Oil Patch
Not Enough Men On the Ice
by Lisa McRitchie on 03/06/12 at 01:00 AM ET
Comments (2)
Oilers lose 4-2 to Ducks
It’s a well known fact that you can’t win if you don’t score goals, but equally important is keeping players on the ice to prevent goals against. Four veteran Oilers all left the ice seconds before a penalty expired with disastrous and expected results. Ladies and gentleman, this is yelling at your television hockey (YAYTH) at its finest.
Things didn’t go well for the Oilers from the initial puck drop. It took 9:31 of play before the Oilers would tally their first shot of the game, but the two Ducks’ shots during their 3 on none rush during their power play opportunity would still be the most important of the opening frame.
Oilers’ veteran Ryan Smyth chipped the puck into the Ducks zone and he Andy Sutton, Shawn Horcoff, and Nick Schultz all skated to the bench leaving Nikolai Khabibulin on his own to defend against the charging Ducks. Jason Blake from Bobby Ryan and Cam Fowler would tip in his sixth of the year giving the Ducks the opening goal. Khabibulin didn’t stand a chance, but at least the Oilers didn’t get called for too many men on the ice at the same time.
The Oilers have the number one power play in the league despite going 6 full periods without a power play opportunity. The reason this is concerning is that there have been some very blatant missed calls against the Oilers. Monday night, the most apparent was a tripping call on Hemsky that was missed. It wasn’t just a simple stick out, but rather a stick wedged and twisted between Hemsky’s legs. It was only as Hemsky lay on the ice that Saku Koivu was able to remove his stick and carry on with the game as Hemsky displayed extreme discomfort, his appeared to have flexed a little too far, and at an angle.
Hemsky would not only leave the ice, but head directly to the trainer’s room following the incident leaving everyone to wonder whether Hemsky would rejoin the team in the final period of the game, or be the first to return to the IR list.
Shawn Horcoff would tie up the game with only a mere 31 seconds remaining in the second period, and also earned new Oiler Nick Schultz his second point as an Oiler. There is no guarantee that Tom Gilbert would have provided any more offence than that.
The most astonishing part of the Oilers’ second period effort had to be their 22 shots, which came close, but didn’t break the organizational record of 24 set in Minnesota March 21, 1986 and matched in Colorado October 15, 1997. There will be other opportunities to try to break that record with the skilled youth on this Oilers’ team.
Fortunately, Hemsky would return to the ice for the third. Even better, the Oilers would finally see an opportunity on the power play. And did they ever take advantage.
Teemu Selanne was upset with his 2 minutes for tripping, and even more so one minute into the penalty when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fed Jordan Eberle in front of the net, who made no mistake ringing the puck off of the post and past Hiller. Eberle now sits with 29 goals on the season. He will pass the 30 goal mark this month.
The Oilers two goals were not enough, especially when Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry would score for the Ducks in the third. Perry netted two goals including an empty netter that helped earn his team two points that will be essential through the final games of the regular season.
With 66 points, the Ducks stand a very slim chance of pulling ahead and making this year’s playoffs, but you have to admire their fight.
The Oilers will now travel to San Jose to take on the Sharks Tuesday night. Hemsky and Petry both left the ice with injuries and although sometimes things get better over night, some get worse. Thankfully for the Oilers, recent callup Linus Omark watched from the pressbox because Taylor Hall was well enough to play. Should Hemsky feel any lingering knee pains, Omark is right there with the team and the Oilers need to watch him play in order to make their decision on whether or not they plan to re-sign Omark this summer.
Filed in: Edmonton Oilers | Oil Patch | Permalink
Comments
It was so bad it was funny though.
Last year was exciting last place hockey, ELPH. This year, it’s certainly something else at times.
Posted by Lisa McRitchie on 03/06/12 at 10:10 AM ET
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About Oil Patch
Lisa McRitchie is a fairly new writer, online at least, but makes up for inexperience with passion for the game of hockey and memories of Mrs. Leskiw’s English AP class; who knew they would pay off one day.
Oil Patch focuses on the Edmonton Oilers, the Edmonton Oil Kings, The Oklahoma City Barons and Team Canada Hockey with game coverage, news updates, speculation and interviews.
Although the Oilers have had a difficult past decade… or three, here at Oil Patch, the future looks bright.
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Yelling at your TV, for sure!
Those guys know better than that!
Posted by w2j2 on 03/06/12 at 07:37 AM ET