The Oilers, when scoring first, get at least one point in two-thirds of their games. Thats not bad, but it ranks 18th in the league; however, when the Oilers surrender the first goal they only collect points in 25% of their games, 20th in the league (compared to SJ who collects points in 87.5% of the time when they trail first). In order to lead games, you have to score and the Oilers rank 26th in the league with only 53 goals on the season (2.52 per game). With supposed perennial 30-goal scorers like Cole, Penner, Hemsky & Horcoff... It's Dman Sheldon Souray who leads the team with 7; that's a bright spot for Edmonton's Dmen, but a dim light on the Oilers forwards and their ineptitude in finding the back of the net. How else does someone find the back of the net? By shooting the puck. The Oilers, as a team, average 27 shots per game which ranks, yep, you guessed it, 4th worst in the league.
So since the Oilers aren't scoring goals like they should be, they should be focusing on keeping them out of the net. While the goaltending has been a 3-headed monster, and fans saying loses aren't to be blamed on goaltending because the 'effort' is there, the Oilers are ranked 22nd in the league giving up an average of 3 per game. An area that is essential in keeping goals out, is the penalty killing department; however, while this is a past Oiler strong point, it has been their weakness this year ranking 28th out of 30 teams and only killing at a 75% rate. Edmonton was supposed to challenge for the division (and runaway with it, according to so many fans), but its the Flames and Wild who are atop and, low and behold, they are both ranked in the top 10 in PK. Another way to avoid being scored on is to not the opposition shoot on your net 33 times a game and rank 3rd worst in the entire NHL.
Now, lets move on to a sensitive topic... playing at Rexall. Any NHL fan or expert will tell you that need to win 70% of your home games and 50% of your road games to be an elite team (that would give you 45-50 wins) and win your division. While the Oilers are on pace with winning on the road, they are horrible at home. In the eight games they have played at Rexall, they have only 2 wins to show. That's horrendous, especially when Rexall is known for being a hard building for opponents to win in. In fact, their 9 total wins are 2nd worst in the entire conference.
Alright, now it's time to break down the 'physical play' or lack there of. The team as a whole is 3rd worst in the league in hits with 326 (in comparison, the NYR lead the league with 684); however, with celebrated big men: Penner, Moreau, Staios, MacIntyre, Stortini, Souray and Cole, the Oilers haven't thrown the body enough. How important is 'throwing the body'? Well, 7 of the top 10 teams in hits are in the playoffs.
Ok, to wrap up the team portion of this blog, here are some other stats about the Oilers....
- 3rd last in the NHL in face-off %
- rank in the top 10 in giveaways, but rank in the bottom 10 in takeaways
- 17th in the league in total +/- (-3), every team in the top 10 is in the playoffs
- dead-last in 1st period production with 11 goals, and 27th in 3rd period production with 16
- tied for last in home wins with 2
- Oilers are tied for 23rd in bench minors (coaches hate those...)
- Oilers win only 40% of games when out-shooting opponents
- 3 of the top 5 Oilers in points are Dmen, not good (Hemsky, Souray, Horcoff, Visnovsky & Gilbert)
Lets pick apart some of the worst performers the Oilers have this year, but don't worry Sporer, Hemsky won't be included in this discussion; however, some of the others aren't so lucky. Before I even start, as of right now, the Oilers only have 2 players who are averaging over 50 points this season, Souray and Hemsky... Everyone else is on-pace for below 50 points. Thats Ridiculous. So, let the individual Oiler bashing BEGIN!
Dustin Penner – How could we not start with this human bag of douche? He's on pace for 16 goals & 23 points this year, while sucking 4.25 million from the Oilers cap space. Pure, unadulterated, highway robbery is what that is. Sure he leads the team with +7, but hes already been a healthy scratch twice! TWICE! That doesn't exactly instill confidence with the fans; however, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as after only 2 more years he is a UFA! Goodbye and good riddance.
