I just want to make a super fast post here. After the Eskies got destroyed by Saskatchewan on the weekend, I hear a lot of fans talking about the Edmonton defense. What the hell? How many games do you win in the CFL where you only score 9 points? None! What motivation is there for the defense to keep battling when the offense is performing so poorly. How can you expect the defense to perform when they can never get off the field for more than 3 downs? Don’t blame the defense. Blame the coach. Danny has been living on borrowed time for three years now. His classic strategy of calling for a three yard hitch pass on second and 10 has got this team where it is. Could this be the last season for Maciocha mayhem? Tune in next week at the same Bat-time. The same Bat-channel.
Filed under: Edmonton Oilers | Tags: edmonton, hockey, mactavish, nhl, oilers
Well, after roaring out of the gate to a 4-0 start, the Oil have dropped their last four games. Fans throughout the city of Edmonton are crying out, wondering what the hell happened to change the Oilers winning ways. What happened? Reality happened!
The Oilers have not played well through the first 8 games of the season. They have not played with urgency, desire, or emotion. They have not played physical. They have not used their much vaunted speed. Let’s not sugar coat it. The way the team has played, the could just as easily be sitting on an 0-8 record at this point! Let’s look at the season game by game.
Game 1: Colorado. The Avalanche outplayed the Oilers badly, but the Oilers got some good bounces and managed to come up with the win 3-2. Win ugly! That’s fine, a win is a win. But you have to follow up an ugly win with a solid effort.
Game 2: Anaheim. The Ducks outplayed the Oilers badly up until midway through the second period. I believe the shots to that point were in something like Ducks 17, Oilers 6. Then a Ducks defenseman comes around his net and makes a pass to the wing. He admires the pass for a little too long and Ethan Moreau nails him with a HUGE open ice hit. Since the Oilers are on the road, there is no response from the crowd, and the announcers did not even acknowledge the hit, but I felt it was the turning point of the game. Suddenly the Oil came to life, got on the body, peppered the goaltender with another 22 shots, and won the game. A good result, but the Oilers have to play a full 60 minutes.
Game 3: Calgary. I did not see this game. It looks like the Oil relied on their power play to get it done and won the game 4-3.
Game 4: Calgary. The Flames are all over the Oilers. It looks like Calgary has the upper hand in this years battle of Alberta after beating Edmonton twice in preseason. Suddenly Smackentyre throws a huge hit in the corner on Dustin Boyd and gets into a dust up with the Flame that came to defend his teammate. Suddenly the tables turn. Edmonton dominates the rest of the game and comes away with the win 3-2.
Game 5: Chicago. The first game of the slide. I did not see this game as I was away from home on business, but I have to assume that the 3-0 score tells the tale.
Game 6: Colorado. The Oilers played a decent game up until midway through the second. Then the wheels seemed to all fall off at once. The final score was 4-1, but with the number of giveaways and odd man rushes the score could have been much worse. The bulk of the Oilers shots come from the outside where they can do little harm.
Game 7: Canucks. The Oilers look like they are in this game. They come from behind at one point before completely checking out. Giveaway after giveaway. Bad decision after bad decision. Final score, 6-3. Grebishkov is how you say giveaway in Russian.
Game 8: Boston. Here is where I have to take a shot at the Oilers front office. Every year the ticket prices are raised. Every year the charge for parking is increased. Every year that shit you call food gets more expensive. Am I right that a glass of beer is $8 this year?!?!? And every year you do more pay per view. I can tell you this much. I never go to a game unless I am given tickets for free. I used to park down at the Silver Slipper and walk up to the coliseum until you jerks started charging us to park there even. I NEVER buy a beer at the game because I don’t like walking around with a sore ass all the next day. I stop at McDonald’s on the way to the game because I can pay less and feel like I have eaten something edible! And I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER watch an Oilers game on pay per view. It’s enough already! You are rich and I am not. I am not going out of my way to make you richer! That said, I did not see the game. But the Oilers lost 1-0. There are two universal truths that I wish to point out at this time. 1) If you only score 1 goal you do not deserve to win the hockey game. 2) If you can’t even score 1 goal, you make the team that can look pretty good! I am so happy I did not waste my money renting this movie.
So for the year the Oilers have been outscored 23-17. In the last four they have been outscored 14-4. I would say the Oil should be happy to be at .500 on the season.
Random thoughts:
I am not a MacT fan. I never have been. I think he stifles his talented players and favors guys with defensive skills and no offensive upside. He seems to destroy young players confidence. His run to the Cup final was nasty to watch. I have said I will not call for MacT to be fired until he is out of the playoff race yet again, but I do wish we could have signed Ron Wilson in the off season and woke up from our MacT nightmare.
My applogies to Pouliott, who has been playing better. I am still not sold on him as a third liner, but I will lay off.
