GDT – Edmonton Oilers 1, Phoenix Coyotes 6 – Feb 8, 2010 @ 7:30 PM – SNET – Game 58
By Racki, February 8, 2010 8:03 am
GDT - Edmonton Oilers at Phoenix Coyotes
PRE-GAME RANT
The Oilers are coming off a very poor performance in Colorado in which Deslauriers kept the score as close as it was. The previous game was a loss against the Wild after two wins (vs. Philadelphia and Carolina). The Coyotes were blanked 4-0 vs. the Stars on Saturday, but their previous six games were win. The two teams have had opposite looking seasons this year. The Oilers are 2-7-1 in the last 10 games while the Coyotes are 7-3-0. The Oilers are 18-33-6 on the year and the Coyotes are nearly the inverse at 35-19-5. This is another good example of a team that has gone through tough years but is seeing the fruits of their labour. With any luck, the Oilers will see the same turnaround soon.
Anyways, I figure another loss, unfortunately (depending on your point of view, I suppose). Prediction: Coyotes 4, Oilers 3.
PROJECTED LINE-UPS
Edmonton Oilers Projected Line-Up (subject to change)
Penner-Potulny-Nilsson
Brule-Pouliot-O’Sullivan
Moreau – Horcoff – Pisani
Jacques-Cogliano-Comrie
Visnovsky-Smid
Grebehskov-Gilbert
Strudwick-Staios
Deslauriers
Pitton
Phoenix Coyotes Projected Line-Up (subject to change)
Lombardi-Lang-Doan
Prucha-Hanzal-Vrbata
Pyatt-Perrault-Mueller
Bissonnette-Fiddler-Winnik
Jovanovski-Michalek
Vandermeer-Aucoin
Lepisto-Yandle
Bryzgalov
Labarbera
TEAM COMPARISON
 |
STATS |  |
|---|---|---|
| 57 | GP | 59 |
| 18 | W | 35 |
| 33 | L | 19 |
| 6 | OT | 5 |
| 42 | P | 75 |
| 0.368 | P% | 0.636 |
| 2.46 | G/G | 2.54 |
| 3.32 | GA/G | 2.48 |
| 19 | PP% | 16.1 |
| 75.1 | PK% | 83.3 |
| 28.5 | S/G | 29.6 |
| 31.9 | SA/G | 29.4 |
| 46.8 | FO% | 50.5 |
GAME NOTES
- Smid and Staios return to the lineup tonight. Not sure just yet on the lines, but I’ve posted my guess above. Will update the lines when I hear what they are.
- Looks like Gagner will be scratched tonight due to knee soreness. If he requires surgery and its delayed, I suggest that Trogdor gives up his spot in line for knee surgery so that Gagner can have it.
- Last minute change.. Comrie is in, Stortini is out.
- Add to that, Potulny will get top line billing, Pouliot hits the 2nd line, according to Dan Tencer.
SCORING SUMMARY
| 1ST PERIOD SCORING |
|---|
| – 9:58 – Jovanovsky from Lang, Lombardi |
| On a delayed penalty to Staios, Jovanovski gets the puck at the point and blasts it through traffic past Deslauriers. |
| – 19:29 – Lombardi from Doan, Lang |
| Lombardi receives a gorgeous, behind-the-back, no-look pass from Doan from behind the goal line (highlight material). Horcoff follows behind Lombardi as he goes across the front of the net. Lombardi just out waits Deslauriers who eventually goes down, and Lombardi backhands it up stairs. |
| 2ND PERIOD SCORING |
| – 1:11 – Lombardi from Vandermeer, Doan |
| Vandermeer makes a pass cross-ice through traffic to Lombardi on the entry into the zone. He shoots it up stairs past Deslauriers’ glove hand |
| – 5:48 – Vandermeer from Lombardi, Hanzal |
| Vandermeer shoots it from the point. It redirects in off Strudwick in the high slot and fools Deslauriers. |
| 3RD PERIOD SCORING |
| – 4:19 – Vrbata from Lombardi |
| At the end of a penalty to the Coyotes, Vrbata gets the puck and blows past Grebeshkov in alone on Deslauriers. He dekes glove side on Deslauriers and beats him. |
| – 11:40 – Lang from Pyatt |
| Lang skates into the slot and backhands it low past Deslauriers. |
| – 15:32 – Penner from Nilsson |
| Penner beats Jovanovsky, and then loses control of the puck, but Nilsson reels it in. Nilsson throws it back across to Penner and Jovanovski kicks it at Bryzgalov. Bryzy makes the save and it rebounds to Penner who puts it behind the goaltender. |
| SHOTS ON GOAL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | |
| EDM |
13 | 9 | 12 | 34 |
| PHX |
12 | 10 | 11 | 33 |
1ST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
16:10 – Nilsson is nailed by Prucha just after the whistle. Luckily he half dodged the hit, but could have ended ugly with potential knee contact.
