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G9 Oilers @ Senators: Messages From The Basement

October 19, 2013, 9:47 AM ET [655 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
This afternoon the Oilers attempt to turn around their young season starting with the Ottawa Senators. The team has dug itself such a deep hole that without a winning track record it’s hard to believe they can truly recover. No, I’m not saying the season is lost already, but I am saying that there is a lot of ground to cover if they want to make it back to respectable positioning in the West. As of right now they are last in the Conference.

Dubnyk played reasonably well against the Islanders. Sure, the team allowed 40 shots, but Dubnyk stopped 37 of them. And who can honestly blame Dubnyk on the game winner from Tavares alone in the slot? The team lost but a few more solid outings from 40 and maybe we can stop the crazy talk.

MESSAGES FROM THE BASEMENT




I’m not going to take Eakins’ comment personally but I will point out that in this case he is dead wrong. Bloggers (in basements or otherwise) have had nothing to do with the Yakupov trade rumors lately. The biggest perpetrators have been the MSM. Yes, the very same MSM sources who have many times openly mocked bloggers for acting like unprofessional fools are responsible for the most baseless and ridiculous Yakupov talk.

Take for example the fact that Darren Dreger stated on radio that he doesn’t think the Leafs would deal Reimer for Yakupov. We all know that Darren Dreger is Dave Nonis’ cousin, right? So this statement is either an indictment of the Leafs organization because they would be clearly insane to think Reimer >>>>Yakupov or it’s an indictment of Dreger. How anybody could be offered one of the NHL’s best young players for their backup goalie and pass is beyond me. If Reimer was that good he’d be the starter. He isn’t. He has a history with concussions and his team trusted him so much that they traded for Jonathan (Not Steve) Bernier. Struggling or not, you make that trade every day of the week if you are the Maple Leafs because it’s so one-sided. So how or why would one of the NHL’s most prominent members of the media somehow lose sight of that? That’s a question for Dreger to answer.

Let’s also look at Pierre LeBrun giving credence to a Yakupov for Miller and Vanek rumor. This is again a high profile member of the MSM talking about a trade that doesn’t make sense on so many levels that not even the least sane members of the blogosphere can believe it. A 1st overall pick in year 2 for 2 expiring contracts and about 10 extra million dollars in Cap room??? The Oilers would have to throw in Hemsky and Nick Schultz before the money even comes close to evening out. Did LeBrun’s source tell him that MacT fell down the stairs and has a brain injury? Because that’s what it would take to make this trade plausible.

So Dallas Eakins might think that the baseless or completely one-sided rumors may come from these corners of the internet, but he’d be wrong.

Regarding the subject of these rumors, obviously the Oilers need to do something to snap Yakupov out of his funk. They need him contributing offensively. The Coach has figured on moving him to the left side and at this point it’s worth a shot. Just to be clear, last season I thought he looked lost at LW and much better when he played RW. This year he has just looked lost, AND a lot of chances are coming for the rest of the LWs. Hall is scoring, Smytty is scoring, Perron is picking up points, the LWs are getting opportunities. Maybe Yakupov can get in on that. It’s going to start coming for him eventually. 64 is too talented to stay off the score sheet forever.

LINEUPS

Gagner has joined the team in Ottawa but he isn’t expected to play. That said, he must be pretty close to playing again if he’s on the trip. That will add a real wrinkle to the plans because Arcobello is picking up the assists out there and he’s good on the faceoff dot. I was convinced pretty early on that he was a tweener out there, but he keeps playing better. Now I’m beginning to wonder how they take him out of the top 9 considering he’s tied for the team lead in scoring. I still think Gagner comes into Arcobello’s spot but I’m wondering if Gordon shouldn’t take Acton’s.

Hall Arcobello Perron
Yakupov RNH Eberle
Smyth Gordon Hemsky
Gazdic/Jones Acton Brown

Belov J. Schultz
Smid Petry
Ference N. Schultz

Dubnyk

The Senators started the season relatively poorly but have bounced back and are above the .500 mark. Their club is getting contribution from multiple sources but Ryan and Spezza lead the way right now. They are also getting timely goaltending from both Anderson and Lehner who have .924 and .948 save percentages respectively. These are the starting lines from their last game. No word on who starts but as previously mentioned, both are providing solid goaltending.

Michalek Spezza Conacher
MacArthur Turris Ryan
Smith Greening Neil
Kassian Pageau Condra

Karlsson Methot
Philips Gryba
Cowen Wiercioch

???

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) PK Blues. The Oilers are a measly 69% on the PK. Is better goaltending the only answer?
2) Paging Yakupov. He has been MIA. The switch to portside will hopefully kick-start his offense.
3) Limit the Shots. They were doing a decent job before but it got away from them. They need to buy back in.

Puck drops at 12:08PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!

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