People are criticizing Ethan Moreau and I really can’t figure out why. He is such a great leader. When the team needs to get going he always comes up with a good shift. A big hit. A good shot on goal. The only flaw I see in his game is the one that has always been there. He takes bad penalties. Too many hooking calls against the captain who just never quite seems to get it.
So obviously the only way the Oilers are going to get out of their stupid three goalie system is if they can trade Roloson. Obviously they are trying to get him some good games to showcase him for other teams. Best of luck Rollie.
The official voice of the Oilers is 630 CHED. This season the station has hired Bob Stauffer to provide color commentary alongside the legendary Rod Phillips. In case you are not aware of this, Bob has been the longtime play by play man for the UofA Golden Bears. This is pure speculation, but does the hiring of Stauffer mean that Phillips is considering retirement? Are the Oilers looking at a possible replacment for the Hall of Famer? I think speak for many fans when I say it will be a very sad day when Rod Phillips stops covering the Oil.
I saw another scrap with Riley Cote from the Flyers the other night. This guy can REALLY chuck em, and he does not seem to like to grapple. He stands back and really trades shots. Check this guy out on hockey fights.com if you have a minute.
Filed under: Edmonton Oilers, Uncategorized | Tags: Edmonton Oilers, Glencross, Hemsky, hockey fights, Horcoff, mactavish
So I have been holding off writing about the Oil so far. I have heard a few things discussed all around me, and it is driving me crazy, so here I go on my rant.
First of all, Rob Schremp is not the answer. Rob has consistently given the Oiler’s coaching staff absolutely no reason to take a chance on him. In training camp, and on his rare call ups, Schremp has shown nothing. No jump. No work ethic. No desire. No emotion. No chance of making the team.
The Oilers played their home opener against the Avalanche and produced a giant stink bomb. They did come away with the two points, but winning ugly is an understatement. Horcoff, Hemsky and Cole were very ordinary and never seemed to generate any kind of pressure aside from a couple of Hemsky shots on the rush. If you look at the stats page it looks like they had a pretty good night, but in reality they need to be a LOT BETTER!
The Young Guns are being highly criticized this week, but I thought they had an ok night. My expectations for this line are justifyably low, so I liked the fact that they were trying to make things happen, and just failed to click. A couple of lucky breaks like Penner got and we would be talking about how great this line looked.
The Moreau, Penner, Pisani line comes up with two goals and everyone says they had a good night, but I sure didn’t see much I liked, other than the two goals. I just can’t find anything I like about this trio. Individually they are all players I have a great deal of respect for, but as a line they do not seem to have the same mission statement. Moreau plays a great defensive game and is a great search and destroy checker. Pisani has a great two way game, but plays soft in my opinion. And I have not decided if Penner is a soft player, of if he just lacks the speed to get into position to make a good hit. Regardless, this line DID come on as the game went on, so I am going to have to reserve my final judgement till a later date.
The fourth line has me a bit mystified. Can somebody please explain Marc Pouliott to me? Sure he plays a responsible defensive game, a trait that MacT values above all others, but what else does he contribute? Speed? No. Scoring? No. Physical play? No. How the hell did this guy manage to bump Brule off the roster? As for Stortini, he is just Stortini. He does what he does and does it well. I do not know how much longer MacT is going to be able to banish Brodziak to the fourth line. Kyle is too good for a checking line. At this point he needs to be skating with some more talented linemates.
And Garon was unbelieveable. ‘Nuff said.
Just a few more random thoughts:
The fuss everyone is making about the Oilers riding bikes in Jasper without helmets is just dumb. People should mind their own business more. And if the Oilers decide to go to Jasper to do some bonding as a team, maybe they should ask the media to stay home.
Steve Staios got pounded pretty good in Sunday’s game. I liked the fact that Souray went and had a talk with the Avalanche player the next time they met on the ice, but really Staios deserved what he got. I doubt that Steve would have any problems with it either. I hope the Oilers will watch and make sure they react accordingly the next time Hemsky gets run from behind! When that happens Steve Staios is usually the first guy to come to the defense of his team mate, but we need someone a little tougher to make the satement. It doesn’t make much of a statement if you drop the flippers and lose. You need somebody to go to war and win the battle like the Avalanche player did (sorry folks, I have no idea what this guys name is. Just some nobody in my mind. A nobody who can give Steve Staios a beating, but still a nobody.).
For the record, Curtis Glencross is a dick! He has been spouting off about how the Oilers were not showing interest in signing him. I KNOW that Oilers management had been talking to Glencross and were already wondering where HIS head was at. They were concerned that he was not interested in signing with Edmonton. And if he thinks the priority of any team is to sign a fourth liner before Marion Hossa, he needs to give his head a shake anyway.
That’s about it for today as I have lost my train of thought. There was an AMAZING scrap in last nights game between Philly and Pittsburg. I believe it was Riley Cote and Eric Goddard, but I could be wrong. I strongly encourage you to look this one up on hockeyfights.com!
