EDMONTON OILERS 1
VS.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 3
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First off; if one more media person or coach says a word about freaking “jam” I’m going to start hucking smuckers. Shut up about whatever the heck jam is and fix your offence/criticize the lack of offence. This team’s had nothing outside of essentially one guy since the all-star break. Sickening.
They clearly haven’t learned a bloody thing from the Buffalo game.
MacTavish exemplified why I want him fired in his comments after the game tonight. He was on his usual blah blah blah’ing with no emotion left within him whatsoever and claimed that what his team needed to do to get by the skilled Hawks was bang the puck up the boards. Seriously…
Skill teams feast on that style of play. That’s how you lose 10-2. That’s how you lose 9-2…and this doofus doesn’t know enough about breakouts to realize that the simplicity and stupidity of his breakouts IS THE PROBLEM??? My gawd…
Tonight we played a better team that played well but not great. We got good goaltending for one period that should likely have been enough to give us at least a shot in this game. We played horrible offensively because neither of the two middle lines could get it going, the fourth line played well but had Stortini on it and therefore was one man short, and the top line has no chemistry with Nilsson, the offence keys on Hemsky and lets Horcoff miss chance after chance.
The end.
PLAYER REPORTS
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Shawn Horcoff
- Those of you who have followed these reports have surely seen the slow ascent of Shawn Horcoff to a hockey player I respect. This occurred because he worked on and succeeded in the areas I said he was lacking in and I gave him his due. The last year has seen him go from fully respected to having earned a second chance to recover…down to where we are again. Lately; Shawn Horcoff flat-out sucks again. The “stats” guys won’t tell you this because they think that the 5 wonderful chances he flat missed this evening are positives for some stupid reason. They’re not. Him completely whiffing a puck in the slot is a scoring chance and was not a positive. Wasting great breaks generated by your superior linemates by taking horrid shots or missing the net is a chance and is not a positive. He had 3 glorious chances in the first and screwed them all up royally. This was the most important part of the game and his lack of execution cost us dearly. He was also overskating his checks and not carrying the puck well. Back to the drawing board Shawn; this team has thrown its lot in with you and you need to improve something fierce these days.
Ales Hemsky
- Ales didn’t play a very good game either. He wasn’t horrid and really only had the one chance to score (which he should have, he can’t be missing those) but Chicago was really able to key on him due to his line being so inept and uncoordinated. They also took physical liberties with him early on in the game that were tolerated by our squad. We laid one big hit and they fought us. They ran our best player 3 times (and Gagner once) and we did a whole lot of stinking nothing. Despite all the factors that worked against him tonight, he still needed to be better. The puck wound up in lower quality places than usual with Ales tonight. He did make a couple very solid defensive plays however.
Robert Nilsson
- How do you go from being in the doghouse to automatic first line duty because the coach is punishing the only forward with effective size on the team? That’s the wacky world of the Oilers! Robert had no business playing on this line at this stage with his confidence low and his game at about a medium pace, so I expected and got just about nothing from him tonight. Hemsky and Horcoff would have had to have whales of games to carry him against a Chicago squad that was really and willing to win tonight. He needs to make a more dynamic play on a couple rushes tonight as that’s where he can really shine and he simply did not. It’s okay for him not to shoot and to wait; but then make a marvelous read and a pass rather than a crummy forced pass or a giveaway…too bad for Robert. I don’t think there’s a place for him right now.
Ethan Moreau+Steve Staios
- Ethan played a really solid first period along with his crew and got a lucky goal for their trouble; I thought JUST maybe they’d be able to carry us long enough to get the game to the more capable lines and win this thing, but I was wrong. Instead a shift his line took with 4 minutes to go in the second period changed this game for good. After than shift the whole team pretty well quit for the night and went home. Why exactly I really don’t know. Ethan was caught out back taking a leak while Dave Bolland wound his watch, checked the wind, consulted his shot consultants, itched his back, changed sticks 3 times and fired a shot through apparent teammate Steve Staios’ perfect screen of the goaltender to give Chicago the lead. I don’t know what Moreau and Staios thought they were doing on that shift, Staios having made a horrid play earlier in the shift and then plunked himself square in front of Roloson checking no one in particular. That shift killed this team tonight. These two are supposed to be veteran leaders and instead they’re missing checks, screening goalies and smashing sticks in front of their frustrated netminder??? Unacceptable. Staios forced the play (in the bad way) all night and it resulted in nothing productive whatsoever. This includes his idiotic attempt at a forward shift in the third. Moreau hung it up for the night after his ugly shift. Just pathetic guys.