Shawn Horcoff – Edmonton shelled out a HUGE contract extension for next season (7 F*CKING MILLION!!!) and hes producing like a 5th grader would. He is on pace for 46 points and a whopping +4!!! Wow, what a great basket the Oilers have chosen to put their all their eggs into. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hemsky needs a trigger man, someone who can score 40+ goals on a consistent basis and Horcoff is not that man.
Andrew Cogliano – I was going to lump all of the 'KID line' into one blurb, but I thought I would rip each one of them individually for being completely useless. He leads the kids in production with 9 points in 21 games, but thats about... 35 points over the year. Anyone see a rich man's Marty Reasoner in this guy? Great skater, good battler, but doesn't score at will nor is he a top 6 forward quality player: well, maybe in Edmonton he is...
Robert Nilsson – Here's what he is on pace for... 12G, 16A, 28PT, -20. Enough said.
Sam Gagner – 4 goals. Yep. That's what he is on pace for. You know, everyone knows how much Gagner has under-achieved and hes only 19, so I'm not going to pick on him that much, but how about lending some advice to get home going... Send him to Team Canada for the World Jrs. Maybe running up his point totals again will give him back his confidence in the NHL. Sometimes you need to take one step back to go two steps forward. Another thought, if he keeps on under-performing, maybe we can sign him at a discount when the time comes.
Erik Cole – Let's just lump him in with Dustin Penner and hope Edmonton packages these two douchers up for a 7th rounder, because that would help the Oilers more then Cole is. They have played him on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd lines... LW and RW... PP time... PK time... and he's still on pace for only 12 goals. Just three seasons ago, despite playing only 60 he put up 30 goals (41 over the course of a full 82 games). You wonder why Edmonton took a chance on an injury-prone winger with past neck problems...
Zach Stortini/Steve MacIntyre – Useless. The both of 'em. I understand their main objective is to add toughness and protect the skill players, but they are still on the roster and neither of them have a single point and are a combined -4. Why are we wasting a roster spot on someone who can't contribute to a win? Heck, even Big George Laraque averages 20 points a year over his career! Plus, if anyone saw MacIntyre get the crap pounded out of him by Eric Godard, then you would agree that that lose cancels out all his previous wins because it was so humiliating. And, any fighter with the nickname 'huggy bear', obviously is not a good fighter.
Marc-Antoine Pouliot – His 4 years in the QMJHL produced 268 points in 205 games. His 4 (ish) years in the NHL have produced 23 points in 99 games. Great scouting boys.
Kyle Brodziak – From a breakout 31 points last year to 3 this year. Is that even 4th line material?
Mathieu Garon – Can someone tell me the difference between Garon and Marty Gerber in Ottawa? Both were expected to hold down the #1 job and make a deep run into the playoffs, but both have been relegated to playing half the games due to their inept play and their backups consistently performing well. His GAA is 3.41 and his S% is .889; those numbers rank him 40th and 38th out of 44 goaltenders. This was supposed to be his year to solidify himself as a legitimate #1, especially in a contract year, but all he has doneis lower his salary next year and made his future even more blurry...
Not all Oilers have earned a bad grade though (unlike Sporer's previous column, was he drunk?) Ales Hemsky, Sheldon Souray, Ethan Moreau, Tom Gilbert & Denis Grebeshkov have all improved in my eyes. Hemsky is finally on pace to actually SURPASS 20 goals (even though it's three years later then we all expected). Souray is on pace for just under 30 goals and 1 point off his career high. Gilbert and Grebs are set to have career years from 33 & 18 points to 43 & 32 respectively. And Moreau, possibly the most surprising Oiler, is set to reach 20 goals and set a career high in points with 40. Steve Tambellini has recently given his thumbs-up vote of confidence to MacT, so a coaching change is likely not coming any time soon; which leads me to believe that they are more then willing to change players much faster then their coaching staff.
Cheers.
-Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment