responsibilities, especially against third-rate competition.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:10 PM MST up reply actions
He should be a treasure hunter, ‘cos he’s always digging…for pucks.
Back to you, Kevin.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:09 PM MST up reply actions
Eberle’s sort of lucky he didn’t get drilled on that rush down the slot.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Paajarvi spent that entire sequence low in the zone. Lots of play in front of the net or below the goal line.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
Buddy is having another pretty good AHL season with 11 points in 14 games.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:37 PM MST up reply actions
https://twitter.com/chasew12/status/141349151463063552
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Yeah, 6 shots for Nashville, and 4 (!) for the Oilers…
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:16 PM MST up reply actions
Teubert could have thrown that pass to anyone else on the team and had a chance. I wonder what the lifetime touch percentage is for a cross ice zone-and-a-half pass to Darcy Hordichuk?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Statistically speaking, if you throw enough pucks toward a target that big and slow, a few of them are going to hit him just by random luck.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:34 PM MST up reply actions
My impression of Teubert is much better because he wears the same number as Steve MacIntyre.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:42 PM MST up reply actions
Unfortunately, Peckham in his new number makes me miss Steve Staios
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Smid went down for the shot block as Erat skated right around him. That was awkward.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Really smart forecheck by Eberle there almost forced a turnover onto Hopkins’ stick.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Still, that’s a pretty goofy thing to do.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:41 PM MST up reply actions
I still don’t undestand how that’s an elbow. Maybe you could stretch a crosscheck out of that if you looked hard enough, but a 5 minute elbow?
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I’m still not sure there’s a call at all.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Exactly.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:46 PM MST up reply actions
Doesn’t matter, that’s just dumb.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Nashville fans must be going nuts right about now.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:44 PM MST up reply actions
This game is off of the rails now.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Terrible call on Jones. Five minutes on that is just silly.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
Yeah, bad call.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:43 PM MST up reply actions
He disguised that shot magnificently.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:46 PM MST up reply actions
Well that Smid-Teubert pairing shouldn’t happen again any time soon.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
Hard to believe that combination didn’t work out.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:48 PM MST up reply actions
Yeah, so many good saves followed by a stinker.
The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.
by Scott Reynolds on Nov 28, 2011 8:51 PM MST up reply actions
And the Nikolai who needs a shock collar makes an appearance.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
This is a brutal outing by the Oilers. Looks like the road team we’re accustomed to.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
You’re right. This has gotten real ugly, real fast.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:52 PM MST up reply actions
I don’t know if Whitney takes all of the blame for the awful play of the 6-58 pairing, but they’ve been generally poor since Whitney’s return.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Um, did Nashville change goalies? TSN has Rinne in to start the 2nd, but the radio guys are still talking about Lindback.
I suspect TSN’s support staff may be a touch hungover today…
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 8:58 PM MST up reply actions
Yeah, and I lost ten bucks on it.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:01 PM MST up reply actions
I had Winnipeg plus 7.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:03 PM MST up reply actions
Don’t I know it.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:06 PM MST up reply actions
Quinn “Predators with a big push back here in the second period, energized by that goal…”
Kevin, the Preds have dominated this game since Eberle’s goal.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Hopkins has to be smarter than that with the puck. There’s nothing to be gained by trying a 5 foot saucer pass on the breakout there.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Whitney reaching for the puck again rather than moving his feet to stop the skater. He looks like Cam Barker right now
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Whitney is not himself, Petry just handled the last several zone exits
The Edmonton Oilers - All we do is win!!
If you get a chance, focus in on his movement in the third. He’s stationary.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Debrusk’s razor: make up a crazy reason for something.
Gagner is out with Petrell and Lander, not to give them a real linemate in place of Hordichuk, rather “to get Gagner away from Suter and Weber”
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
by Derek Zona on Nov 28, 2011 9:03 PM MST reply actions 1 recs
Don’t worry, given this team’s luck, I’m sure he’ll be returning with a prosthetic arm or somesuch.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:05 PM MST up reply actions
so a strain or sprain then? anything else would have resulted in more missed time.
The Edmonton Oilers - All we do is win!!
Don’t know, the Sportsnet guys mentioned it in passing.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:09 PM MST up reply actions
Whew! I was tired of seeing them dominate!
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:19 PM MST up reply actions
I was wondering if I was going to beleive you or not when Dennis posted this:
https://twitter.com/#!/DKingBH/status/141370789487316992
Spector is happy to see Jones run a guy
“More hits like that and you’ll be in more hockey games.”
Ok then.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Can you imagine if we played Jones and Eager on the wings, and moved Hordichuk to centre?? The fourth line would be unstoppable!
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:26 PM MST up reply actions
The local media would have a collective priapism
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I had to look that one up.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:33 PM MST up reply actions
They sound alright to me. They haven’t had much to cheer for the last hour and change.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:29 PM MST up reply actions
They’re leaving him in for now.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:35 PM MST up reply actions
Scoring chances via Sportsnet: NSH 13, EDM 9.
Yeah, right.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
Whitney goes into the corner, didn’t hit his man.
Gilbert stand a man up at the blueline, knocks him over.
Guess which guy the media loves to hate.
Whitney is physically unable to do so. There’s something very wrong with him.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
No such thing.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:40 PM MST up reply actions
Yes.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:41 PM MST up reply actions
No goal
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:42 PM MST up reply actions
http://twitter.com/GarthNorris/status/141375848770052096
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
I…he…what?
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:41 PM MST up reply actions
Awful, awful, awful play by Gagner. That stupid drop pass.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Oh man, Whitney was also terrible on that goal. He just stood in front and did nothing anywhere to help anything.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
Don’t be mean…
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 9:46 PM MST up reply actions
Good pressure, too bad it took 59 minutes to get here.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
I don’t think Nashville’s a good team, but fair’s fair; they completely dominated the Oilers tonight. It wasn’t even close.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 10:17 PM MST up reply actions
It takes more than #1 picks to succeed in the NHL. For instance, we got Hall and RNH out of the last two garbage seasons, but the playoffs are unlikely for the Oilers. The main problems we have are a weak blueline, and an awful goaltending contract.
Specifically, $3.75 million per year over 4 years to Khabibulin, who you saw tonight. He’s playing pretty well this year, but still lets in too many soft goals. He’d have to be the best goaltender in the league to be worth that much money, and frankly a 1.88 GAA doesn’t cut it.
Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Don't you judge me.
by Ben Johnston on Nov 28, 2011 10:39 PM MST up reply actions
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