15:15 – The vet line look like a bunch of lost idiots on this shift, unable to perform a basic break out.
14:08 – Bissonnette runs over Deslauriers and tries to sell it as an accident, but the ref isn’t buying.
13:19 – Phoenix is called for a second penalty, giving the oil a 5-on-3 for 1:08.
12:51 – Comrie just misses putting in a power play goal on the side of the net.
11:14 – The Coyotes successfully kill off both penalties of the 5-on-3. The Oilers generated 7 shots over both powerplays, but Bryzgalov stood tall.
7:11 – Good toe drag by Brule to get past Yandle into the middle of the ice in on Bryzgalov. He doesn’t quite have enough room to beat Bryzgalov though and also ends up taking the goal post to the face. He earns a pat on the shoulder from one of the coaches for his efforts.
6:25 – Bryzgalov makes a nice save on Nilsson in tight.
3:00 – About 1 minute into another Oilers powerplay, and it looks horrific. Not sure if this is because of the Oilers bad powerplay ability or Coyotes exceptional penalty killing. I’ll go with a combination of both.
2ND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
18:03 – Doan gets hurt battling for a puck. He leaves the ice to the dressing room. Looked like it may have been his wrist.
14:44 – Jovanovski throws a good hit on Brule.
13:40 – Doan returns to the Coyotes bench, so looks like he’s OK.
11:40 – Big hit here by Brule on Fiddler who was just laying a hit on Pouliot at the time.
11:00 – Strudwick bowls over Fiddler at the blueline, from behind as he’s catching up to him.
9:56 – Penner accidentally high-sticks Hanzal and draws blood and earns a 4 minute penalty.
6:20 – 3 and a half minutes into this double-minor, and we’re now just finally seeing signs of life from the Coyotes on this powerplay. Good kill by the Oilers.
5:49 – Penner’s penalty expires and he gets an end-to-end pass from Pouliot at the Coyotes blue line. He is in nearly alone on Bryzgalov and fires a shot that Bryzy just gets enough of, as it raises up high and out of play.
4:43 – What a play by Brule as he goes around a sprawling d-man to backhand a pass out to O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan gets a great shot off but Bryzgalov absolutely robs him as he quickly goes post to post.
1:41 – Good defensive play by Strudwick to prevent a Winnik breakaway here.
1:27 – Bissonnette looks like the new agitator/actor of the year trying to sell a Pouliot hit as dirty… with a 4-0 lead.
3RD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
19:10 – Potulny tries to pass it across to Penner on the other side of the net. Bryzgalov bites and cheats across, but the puck comes back to Potulny. He tries to jam it in, but Bryzgalov quickly recovers and gets his pad across.
17:48 – Good play by Pouliot to drive to the net with Lang hanging off his back. He rings it off the post and draws a penalty.
12:43 – Big hit by Brule on Perreault… he ends up leaving the game due to the hit.
11:50 – Nice moves by Vrbata here to toe-drag the shiat out of Pisani and Staios.
11:15 – Strudwick starts a fight with Bissonnette. Starts off looking like a mistake here. But midway through, Strudwick battles back. Both of these guys tally a decent punch count. No real big bombs, just several shots.
7:12 – Comrie fights Prucha and earns the KO on the second punch. Wowza. Prucha throws the first punch, and then Comrie lands a glancing blow, then connects on the beak of Prucha, knocking him down.
2:40 – Penner throws a cross-ice pass to Nilsson. Nilsson one times it, but Bryzgalov quickly gets across and takes the shot in the crest. Nilsson gets the rebound and puts it on net again, but Bryzgalov saves it yet again.
POST-GAME RANT
The score was pretty brutally ugly, however it may be slightly misleading. The Oilers definitely deserved a loss, but performances by Bryzgalov and Lombardi really made the score what it was. Bryzgalov stood on his head and was only outdone by Lombardi who had a 5 point night. For the Oilers, Nilsson had a pretty good game offensively, showing more signs of being a shooter tonight (although not gaining any rewards from the shooting). Brule also had a great game as he threw his weight around and worked some magic with the puck. Comrie had a brief tussle with Prucha in the 3rd, scoring the KO as he connected with a punch right to the face of Prucha, buckling his knees and sending him to the “frozen canvass”.
Pretty mediocre game played by Deslauriers tonight. He didn’t get much help back there, but he also wasn’t bailing anyone out either. The loss doesn’t rest on his shoulders, however. This game did have too many freeloaders in white tonight, and that resulted in the lopsided score.
