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Oilers v. Flames - Obadiah 1-6

By Scott Reynolds

The vision given to Peckham on the day of his arrival:

We heard a message from Yahweh in Springfield and I am the messenger who has been sent to confirm these words: "Rise up! Yahweh is with us for they have been ordained for complete eradication!" This is what Yahweh, the great and glorious ruler of all things, says about Calgary:

"I will make you least in your division so that even your own people will despise you. Your proud heart has deceived you! Your 'classy' leader is amoral: the fruits of his leadership evident in the men he leads. You say in your heart, 'We are beyond punishment or retribution.' You are nothing but fools. Though you soar near the top of the conference like an eagle in the air, though you build a nest in playoff position, it is from there that I will bring you down!" says Yahweh.

"When my Oilers come to you, when my chosen and favoured team comes by night - O how you deserve your destruction - they will take what they want from you. The points will be theirs. And when my messenger arrives, the man who was sent from Springfield , he will dole out vengeance."

"How beautiful is the annihilation of Calgary, its 'achievements' presented for mockery and its 'leaders' for derision.

Edmonton Oilers (6-2-1) @ Calgary Flames (6-2-1)

Pengrowth Saddledome, 8:00 PM MDT
Television: CBC

More analysis after the jump...

Visiting Team Scouting Report: In a lot of ways the Oilers and Flames have been running parallel seasons. Just like the Oilers, the Flames sit at 6-2-1 through nine games and just like the Oilers, the Flames have made that record on percentages rather than shot volume. There aren't many teams the Oilers can look at and say, "Our shot differential gives an advantage in this one." But here we are. The Flames have been outshot (on average) 32.8 to 23.6. Now, the Flames did begin to turn things around in this area against Columbus (both in terms of shots on goal and in terms of Corsi) but one game does not make a trend and with David Moss out of the lineup tonight Calgary's task doesn't get any easier. Iginla started putting up some offence against the Blue Jackets but he's still not quite in form. Going by Kent's scoring chance report, it looks like it was mostly Dawes, Bourque and Langkow taking on the big line. It's still unbelievable to me that Sutter was able to get Dawes off of waivers this summer for free. How many players is he an upgrade on that are wearing an Oildrop tonight? I definitely feel safe in saying that it's more than one. At any rate, maybe tonight is the night both teams regress on their shooting percentage and the Oilers win 2 to 1 while outshooting the Flames 34-17 at the Saddledome. It would be beautiful.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (6-2-1):

Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Moreau - Horcoff - O'Sullivan
Jacques - Cogliano - Nilsson
Studwick - Stortini - MacIntyre

Visnovsky - Smid
Grebeshkov - Gilbert
Peckham - Chorney

Khabibulin

Calgary Flames (6-2-1):

Waivers - Langkow - Bourque
Traitor - Big Mouth - Jarmoe
Sjostrom - "Lombo makes 1.9M" - Nystrom
Prust - Boyd - Goon

Bouwmeester - Sarich
Dirty - Ugly
Johnson - Giordano

Tommy Salo

Behind The Numbers:

  • Ladislav Smid has now gone eight nine games without registering a shot on goal.
  • Last year Sheldon Souray and Shawn Horcoff were second in team scoring with 53 points. So far this year seven Oilers are on pace for more.
  • The last time two Oilers scored five points in the same game the team had a legitimate chance to the win the Stanley Cup. I choose to take this as a sign.
  • Jeff Deslauriers is sending this link to all of his friends (yes, even the Facebook variety) and hoping they don't bother to click through and see the games played.
  • Shawn Horcoff needs at least 16 faceoffs to keep pace with Sidney Crosby. Does anyone else think it's unfair that Crosby's faceoff percentage is 59.7% on 216 draws? If the Oilers need a faceoff specialist, I pick him.
  • The Oilers have taken 41 minor penalties so far, good for a tie for 15th in the league. Ethan Moreau co-leads the team in this category with 4. There are several players tied for the league lead with 8... including Sidney Crosby (do you need to lead the league in everything!)