The Edmonton Oilers have had their share of troubles in the Sommet Center. Tonight, the only trouble they had was knowing when to let off the gas pedal. 12,179 looked on in the Sommet Center as the Oilers rushed past the Nashville Predators in a 6-1 victory.
Felder’s FRUSTRATED Five:
1. The Hamhuis/Klein Pairing - Very bad night for them. In fact, so bad that Trotzy broke them up. You can read the details of the goals for the play by play of where they went wrong, but their stats speak for themselves.
2. Where's the Resiliency? - For a team and coach that preaches so much about this trait I didn't see much of it in the 1st period tonight. Maybe my eyes deceived me but after that 1st goal against I didn't see a lot of bounce back effort from the team. Again, other than a few players, the energy and drive we've seen most seasons was invisible. The curious thing is that the new players on the team (the ones who are new to the culture) are not the guilty ones in most cases.
3. Turning Scoring Chances Into Goals - I appreciate the amount of shots on goal and scoring chances the Preds put up tonight. For the record, the Preds won the shots on goal stat 41 to 20. The problem is this team has a tough time turning scoring chances and shots on goals into actual goals. Don't get me wrong, burying the puck is a very tough thing to do, but all too often they shoot the puck right into the chest of the goaltender. Jeff Deslauriers is considered a rookie but does have 10 NHL games to his credit with a .901 save percentage and 3.33 goals against average. That said, veteran players should have found a way to get more past the less experienced net minder considering the amount of shots put up. I fully expect some line shakeups from Trotz in the near future. His top line is the only one that has put up goals this entire season. Yes, we are only 4 games in, but he's even started to publicly call out for scoring from the 2nd line down.
4. Fundamentals Gentlemen. It Takes Fundamentals - Passing, playing the right man, coming back on D, having an efficient forecheck, etc. They are all fundamentals, but on nights like this it's amazing how many times you look down and see guys not sticking to said fundamentals. Giveaways were a huge problem tonight. 14 total for the team with Erat and Sullivan contributing 4 apiece. Even though there are games on Wednesday and Thursday, Barry may bag skate this club tomorrow. If not, it needs to be a practice of fundamentals first.
5. Yep, the MAN ADVANTAGE - It is what it is folks. There has been no improvements since last season. It looks exactly the same. How this continues to go on without some type of style change or more is beyond me. Tonight the man advantage went 0-6 with 11:44 of PP TOI. They did manage 17 shots on goal, but those don't count on the final scoreboard. I like the amount of shots, but again, this special teams unit is sinking to the bottom of the league yet another year.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratches were Wade Belak and Ben Guite. J.P. Dumont was placed on IR this morning but it is retroactive so he could still return this week if the Preds choose to. Jordin Tootoo remains on IR.
* 1ST PERIOD
* 18:22 to go. Triston Grant and Zach Stortini drop the gloves right after a faceoff. It would be very difficult to detail the entire fight since it lasted almost 3+ minutes. Stortini led early but Grant battled back valiantly. Were I forced to pick I winner I would give the slightest edge to Stortini but I was impressed with Grant since once I figured out who he was fighting I though he would get blown up. Great fight though and one that should be viewed in its entirety.
* GOAL for EDMONTON - 12:49 to go. Kevin Klein pinches along the boards on J-F Jacques at an inopportune time. Jacques squirts the puck out of his end to Ales Hemsky who takes off with the puck and puts the Oilers on a 2 v 1. Hamhuis was the lone D-man back and failed to take either the man with the puck or the possible shooter. This gave Edmonton the perfect 2 on 1 and Shawn Horcoff tallied high on Pekka Rinne who was still moving post to post as the slap shot was fired. Nice execution on the 2 on 1 with the Preds defensive miscues. Horcoff (1) from Hemsky (3) and Jacques (1). The Oilers have a 1-0 lead.
* GOAL for EDMONTON - 8:58 to go. Dustin Penner gains the offensive zone with speed through the neutral zone. He fakes a move into the crease, gets Hamhuis to bite just enough and sweeps to the outside. Penner fires a quick saucer pass thru the top of the crease. Gilbert Brule was driving the net on the back door and got his stick on the puck and into the net before Klein could clear him from the crease. Brule (2) from Dustin Penner (2) and Ladislav Smid (3). The Oilers have an early 2-0 lead.
