It worked, but 9/39 Gagner? Playing a hunch I suppose. Gagner wouldn't even be my 10th shooter.
We haven't been in too many shootouts this year and Gagner's scored on both of his opportunities. Maybe he's figured something out. Speed kills. Use it.
The D deserves a lot of credit for keeping the shots to the outside.
A lot of routine saves for Dubnyk.
Routine saves aren't quite Dubnyk's forte to be fair.
He was solid tonight though. Shaky moments with his puck handling behind the net, but he didn't let in a crappy goal as is tradition with him. Definitely 1st star.
It was of the utmost importance to win this game. We needed a victory after the crappy performance, a bag skate, and some team soul searching. They needed their spirits brightened and hopefully tomorrows game isn't gruesome.
So... that was pretty much the Calgary game replayed except Dubnyk played like a god.
We got outshot like 50-20... zzzz.
Weird stat, we are 14-12 against teams currently holding a playoff spot.
This means we are 4-14 against teams out of a playoff spot. If that doesn't scream a badly motivated team, I don't know what does.
I disagree there. Calgary played like ass in that game (says a lot about the Oilers) they just found the net 5 times (excluding the empty netter) on shady goaltending.
The Oilers had better wise up here because tonight was hardly a cure all. Vancouver should slaughter them.
There, that is all I ask as a fan. We could have lost the game late, in ot or in the shootout and I would have been happy enough. We were outshot by a superior team but the team at least looked like they were trying for a full 60 minutes.
Did you watch the game? Yes the shots total was lopsided but most of those were from the outside, and very few second chances.
It was not the same game.
No classic, no one is doing cartwheels but gonna be happy with baby steps right now.
The defence for the first time in 40 games actually played calmly with the puck in our zone and looked for an outlook pass...shocking how you kill a team's momentum when they are one shot and done.
The defence for the first time in 40 games actually played calmly with the puck in our zone and looked for an outlook pass...shocking how you kill a team's momentum when they are one shot and done.
A lot less panic.
Breakout and offensive pressure still pretty non-existent but gotta walk before they can run at this point. Having Gilbert, Whitney and Barker (especially Gilbert) will help with this.
You appreciate how important Gilbert is to this team after watching the Oilers struggle to move the puck at all.
I'm not happy that Whitney is coming back tomorrow. He mentioned in the paper this morning that he's 80 percent right now but apparently he was 80 percent before because he says that nothing has changed.
Well, if nothing has changed with his ankle problem then I don't expect him to contribute anything.
I disagree there. Calgary played like ass in that game (says a lot about the Oilers) they just found the net 5 times (excluding the empty netter) on shady goaltending.
The Oilers had better wise up here because tonight was hardly a cure all. Vancouver should slaughter them.
We also got wrecked by San Jose's forecheck, physicality and gave the puck away like a hot potato all game long.
Not only that, we had effectively zero scoring chances except for the lucky bounce that Eberle potted.
I don't know about you guys but that is more like holding on for dear life than competitive hockey as far as I am concerned. I don't care if all the shots were from the outside, each shot has a 10% chance to find twine... getting outshot 45-18 is a game in which you have an extremely low winning percentage just off of fluky bounces.
They were outclassed, but the Oilers made up for their lack of talent with good positional hockey, kept the shooting lanes blocked off, only allowed passes along the perimeter.
Dare I say it, but Chorney was basically the only Oiler d-man who consistently moved the puck up the ice to the forwards. Petry was pretty good too, but he missed at least a handful of stretch passes. Good game for him overall though. But yeah, I thought Chorney played a hell of a game for a bottom pairing guy.
I can't understand why this team can't generate offense though. They've got Hall, Eberle, Gagner, Hemsky, Smyth...even Jones, Belanger, and Horc have been known to chip in a bit of offense. It doesn't make sense to me how they're struggling so bad to create opportunities. I suspect it has a lot to do with a defense that is impossibly bad at getting to the puck to them, but I'm not 100% sure that it's the case. Just an educated guess.
At least the *TRY* was there. I can handle games like that for the rest of the year, even if they only win 1/3 of them, as long as the effort level is there like it was tonight.
It was clear SJ didn't have their best stuff tonight, mostly perimeter work, and no Ryan Clowe to get in front of the net. They manhandled the Oilers and dominated possession for the most part but no second chances.
Terrible call on Hemsky - a 2 minute trip at best.
Good on Doobie to shut the door, especially the wrap around by Handzus.
Hartikainen looked good, not sure why he didn't play more in the 3rd (maybe cause Hemsky was out).
I liked Lander tonight, but still want to see him and PRV in the minors until they can dominate that level.
Petry was FANTASTIC!
After the grinding game tonight, we are going to get smoked in Vancity.
We also got wrecked by San Jose's forecheck, physicality and gave the puck away like a hot potato all game long.
Not only that, we had effectively zero scoring chances except for the lucky bounce that Eberle potted.
I don't know about you guys but that is more like holding on for dear life than competitive hockey as far as I am concerned. I don't care if all the shots were from the outside, each shot has a 10% chance to find twine... getting outshot 45-18 is a game in which you have an extremely low winning percentage just off of fluky bounces.
Again let's learn to walk before we can run shall we? No one is going cartwheels here. But considering how bad they have been defensively in their own zone. Limiting quality chances, not giving a whack of second chances, not panicking and actually boxing people out in the front of the net is significant progress.