Andrew Cogliano
- Andy’s seen his play drop off a little lately and that’s sort of okay with me as he should not be expected to carry this team. I’m sure he’ll bounce back soon but he spent tonight largely missing pucks, overskating, and not gaining any of his trademark neutral-zone speed. The Hawks were shutting us down badly with good positioning and quickness in the neutral zone and Andy could have been a guy to break that cycle; but he shouldn’t have to be THE guy.
Marc Pouliot
- He’s slumping, there can be no doubt of that. A big guy who could really have complemented this effort against Chicago tonight but was INVISIBLE out there. Too bad but again, too much is being asked of him. He should be a PB/fourth line guy at best and instead he’s replacing Stoll/Reasoner minutes.
Kyle Brodziak
- Better game from him, though I don’t think he’s been that bad lately. He was the best of the fourth line tonight but really needed to cash in on a chance or two. I don’t know how he could have done anything but score as there’s no assisting the two big galoots playing with him.
Dustin Penner
- He’s frustrated and you would be too. That’s still no excuse for coasting which he did at numerous times tonight. He looked good down low a few times but how could you not surrounded by the likes of Stortini and Ben Eager?
Stortini
- Pass. He just got in the way. If Brule is in this spot these guys score tonight.
Cole
- At least he never quits. He drove hard, tried to get things done even though he was being stifled. Didn’t blow chances and didn’t do anything stupid.
Gagner
- Great to see Sam moving well and looking pretty good. I think he’ll get going on the road trip pretty well judging by tonight’s start. He wasn’t good on the PP but he and Cole almost scored their first shift and looked good again.
Potulny
- He did alright out there, and at least he’s better than Reddox. With that said, needs to not be on our second line.
Souray
- He’s in a scoring slump and I think it’s connected to him being forced to take too many snapshots and slappers from the far right point. There’s no flow to center ice with him lately. It may be tougher for him with Visnovsky out but maybe he steps up?
Smid
- He was okay but was stuck to a partner having a putrid night and suffered some because of having to run around covering Steve’s butt.
Gilbert
- Looked a touch shaky but improved as the game went on. You can tell the last game really shook his confidence. He made a couple really solid defensive stops though.
Grebeshkov
- Played pretty well. The pressure will be on him to step up his play in Lubo’s absence. I think he can do it.
Visnovsky
- Crap. Well, those of you who don’t appreciate this guy are about to see how important he really is to this team. Our D just got tons worse which isn’t good because that’s all we have going for us…he’s also a massive part of our offence which is struggling even with him…this is NOT GOOD. Call up Peckham. Strudwick can’t hack it every night.
Roloson
- He was really good in the first and made enough saves that we should have had a lead. In the second however his play dropped off and he lost focus. The Hawks first and third goals went right through him again bringing our 4 game running total to at least 7. That’s not good enough. He’s not good enough. Not to say that we would have won, just stating that he’s not good enough for us to win consistently with him.
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Well…I think they’ll bounce back well on the road. We play with a different strategy on the road for some reason. What I’d do? Well I’d fire the coach and bring in a staff that has a different strategy and a different ethic. I’d move for a center and a defenceman if I could too. On the minor level; send down Reddox and Potulny and call up Brule and Schremp. Also call up Peckham. I don’t care if they don’t all play every night.
I’d also make MacIntyre the lineup defacto rather than Stortini. If Z isn’t getting people kicked out; he’s ineffective.
Pass the peanut butter; I've had enough of this jam crap.
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