* POWER PLAY GOAL for EDMONTON - 6:02 to go. Mike Comrie takes the puck behind the net but just before he gets fully behind it he makes a quick pass to Zack Stortini. Stortini lets off a slap shot in close and handcuffs Rinne who seemed unprepared for the shot. The puck glides in between the blocker and leg pad. Stortini (1) from Comrie (3) and Taylor Chorney (1). The Oilers have built up to a 3-0 lead.
* GOAL for EDMONTON - 28.2 seconds to go. Zach Stortini is owning tonight. This time he tallies with a back hand shot in close that flutters in through the hole between Rinne's blocker and leg pad. Not much else to say on this one as it was just a nice shot by Stortini but you have to think Rinne should have stopped it. This is the first time Stortini has ever had 2 goals in one game. Stortini (2) from Andrew Cogliano (3) and Jason Strudwick (2). The Oilers are dominating and have a 4-0 lead.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 0 EDM: 4Positives - The Preds had plenty of scoring chances and a fair amount of shots on goal (12). Wilson has looked pretty good for his 1st period and even drew a penalty. Negatives - The defensive pairing of Hamhuis and Klein. Neutral zone play. Couple of soft goals given up.
* 2ND PERIOD
* Dan Ellis starts in net to begin the period.
* GOAL for EDMONTON - 17:53 to go. Dan Hamhuis gets the puck along the boards on the bench side of the ice and right at his blueline no looks a back hand pass to the opposite side. Problem. Patrick O'Sullivan was on the same blueline and Hammer put the puck right to him. O'Sullivan strides in, finds Cogliano speeding behind and past Hamhuis, giving him a breakaway. Cogs takes the puck and fakes stick side, gets Ellis to drop in the butterfly, and then squirts the puck past a now outstretched Ellis low glove side. Ellis did try to poke check the puck away but was unsuccessful. Cogliano (1) from O'Sullivan (3). The Oilers have this one in their total control with a 5-0 lead.
* GOAL for EDMONTON - 2:03 to go. This time we have Denis Grebeshkov tallying high glove on Ellis. Bouillon was in a battle along the boards with Penner, who found Grebeshkov on the inner half of the faceoff circle. Kevin Klein dropped to prevent a back door pass but Grebeshkov lifted the puck over Klein's stick and in. Grebeshkov (2) from Penner (3) and Brule (2). Oil have the 6-0 lead.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 48.8 to go. A tap in from Jason Arnott's stick as he drove to the net. Hornqvist fed the puck towards the net from the boards and Arnott had driven in past Lubomir Visnovsky. The puck goes off Arnott's stick and under Jeff Deslauriers pads for the first Predators goal. This breaks the 104 minutes and 23 seconds shutout streak the Preds were on. Arnott (3) from Hornqvist (3) and Hamhuis (1). The game is now 6-1 Edmonton.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 1 EDM: 6Positives - The shutout streak is over. The Preds still lead in shots on goal 26-16. Negatives - More sloppy D that cost a couple of goals.
* 3RD PERIOD
* 16:10 to go. Steve Sullivan gets a breakaway after a real nice quick pass from Hornqvist. Sully faked glove side and tried to deke over to the stick side for the goal but Deslauriers poke checked the puck away and made the tough save.
* 12:10 to go and Deslauriers comes up with yet another brilliant save. This time he gloves down a wire shot from Joel Ward. Everyone in the building thought this one was destined for the twine but the Oilers goaltender somehow robs Wardo. What a save… Go watch the highlight on this one, it's worth the time.
* FINAL SCORE –NSH - 1 EDM - 6.