Next game, Wednesday night at 8:00 on TSN vs. the Ducks, in Anaheim.
| Draft Watch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| # | TEAM | PTS | GP |
| 27 |  |
54 | 58 |
| 28 |  |
49 | 58 |
| 29 |  |
49 | 60 |
| 30 | |
42 | 58 |
- Metal&Oil:
- Racki:
- hemmerlady:
- Trogdor:
- Steve-O:
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Themocracy
Btw, I do agree that the score is misleading. The Oil haven’t been THAT bad, but yah, definitely haven’t been good either. It should probably be more like 4-2 or so.
yeah, saw that too…if he’s out, I really hope they take a good look at Spezza, he seems to have found his form again, is awesome at faceoffs, is big, and has mad skill.
Well I’d have to guess Penner is no longer a backup plan for the Olys.. lol
Not too bad a fight. Good recovery by Strudwick.
lol, isn’t that my line? Get a shutout Bryz!
Struds had me worried at the beginning of that tilt but he finished ok.
yeah, looked like Strudz was gonna get rocked at first, gret recovery.
On the Olympic subject again, I kinda forgot about Vinny…we couldn’t go wrong with him either.
Jeez, there’s the 6-0 game that should have been Sat night.
Man do I feel bad for JDD.
Man…. goaltending isn’t really buying them any breaks tonight either.
Of course, they’re not giving him any breaks either. But he’s been beat by a few that probably shouldn’t go in. Not his fault the way the night’s gone though. Just not helping!
That’s an interesting matchup…
wow, what a short, but good fight by Comrie.. landed one on the button there.
Btw, getzlaf prognosis = ankle sprain. Good news for him.
I really like Comrie, of all our “vets” he’s about the on;y one I wouldn’t mind seeing back next year(Hemsky’s a given)
gr8one: agreed 100% (Aside from obvious guys like Visnovsky/Hemsky and the young vets like Penner).
Any goalie playing behind this team would have a battered psyche, IMO the poor kid has played well all season, he just clearly wasn’t ready this year to be thrust in to a starting role, especially on such a terrible team.
Finally..
woooot Penner!!!!
and yeah, I guess there are more “givens” than hemsky, hehe.
which leads me to wonder, at what point does a player graduate to being a vet?
Gagner and Cogs have some seasons under their belts now, but they certainly aren’t considered vets, but should they be?
and it’s funny, because Hemmer and Penner are certainly “vets” but I don’t really think of them that way.
Interesting they are commenting on the Coyote’s not scoring on the pp – who cares really if you can pot 6 goals 5 on 5…
And Penner breaks the SHUTOUT!!!
This is definitely true!
welp,
one step closer to the highest probabbilty for a #1 pick!!!
woooohooo!
probability.
Yeah, but you know I am impressed by his resolve night in night out. He’s definitely forming a solid foundation of mental toughness this season – hopefully in a few years he can look back at this season and say if I can survive that I can survive anything.
I applaud him if he can come out of these games mentally stable. But at least the majority of the time it’s not his fault. He let in a couple of saveable goals tonight, which is par for the course. He played pretty “average”, at best (but I would not say he played bad). But definitely not his fault for the loss tonight.
Quite the nite for our checking line…
Moreau -4
Pisani -3
Horcoff -3
Going to be hard to move any of these guys like this…
Also interesting that Grebs/Gilbert were the leaders in ice time at over 24 mins apiece. The rest of the D were around 18 mins.
Will there be a move? I’m beginning to be very doubtful.
Well thanks for the GDT, I’m off to bed. Long day coming up at work tomorrow, can’t keep staying up til 3AM anymore!
Thanks for stopping by, as always, LNOF!
Yikes… that says a lot. I mean, yah, those guys do play the top line, but I really do think we can do as well with 3 pylons out on the ice.
Fear not. This is their…..wait for it……………………..SHOWCASE!
Another sad stat… 10 losses in a row on the road and 10 goals scored. No matter how good or bad JDD or DD has been, they can’t score goals. Brule played with some desire tonite, comrie a bit other than that another sad nite to be following these guys. Losses are fine, not showing up is another story.
Oh, I’m so glad I decided to see a client out in Cynthia today. Sounds better than watching the game. For those who don’t know where that is, here: http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&source=hp&ie=UTF8&q=cynthia+alberta+map&fb=1&gl=ca&ei=u_NwS5-OLpugMsOf3YsG&ved=0CBIQpQY&view=map&geocode=FTT7LAMdzNge-Q&split=0&iwloc=A&sa=X Basically bumf*** Alberta.
We can get rid of any player on this team with our first pick but then we’d be giving up our future pretty much and the brass would be letting our fan base go too. I still think we can deal a few of these guys giving away our 2nd + 3rd round picks (they ought to be close to top picks) in return for a UFA of sorts. I think that would be best if we could deal Horc in a trade like that.
Still think the magic number will be 65 at most.
