The Millennium Place Line Juggle
Jason Gregor
October 07 2009 03:33PM
The Oilers skated at Millennium today. All except four guys, that is.
Sheldon Souray wasn’t on the ice, but similar to Shawn Horcoff yesterday, it was a day of maintenance for Souray. Steve Staios also sat out, after getting his bell rung last night. Pat Quinn said they will re-evaluate Staios tomorrow. Dustin Penner, who has been the best forward so far, didn’t take part in practice and it sounds like his was a mix of a day of maintenance, but also he was resting some sort of minor injury.
Marc Pouliot didn’t skate, because according to Quinn he has re-injured himself and he is at least a week away from playing again.
Ethan Moreau did skate, and after spending the last few days being hooked up to an IV, to fight off the infection in his ankle, he said he felt great and expects to play tomorrow.
The Oilers only skated for 45 minutes, but the lines were all different. Quinn cautioned that the changes were due to the guys not skating, but expect to see some minor shuffles in the lineup come tomorrow.
Penner will skate with Horcoff and Ales Hemsky if he plays. Quinn moved Penner up to that line in the third because, “The play was stalling with that line. I didn’t think Horcoff had much going early, and Penner was playing well so I moved him up,” said Quinn.
JF Jacques skated with Sam Gagner and Patrick O’Sullivan, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them as a combo. Comrie and O’Sullivan have given Quinn some fits with their defensive zone coverage so he might lean towards splitting them up.
Again, we won’t know for sure until the morning skate tomorrow, but you will see some line juggling. The other lines were Stone, Brule and Nilsson, while Cogliano, Comrie and Stortini skated together. I don’t see any chance that Stone, Brule and Nilsson will be a line tomorrow, because if Moreau plays I’m guessing either Nilsson or Stone comes out.
Nilsson made a great pass to Penner on his goal, but also had a few giveaways, while Stone had another big hit for the second game in a row.
Some have wondered when JDD will play, and it looks like he won’t play until the road trip. Quinn wants Khabibulin to get more comfortable, so unless he stands on his head tomorrow, I think Quinn is leaning towards playing him the next two games, before we get to see Deslauriers and his bright orange pads between the pipes.
I think it is better to get Khabibulin comfortable, than get Deslauriers a game. Deslauriers will get his games eventually but it's clear Khabibulin needs to find his game.
was only joking of course, but many taxi's are old cop car's. Same with my grezer mobile. does everything but make toast and coffee and cook my but in winter, cloth seats though.
Long time lurker first time poster. Love the (new)site.
I love the effort the Oil are giving so far and hopefully Bulin can round into form. He at least looks like he cares even with the old timers pension Tambi gave him.
Anywho will try to write something more constructive and on topic next time.
GO OILERS!
constructive? on topic?
***double checks website address and shakes his head***
@Lo-Dog
Welcome. Don't worry about being constructive or on topic, it has not stopped most of us- Go Esks!
MacT STILL loves Horcoff. Anyone catch TSN Quiz tonite. He went off the board on a question asking which player not invited to the Olympic summer camp has the best chance of being on the team. Kariya Bergeron Price ?forget
He said Horcoff
@Lo-Dog
Clearly you missed the day that I spent 20 posts talking about classical literature with Jonathan Willis in the middle of last season.
^^I thought the paragraph issue was resolved
It works if you put a blank line between each paragraph.
Like this.
Thus cementing his place in the broadcasting world and ending his professional coaching career.
@Lo-Dog
welcome as well
today we've talked paragraphing, our lack of spelling ability, personal wheels, and such. even a little hockey and those in love with hating MacT have been here as well. forgive the MacT haters, like jilted lovers they can't accept it's over.
Twitter...TSNBobMcKenzie Detroit Red Wings sign Brad May to one year deal
Maybe the Wings are falling.
the olympic is not an all-star game, we do need a few checkers and penalty killer types. If they want hork in that role, then they'll take him. anyway, Stevie Y is picking the team, not MacT.
Well they're getting old, they played in Europe, a lot of them are going to Vancouver in a few months, so they're going to need a few cheep bodies to carry some load will their old men rest.
@BarryS
They do need a Horcoff-type to be a checker... and if Horcoff was coming off a career year, I'd suspect he'd warrant some thought, but with the likes of Mike Richards, Jonathan Toews, Jordan Staal, etc, he likely isn't considered. There is too many star players that can also fill checking roles, Dany Heatley notwithstanding.
@RossCreekNation
with so many poor starts, certain previously filled spots might open up.
@BarryS
Lets wait a month then before you start giving guys' spots away.
@RossCreekNation
Bingo.
BarryS, team Canada needs role players, but those role players better be able to provide more than a good PK option. Horc hasnt played well enough for Steve Y to even look his name up in Google, let alone consider him to play for team Canada.
Vancouver's playing pretty good tonite. Up 5-1 on the Habs. Some pretty sweet goals. Look very much like the 1st place team everyone was talking about in the previews... finally. We'll see.
@Archaeologuy
not suggesting he will be assked, only suggesting oct too nov play, not last year will determine the final picks. both top goalie picks, for example have started poorly. unkess they quickly return to form neithrt will be picked.
the hab's are not a good team this year. i think i'll reserve judgement on vancouver fur a few games yet.
Not to mention the day when there were I think 200 posts about which donair joint was the best in the city.
One thing about Horcoff is that he's (in my opinion) a useful player. Take a guy like Heatley. If he's scoring he's great. But if he's not, he's a meatsicle on skates. Horcoff can at least play a defensive role without being a complete liability out there.
Then again, I think it doesn't really matter as Russia's offence is terrifying coming into these Olympics.
Someone (bingo) sgould look back in time to see what day "Donair Day" was so we can mark it on the calendars next year. MMMM... donair...
SUBJOINT - ft. sask.
Horc on team Canada holy f uck youmust be kidding he is our worst player by far and that sucks because he is also one of our highest paid, way to lock him up for 6 year Kevin
Oh, I don't think I'd pick him if I was choosing the team. He could be useful in a limited role, however. He's not the second coming, but if Horcoff was really our worst player, we'd have a pretty sweet team.
Eberle update: he had a hat trick and an assist in a 9-6 Regina loss, he now has 12 points (7g-5a) in 4 games
Sorry for the brief downtime. All Nations articles should be restored. If you see anything strange, please let bingofuel know. *passes buck*
@Josh
Josh,
Learn how to post without swearing...not necessary..
I disagree with Gregor. In the world I see around me, swearing is often required.
ahem
So I believe I'll be at Rexall for tomorrow nights tilt. Check that, its 1am. Todays tilt.
EXCITED
mmmmmmmmmmmm.. donair,,,
Simon King Donair on 51 street 91 ave best in Edmonton
@Josh
worst player by far?
ahh, the sweet stench of uneducated personal opinion first thing in the morning.
atta boy josh...atta boy
I assumed that you were in attendance at the sausage party at the Pint (see previous thread). Forgive my lack of details.
Really I could care less about what kind of car people drive but for some reason you have this KIA fixation that appears over and over on this site.
Doesn't everyone keep the big bills on the outside? (but those are fives Kramer!)
Plus I roll in a 1978 El Camino. All the cool kids do.
Somebody writes something like this every day and it drives me nuts. Do you have any kind of analysis to back this up or are these the drunken musings of someone who judges players solely by how many points they get regardless of the role they play?
@ Jason Gregor Sorry that was supposed to reply to Gregor from yesterday.
Well I fixed my name.
All these "minor" injuries are starting to scare me. Now we are going to have guys fighting through injuries playing at 74% because they have no choice but to play.
Horcoff is definitley not the worst player on the team, but great analysis....If your blind. Gagner sure had an edge to his game against the stars, I think Quinn hit a nerve with the kid. Penner, WOW. Starting to wish I'd picked him as hero this year instead of last. On his goal, he went hard to the net, it was beautiful. I can't see how Stone will be taken out for tonight, he played real physical both games, I like that guy in our lineup.
In junior!
also, the Habs did a fine job of hanging Price out to dry last night.
@stilldrinkingthekoolaid
Good thing MAB wasn't playing yet.
Hmmm. What do you figure the over/under on tonight's game is going to be? It's got to be over if Khabby's playing the way he has been, right?
@Oil Kings 'n' Pretty Things
5.5 is what it says in the journal
Would Toews really be that effective as a defensive specialist? I'm sure they'd also take Horc > J Staal at this point in their careers.
Not to mention the fact that he was the teams second highest scoring forward last year.
They absolutely better stay with Khabi for the next few games....better not turn out to be the same scenario with roloson/garon...roloson/garon/jdd. We wasted time and confidence on that....let him get into the groove a bit and see what he can do.
absolutely agree....for what he does I would say he's putting forth close to 85 maybe 90% of what his contract is worth to the team. Still think he is over-paid tho
last comment was for #82....