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Shooting Snakeyes - The Oilers' Patrick O'Sullivan - 2 goals on 38 shots, 5.3 S% (Resolute: Wikipedia Commons)
In the last week, Oiler fans have seen a story they are all too familiar with — A Tale of Two Teams.
In between offensive explosions leading to wins over Columbus & Detroit, the Oilers’ big guns fell silent in 3 straight contests to key Northwest Division opponents with back to back road losses to Calgary and Vancouver followed by a demoralizing shutout defeat on home ice to the upstart Colorado Avalanche.
- In defeat, the Oilers rekindled memories of last season’s pop gun offense, particularly on the powerplay where the squad went a dismal 2 for 16 during the three game debacle.
- In victory, the team resembled the Oiler teams of yore with a powerhouse offense and stellar goaltending more than making up for the team’s frequent defensive lapses.
Upon closer examination however, the real team lies somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.
While undeniably entertaining, the Oilers offensive barrage against Columbus and Detroit came at the expense of backup goaltenders (Mathieu Garon and Jimmy Howard respectively), with Howard in particular looking more Pontiac pathetic than Mopar muscle in the Detroit net. The Oil’s top two forwards, Dustin Penner & Ales Hemsky, seemed particularly pleased to feast on sub-par goaltending with their 6 goals accounting for a disproportionate 50% of the team’s goals in the two victories. While the Oilers lack of secondary scoring is worrisome when winning, it becomes outright problematic against key divisional opponents backstopped by top notch goaltenders.
Against Mikka Kiprusoff, Roberto Luongo & the red hot Craig Anderson, Penner scored only once with Hemsky held goalless. With their top two snipers being checked closely, it was up to the Oilers’ foot soldiers to pick up the slack. Unfortunately they were found wanting. And much like the previous three seasons, concerns are now heightened about the team’s lack of secondary scoring, more specifically: the inability of the smaller Oilers to compete against larger, grittier teams.
In their last game, Head Coach Pat Quinn resorted to massive line changes to address the situation, reuniting both the team’s top trio of Penner, Hemsky & Shawn Horcoff to kickstart the slumping Horcoff as well as the ‘Kid Line’ of Andrew Cogliano, Sam Gagner and Robert Nilsson. Quinn’s rationale for the changes revealed his mounting frustration in achieving consistent production from forwards other than those named Penner & Hemsky:
“You don’t like to go two full games without scoring. That surprises me.”
Oiler Head Coach Pat Quinn on the team’s scoring drought vs. Vancouver and Colorado.
“I’m aware that they had 10 games, maybe a bit longer, of pretty good luck scoring wise – this was two years ago – so I told them we’re going to retry that unit in an effort to get some balance in our line-up.”
Pat Quinn on reuniting Gagner, Cogliano & Nilsson
“The idea is to see if we can help him get some more ice. He feels like he’s getting his scoring opportunities but nothing is going in for him. But neither are any assists happening, either. I played him with O’Sullivan, who we’re hoping would be a scorer, but he’s been cold, he’s not shooting well, missing the net a lot. At the end of the night you look and he’s got four or five scoring opportunities but there’s no finish.”
Pat Quinn on moving Shawn Horcoff back to the top line with Hemsky & Horcoff
While the team broke its 3 game losing streak with a much needed win against the Wings, Quinn’s changes were a decidedly mixed bag. The good news was the Horcoff move paid immediate dividends with the winger awakening for 3 points and the line as a whole generating 4 goals and 10 points in the 6-5 win. The bad news was the Kid Line was a dreadful -9 overall and the key culprit in Detroit’s third period comeback.
So which offense will show up for the team’s matinee contest against the Bruins tomorrow?
A more cynical observer would say that depends on which goaltender Boston starts. A more forgiving pundit sees this team for what they are—a work in progress.
Ravaged by injuries and a nasty flu bug, the Oilers could barely ice a full squad against the Flames. Defensive stalwarts Sheldon Souray & Steve Staios are still out of the lineup with lingering concussion symptoms. Gilbert Brule, Mike Comrie, Lubomir Visnovsky, Ladislav Smid and who knows who else have been ravaged by a nasty flu bug (H1N1 in Smid’s case) that has most certainly hampered their production.
Do the Oilers lack the size and scoring depth to beat the better teams in the league? Quite possibly, but until the team is able to ice a healthy lineup, this observer will give them the benefit of the doubt. This season may be yet another ‘Tale of Two Teams,’ but for some reason it feels like we’re destined for a better ending this time.
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