A Song of the 2011 Playoffs
We lift our eyes to you,
O God who reigns in heaven.
We look to you for mercy;
We call on your name for deliverance;
We beg you, O Yahweh, to judge our enemies.
Have mercy on us, O Yahweh, have mercy.
For we have patiently endured several years of your discipline;
Surely, we have been subjected to more than our share of arrogant scoffing,
to more prideful contempt from our enemies than you will allow.
Have mercy on us, O Yahweh,
and let your righteous judgment come.
Edmonton Oilers (9-3-2) @ Boston Bruins (6-7-0)
TD Garden, 5:00 p.m. MST
Television: Sportsnet Oilers
More analysis after the jump...
Home Team Scouting Report:
The Bruins have had a tough start to the season, but if you were to ask me, "What's wrong with the Bruins?" the simple answer is, "Nothing". There are an awful lot of reasons to think that this team will be just fine. Their Fenwick percentage with the score tied at even strength is a solid 52.0%, and the shot metrics on special teams suggest that their penalty killing has been very good while the power play has been about average. The team is filled with players who have proven themselves capable of the role they're being asked to provide in the past, and in some cases, are in the cases of Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas, and Patrice Bergeron, they're likely some of the very best in the league. To this point, the Bruins have lost more than their fair share of one-goal games (their record in one-goal games is 1-6 compared to 5-1 in games decided by two or more), which probably isn't going to continue going forward. The Bruins are an excellent team, and should end the season near the top of the Eastern Conference.
Expected Lineups:
Edmonton Oilers (9-3-2):
Smyth - Horcoff - Hemsky
Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Jones - Belanger - Gagner
Eager - Lander - Petrell
Smid - Gilbert
Peckham - Potter
Barker - Petry
Dubnyk
Boston Bruins (6-7-0):
Marchand - Bergeron - Seguin
Lucic - Krejci - Horton
Caron - Kelly - Peverley
Pouliot - Campbell - Thornton
Chara - Boychuk
Seidenberg - Corvo
Ference - McQuaid
Rask
By the Numbers:
- With seven goals, Ryan Smyth is on pace to score a career-high forty-one this season. But his 18.9% shooting percentage is higher than he's been able to sustain for any one season of his career. Although he did shoot 19.3% with the Oilers in 2006-07 before being traded to the Islanders at the deadline.
- The Oilers have received goals from just seven different forwards: Ryan Smyth, Shawn Horcoff, Ryan Jones, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, and Lennart Petrell. If we count both Jones and Hemsky as top six forwards (since that's where they've played for the most part), the bottom two lines have scored one goal on eight-nine shots for a combined shooting percentage of 1.1%.
- Ryan Smyth and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are currently 1-2 in the "Ryan" scoring race with 14 and 12 points respectively. Ryane Clowe (11), Ryan Malone (10), and Ryan O`Reilly (10) round out the top five.
- No one has played more minutes without registering a point than Ladislav Smid's 289. Smid has a sixteen-minute cushion on second-place Robyn Regehr. This also seems like a good time to remind everyone that if Smid can make it the whole season without scoring, he'll become just the third player in the history of the NHL to have four seasons with at least sixty games played and no goals. One of the others is Fern Flaman. He has inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
- The Oilers sent both Colten Teubert and Taylor Chorney to Oklahoma City, which leaves them with just six eligible defensemen for both tonight and the Oilers' next game against the Detroit Red Wings. Seems like a pretty useless risk to me.