Oilers v. Blues - Exodus 5:15-17

So the coach went to management and pleaded with them saying, "Please don't send us out there like this yet again. I'm being given insufficient tools, but still the fans cry out for more wins! The team is consistently beaten, but it isn't my fault! Respectfully, I must suggest that it's those providing the tools who are to blame."

But the managers shouted, "You're just lazy! The laziest head coach yet! That's why you're trying to shift blame onto others instead of figuring out how to use the gifted players we've acquired for you."

St. Louis Blues @ Edmonton Oilers

Rexall Place, 8:00 p.m. MST
Television: CBC

Visiting Team Scouting Report: The St. Louis Blues are very obviously one of the best teams in the NHL today, but how did they get there? I thought that it might be instructive for us to take a look at their lineup for tonight's game and determine how the Blues acquired each player who was played at least ten games for them this season:

I'm struck by the number of players on this list who have been acquired via trade. I bet it isn't typical to have more players on your team acquired in that manner than by free agency, but it might be a model for the Oilers to consider.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (11-23-3):

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Smyth - Gordon - Perron
Joensuu - Lander - Hemsky
Gazdic - Gagner - Yakupov

Ference - J Schultz
Belov - Petry
N Schultz - Potter

Bryzgalov

St. Louis Blues (23-7-4):

Steen - Backes - Oshie
Schwartz - Berglund - Tarasenko
Morrow - Roy - Stewart
Paajarvi - Lapierre - Porter

Pietrangelo - Bouwmeester
Shattenkirk - Jackman
Colaiacovo - Cole

Elliott

By The Numbers:

• Boyd Gordon's role isn't to score goals, and that's a good thing because he sure hasn't scored many lately. Gordon has just one goal on twenty-fives shots over his last twenty-five games. It's not the end of the world, but you'd like to see a guy who gets that much ice time chip in a little bit more.
  
• Magnus Paajarvi is off to a pretty rough start in St. Louis. When Paajarvi was a healthy scratch at the start of the season, Ken Hitchcock said (among other things), "You don’t want to leave veteran players on the sidelines, so it’s simple. I’ve always been a believer in giving the benefit of the doubt to the veteran, as long as they’re working hard and competing." That sure is a change from Paajarvi's experience in Edmonton, but Paajarvi is getting there. Paajarvi has played more than twelve minutes in two of the last three games, the only two games he's had that much ice time this season.
  
• I've heard the talk about plus/minus being unreliable, and that's true. Several Oilers are getting extra minuses for being on the ice when the net is empty and when the opposition is scoring short-handed, and it's making their plus/minus number look worse than their numbers five-on-five. The thing is, the numbers five-on-five are still bad. Nail Yakupov's goal differential five-on-five is -19 and Sam Gagner's is -14. In fact, only three Oiler forwards have played at least twenty games and have a positive goal differential five-on-five: Mark Arcobello (+2), David Perron (+1), and Luke Gazdic (+1).