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Thanks Dennis.

Didn’t see the game, but from the look of the PK in the first period, we were killing STL on their powerplay. What changed on the Oilers PK? After the first, the numbers settled down some, but considering we gave em 5 pps, and they almost went 1/2 chances per PP, I need to ask if the PK was working tonight or if STL was/is incompetant on the PP.

Any thoughts?

UL: The only thing I can remember for sure is that on both the odd man advgs, the Oilers turned the puck over at the right blueline - and this is archived on TSN for anyone that wants to check - and then it was off to the races. So, did the Blues PP get the yips or did the Oilers pressure them into it? I know that the first SH chance came from 26 and as I said before, I don’t know if he’s a great PKer but the guy creates PK chances at the very least.

Now, while this has been a cool exercise for me because we’re halfway now and I can see how the Oilers operate and how the opp operates against them , I’m not charting the whole league so I don’t have the whole picture. On the PK I can say with great confidence that our forwards sag and give up the slot and that they’re easily mislead and that the D doesn’t do a good job of clearing traffic in front of Roli. But are these the trademarks of shitty PK units all over the league? We don’t know for sure but I’d gather they are.

BTW, 24 was right to go far side on Legace on the odd man break. He missed the net by a fucking mile but TSN had one replay that showed Legace had listed to the short-side big time.
Mr. Ferrari: It’s an absolute dog’s breakfast at F right now. It isn’t of winter ‘07 standards but when you go 10/13 EV chances at home against the St. Louis Blues then you’re cheering for a shitty team.

I’m not really sure if we’ll make the playoffs and right now we have an excuse for not playing all that well but let’s make a list why we aren’t. And we’ll leave out the PK because that’s a given.
So, 12 probably has only a Pouliot-grade concussion and it’s bad luck that both guys took a little ding just as they were starting to play well. It looks like Nilsson’s found a home with 89-26, though, because he’s +4 in his last eight games.

34’s missed because we still can’t find a second line that can play tough opp and we no longer get any clearance from our main PVP unit because 83 drives just about every bus that hauls out of the Oilers terminal and he isn’t around to help 27-10.

I’m not getting into what I’d do and I’ll just guess what MacT will do and here’s how I I think we’ll roll when everyone’s back
27-10-83: PVP
18-13-34: secondary tough min
12-89-26: The Mr. Butterworths
51-78: these are your 4th line guys and it’s probably 46 that rounds them out and perhaps 67 as well though I doubt it.

Obviously, I wouldn’t have 18 anywhere but the 4th line but MacT won’t do that to the captain and he’s probably thinking that the new 13 line works occasionally because of 18-13 chem. We know the truth is it’s because of the give-and-go’s with 13-78 but that’s neither here nor there.

Overall, the main thing I’ve learned from doing this is how the Oilers attempt to score and how teams attempt to score on them. I was texting with Riv about this last night before Ferraro spoke about it and broke out a chart to boot but the Oilers don’t go inside. If this were the NBA the Oilers would be shooting 3’s and mid-range jumpers and would most likely be in the bottom third of the league in free throw attempts because no one dares enter the paint. Outside of all the SO points;), last year’s stretch drive was driven by the kids and all these pretty and nice and fancy goals and that seems to have carried over to this year. While other teams take advantage of how the Oilers sag and give up the slot and hence you’ve got the opp taking shots from there and screening for those shots and tipping those shots, the Oilers are looking for 15 passes and making the Plays of the week. I’m not sure if teams plan on creating by their own plan or by what the opp gives them but every game I see the same things happening to the Oilers and by them.

I don’t think that the way that the Oilers are scored against is anything out of the usual, Dennis.

This team doesn’t seem willing enough to battle most nights though, in the offensive end particularly. I don’t know how much of that is trying to play a bruise-free game, and how much is just thinking they can make seven passes and score into an empty net. It’s frustrating though, this team turns it over at the blue lines far too often.

I was thinking about this last night, even though I hadn’t seen the game. Gagner was talking on CHED, it was in regards to ‘players only’ meeting I think. You could tell that he was trying to recapture the magic that they had down the stretch last season.

That’s a problem, because shot luck was financing that short film. And that shit just doesn’t like to repeat.

It may be a little while yet before these guys figure out that they need to work for it. But they will eventually, I suspect. Some quicker than others. And maybe some not at all.

If the culture of this team, with the current roster, becomes defined by “Oiler players win puck battles!”, they’ll be fine. Right now it seems to be more defined by “Oiler players find ways to win!” … and that’s not going so well. And aside from occasional short bursts where they will get Ws while looking spectacular, there’s no future with that mantra.

I mean Detroit has more skill, and they are just as small up front as the Oilers, but they dump and chase at the blue line plenty. If they don’t have enough players coming forward to force they other guys to back off, they take what’s there (the chip in) and work for it. DET still carries the puck over the offensive blue more than anybody I suspect, though it’s a tight group, hockey is just hockey. And EDM tries to carry the puck over the offensive blue more than anyone, I suspect.

MacTavish is visibly aging, btw.

Totals (Player,GP,EV,PP,SH)

05 - 24 - 075/090 - 000/000 - 003/012
10 - 37 - 169/142 - 095/008 - 009/084
12 - 31 - 116/115 - 034/010 - 000/000
13 - 37 - 126/125 - 039/012 - 002/019
18 - 36 - 112/170 - 002/000 - 009/063
21 - 01 - 007/003 - 000/000 - 000/000
24 - 35 - 111/143 - 002/000 - 006/098
26 - 37 - 138/129 - 045/007 - 008/019
27 - 35 - 131/120 - 066/005 - 002/028
28 - 02 - 002/002 - 000/000 - 000/000
33 - 11 - 005/009 - 000/000 - 000/000
34 - 16 - 048/062 - 000/001 - 001/023
37 - 34 - 167/152 - 034/008 - 007/035
43 - 31 - 065/090 - 000/000 - 004/037
44 - 36 - 169/175 - 108/011 - 009/078
46 - 24 - 030/038 - 000/000 - 000/000
49 - 01 - 004/000 - 000/000 - 000/000
51 - 35 - 075/102 - 001/000 - 009/063
62 - 01 - 001/000 - 000/000 - 000/003
67 - 06 - 011/023 - 001/000 - 000/000
71 - 37 - 207/176 - 106/014 - 003/012
77 - 37 - 174/185 - 044/009 - 007/067
78 - 34 - 097/091 - 019/000 - 000/003
83 - 31 - 132/115 - 082/008 - 000/002
85 - 17 - 028/044 - 000/000 - 000/013
88 - 04 - 010/015 - 002/002 - 000/000
89 - 34 - 139/118 - 048/010 - 002/006