I hate to say it, but if performances by the “checking line” guys continue to be like that, and they aren’t tradeable, then Katz may just have to eat an ugly amount of salary. It’s not like this is the first night where they’ve been terribly outplayed. They really bring negative value to our team. My only hope is that some GM out there thinks they can play better under his team. If not, I really think they need to bounce these guys through waivers (except Pisani) and recall waivers if no one claims them.
If they’re still unclaimed, well, then I’d say you just have to stuff them in the minors. Like I said, they’re hurting the team. I know it’s not my money to spend, but I hope Katz is willing to do something like that.
Uh oh, Quinn’s mentioning names in his post-game bus-throwings now. lol
Who’d he mention?
This is my point exactly Racki. If they don’t even show up and show a little bit of heart, why would another GM want to take a chance on these guys unless we are taking large contract (hopefully in the short term) in return. Right now we would be lucky for 5th rounders and I would take that right now. I hate being negative about them but if there is no effort, then there needs to be some sort of action, with waiving/demoting being required if no deals can be had.
There are 13 guys on UFA or RFA status and they certainly aren’t playing for it save for Gagner and Brule.
Quinn: The checking line wasn’t into it, the numbers speak for themselves, they won’t get traded for like that…
Nilsson..
“And then Nilsson turns it over, probably 5 times in a row”
Ah, poor bobby. He’s always getting picked on by Quinn, which he does bring up good points of course but Nilsson doesn’t really fit the Quinn type of player. I still think Nilsson has a lot of upside but he just can’t fit in with the system very well, especially when he’s not really allowed to be “creative”.
Yah I don’t know… there are definitely several guys who look really catatonic out there, like their on auto pilot. We’ve got some key injuries, in fairness, but they should be able to make it interesting at least. Ah well. Next year looks promising though, right?
For a guy that i’ve ragged on most of the year, he still really competes most nights, and at both ends of the ice. I’m still unsure of his value, but he’s brought it most nights lately while the team has stunk the NHL up. I guess he just had a bad night in Quinn’s books.
Sure does. Rishaug mentioned on Gregor’s show today that MPS probably wont be over next year rather the year after that. It might make sense if we are trying to break in Eberle and Seguin or Hall.
Haboiler, yah I heard that too from Rishaug, and that would be a good plan. It’s too bad he wouldn’t come play in the AHL though. But in a way, that could be bad anyways. But our farm team will always stink if our top prospects bypass it.
Yeah, I can’t really say I’ve paid too close attention to his play but it just strikes me as a guy that tries to do the fancy dipsy-doodles, go for the fancy passes and its where he ends up turning the puck over. Now if he was cranking the guy that he turned the puck over too I’m sure Quinn would have no problem what so ever (if it didn’t lead to a scoring chance).
On another note the few times I was watching Smid tonight, he made a few nice plays and carried the puck through the neutral zone at quite the pace once or twice.
Is this worth it? If they can’t find a taker… 2013-15 is rough but the rest isn’t too bad…
SHAWN HORCOFF BUYOUT FROM CAPGEEK.COM
2010-2011: $733,333
2011-2012: $733,333
2012-2013: $1,233,333
2013-2014: $3,233,333
2014-2015: $4,233,333
2015-2016: $1,733,333
2016-2017: $1,733,333
2017-2018: $1,733,333
2018-2019: $1,733,333
2019-2020: $1,733,333
I guess Pierre Mcguire won’t be re-purchasing his season tickets then.
That comment he made a few weeks ago really pissed me off, for a guy that’s suppose to have hockey sense sometimes he really goes off the deep end.
I dunno Haboiler.. that’s a long time to be on the hook. Btw, you should look up Nilsson’s buy out.. that’s an interesting one.. almost makes you want to do it.
But as for Horcoff, that’s just so much salary. I don’t normally wish this on players, but I kind of hope he retires quite early instead. Maybe they just wait it out a year or two and he packs it in. But hey, he could still turn it around next year somehow, although doubtful. Wishful thinking either way though.
Yah he’s a nutbar. You should have heard him and Mike Milbury in yesterday’s game though. I’m not sure if he was kidding or not, but Milbury glared at him and basically told him to stfu because he was cutting him off. He seemed really agitated. lol And the rest of the game, Pierre was sucking up to him.
I checked out Nillson and its a no brainer being at 1/3 of the salary since he is so young. The only other positive for the cap is if he is demoted and the cap hit is zero. I agree Horc is a long time and would be an act of desparation. I believe by 2013 he will be a better candidate for a buyout at that time if he doesn’t retire or is able to be traded.
O’Sully is 935 and 400ish over 2 years on a buyout as well. Id rather waive or demote than buyout imo.
Yah, Horcoff, don’t think they’ll do anything with him until that cap hit drops. Then maybe he’s tradeable or they buy him out or he retires, as you said.
Anyways folks, bed time.. thanks for dropping by!