My Three Stars:
1. Stortini - 2 goals, +1 rating, 1 fighting major, and 2 shots on goal.
2. Deslauriers - 40 saves on 41 shots. Made at least 2 huge saves that could have turned momentum.
3. Brule - 1 game winning goal, 1 assist, +2 rating, 2 shots on goal, won 50% of his faceoffs.
Goalie Grades:C+/B – The starting goaltender tonight was Pekka Rinne. Rinne was pulled during intermission and Dan Ellis got into the pipes to start the 2nd period. Rinne finished the night with just 5 saves on 9 shots against. His last 2 goals given up were a bit weak from my view. Ellis stopped 9 of 11 shots. The Cogliano goal was unstoppable after such a giveaway. The Grebeshkov goal was a 50/50 in my eyes and I partially blame Klein for the early drop down to his knee. All in all, an average night of goaltending and it will certainly inflate the stats the guys had.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "That scrap with Stortini went on for quite some time. Have you ever been in a fight that lasted so long before?"
Triston Grant - "Oh yeah. I've had a couple. It's a grind when it comes to that. When you get tired you have to be smart and go with your instincts. That's when guys get hurt the most is when they lose control and get tired. It happens all the time and guys train for it all the time so it paid off."
*
Felder - "Talk about regardless of the result it was a really exciting night for you with your NHL debut."
Colin Wilson - "Yeah, it was nice to get it out of the way. I only get one 1st NHL game so it was really exciting but obviously not the result we wanted."
Felder - "What differences really stood out to you between college hockey and tonight?"
Wilson - "Everybody is in the right position and everybody is really fast. I think the game is that much more quick. You're expecting to make a move and you're at the net by yourself but there's always a D man covering and everybody is just very good."
*
Felder - "With your next game scheduled to be up against Chicago what kind of things are you personally going to focus on?"
Pekka Rinne - "I don't know if I'm going to get to play against Chicago or not. Personally I just need to make the saves. I don't like to think about it too much, (the) techniques or anything like that. I just go out there and play hard. It was a tough break but it's going to happen sometimes and hopefully I can just bounce back from it."
Felder - "Are you usually better off just putting it behind you and starting your prep work for the next game?"
Rinne - "I'm that kind of person, that I'm not going to think about it a lot. Probably tonight and tomorrow, but then I'm going to try to practice well tomorrow and just work hard. That's the thing that helps with me. I just try to work hard and get over it."
*
Felder - "You talked about the guys sticking to the plan. Did you feel like there were more individual's trying to play than a team play?"
Barry Trotz - "No. Not at all. We tried to stay with it. When we got down four to nothing we had stretches where we tried to do things… you know everybody wants to be a hero and we got away from that a little bit. But it's about responsibilities on both sides of the puck. We were trying so hard offensively to get back in the game that you tend to cut corners on the defensive side of it. I thought we did that at times but we kept trying to score right until the end but we just couldn't score."
Felder - "Have giveaways been a big concern for you these past couple of games?"
Trotz - "Well yeah, they are. The routine giveaways are when a team forces you into the those real tough areas and you don't have any other option but to basically just punt for lack of a better word. You just got to get it deep and try to get it to the next layer of people. I would call a giveaway is when we have the puck and give it right to them, which we did a couple of times tonight. The 5th goal were they turn around and throw a blind pass up the middle and then they (Edmonton) go in on a breakaway, that's a giveaway and that's a bad giveaway. We can't have that. That's not giving the respect to your teammates because your not being sharp."
And the quote of the night produced from a John Glennon question about changing line combos in the 3rd period:
Trotz - "The last couple of years we've had Leggy and Erat tied together but I'm not getting any production there, so let's plan to move them around and see if we can get some combinations. For whatever reason there's no production on the other lines so I don't think I have a whole lot to lose."
Final Thoughts:
What a Happy Thanksgiving Day for the Oilers fans. Their team shined in many aspects of tonight's game. This certainly helps them feel a little more at ease when they visit the Music City, which had been a horror house for them in previous seasons. As for the Predators, the positives from this game were the shots on goal and Colin Wilson. The negatives are quite a list. My overall impression of this game looks very unfavorably on the D. In fact, I'm wondering what Jon Blum and Alex Sulzer are up to these days…..
The Predators next game is Wednesday night in Dallas. The game will be on FS-TN and the faceoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm CST. The Preds exercised some demons the last time they visited the AAC so maybe another game against the Stars will help them find their offensive cure. Maybe.
Till next time, take care.
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