TORTS
The Coachless Canucks head north to Edmonton tonight leaving behind John Tortorella. JT, as he prefers to be called, was just handed down a 15 day suspension from the NHL for his actions on Hockey Day in Canada and the first game his team will attempt to play without his expert leadership will be the Oilers. Torts bravely attempted to protect his little darlings like any good mama bear would if her cubs were threatened. Since the players themselves were entirely incapable of self-protection from the brute squad that is the Calgary Flames 4th line it was up to the coach to storm the Flames dressing room like it was Normandy and run headlong into danger. It was truly a heroic act of bravery and he shall be remembered as a true leader who stood up to the villainy of Bob Hartley and the Calgary Flames.
Or maybe not.
I’m sure that if he could do it all over again he would have saved his frustration over Hartley’s lineup choices for the post-game scrum. It was an incredibly dumb thing that Torts did and he deserves to be suspended for it, but isn’t this exactly what we all wanted from him? Wasn’t his mental breakdown after coaching in a Canadian city for less than 5 months the kind of validation we all wanted when we (and I know I’m not the only one) questioned the Canucks when they chose him to be Vigneault’s replacement? Of course it is.
PETRY
Jeff Petry’s game is in a bit of a death spiral right now and I don’t foresee a way for him to snap out of it except through some hard work. We’ve seen him play better than this so it’s frustrating to watch him struggle so badly. Every year it seems as though he has to remind himself to play with more physicality and that’s the disconcerting thing for me. He is the classic American born College developed blueliner. He plays a game of positioning and puck movement but shies away from the rough stuff.
When he adds the physical element to his game he can be a very effective defender, but without it he looks like he did against Wheeler. Blake Wheeler has been in rougher pillow fights than that. He walked in on Petry and JP, as he prefers to be called, didn’t so much as push him. I don’t know if he’s tired from playing big minutes or simply over his head. I doubt it’s the conditioning so I’m inclined to believe that the toll of being eaten up by tough competition every night is just breaking him down.
I don’t think Petry needs a change of scenery. He can succeed in Edmonton. However, I do think he needs to have the right partner to get the most out of him. He and Belov are both big men who use positioning to get the puck and move it up ice again. I would like him to play with someone more physical who can do the dirty work in front of the net and battle more so Petry’s deficiencies aren’t exposed so often. When the Oilers moved Smid they took away someone who did exactly that and they haven’t replaced that physical element yet.
LINEUPS
Ben Scrivens will get the start tonight and it looks like a regular rotation is what we can expect while the Oilers are auditioning these two Goalies. It makes perfect sense to let them battle it out and both get a chance to prove something. If one separates himself from the other then the Oil can attempt to extend him and the other can possibly be moved at the deadline. Potter will be in tonight for Belov
The big lineup notes for the Canucks are that Luongo gets the start and Henrik is gone for the first time in 10 years. There isn’t a softer place to get your first starts after injury than Calgary and Edmonton so this makes sense for Luongo. As for Sedin, he snaps an ironman streak of 679 games tonight. An incredible feat, no? NO. It is not. I lost respect for Sedin’s streak a long time ago when he took the opening faceoff in a game against the Oilers and then never played another second of the game. That isn’t an ironman streak, that’s vainly padding a record. Those 679 consecutive games are faker than Barry Bonds’ homerun record. He’s a wonderful player who seems to always destroy the Oil, but an ironman he is not.
Hall RNH Eberle Perron Gagner Jones Smyth Gordon Hendricks Gazdic Arco Joensuu
Ference J. Schultz Potter Petry N. Schultz Marincin
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Own Your Space. I have been accosted by the guy at the mall kiosk selling toy helicopters more aggressively than Oiler defensemen do to opposing forwards on the rush. From the Captain on down the lineup the entire squad needs to act like the territory behind the blueline is theirs and someone is coming to take it. Get in someone’s face and fight for it already.
2) Matchup Mayhem. The Oilers are at home where they have the advantage of last change and the Canucks’ head coach is on a league mandated timeout. Now is the time to wreak havoc with matchups. If there is one iota of confusion on the visiting bench then it’s an advantage the Oilers will need.
3) Show Scrivens Some Support. In his 1st Oiler game he was privy to all of the bad that is associated with the team. It was defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown and it resulted in a shooting gallery. The team owes it to their new backstopper to give him their best effort.
Puck drops at 7:38PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy