Oilers vs. Canucks Postgame: Shooter Tutors
Jonathan Willis
November 29 2009 12:46AM
Vancouver Canucks: 7
Edmonton Oilers: 3
Remember shooter tutors? Well, for good portions of the night the inexperienced tandem of Jeff Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk eerily resembled shooter tutors; not so much along the ice but certainly over the shoulders. It's been Deslauriers' weak spot for the last while and it was hard to watch the Canucks tonight and not think they'd been told to aim for the corners.
Random Thoughts
Jeff Deslauriers said after the game that the loss was on him, that he cost the team the game. While he certainly wasn't sharp, I'm going to agree with Pat Quinn, who appreciated the gesture but acknowledged that it was a team loss.
Not many things can make me grin ear-to-ear when the Oilers are down 5-1, but Colin McDonald's first career goal was one of them. It was a beautiful shot on a quality goaltender, and after years of hearing Kevin Prendergast talk about McDonald's shot being one of his greatest assets it was nice to see it at the NHL level. I also liked seeing Ryan O'Marra's reaction (aside: the assist was O'Marra's first NHL point) to McDonald's goal; he seemed almost as thrilled as his teammate. They were linemates in Springfield, and it was great to see that bond. While I'm at it, I should acknowledge the fourth line was tremendous; it's easy to see why Rob Daum's been raving about both McDonald and O'Marra, and Stortini's found a comfort level with them.
I get the feeling it's going to be important to find things like that to focus on as this season continues.
The penalty kill was probably the worst part of the Oilers' game tonight, and that's on the veterans. Speaking of veterans, Souray, Staios and the one-armed ghost of Shawn Horcoff all struggled for (at least) the second straight game. Tom Renney switched to a Gilbert/Souray pairing in the third which should help, although that leaves Staios and Strudwick paired together and their track record isn't encouraging. As for Horcoff, he had a couple of good shifts but for the most part didn't handle the puck well at all, and it seems like he's in the right spots but can't fight the physical battles.
Brule and Penner both had a nice game offensively, and looked very smooth on the power play. The only bad news about Brule (from an Oilers' perspective) stepping up to help carry the offence is that he's a free agent after this season; he could very well use this opportunity to earn a payday that wouldn't be coming otherwise. That caveat aside, it's nice to see a player who struggled for so many years start to turn a corner.
I've been picking on Andrew Cogliano a fair bit this year, but he certainly seems to have come around (Moreau too, for that matter). Ryan Potulny probably matches up a little better to those linemates than Zack Stortini did, and I'm sure that's part of it (as is having Cogliano play wing) but both players deserve a ton of credit. It's also a treat to watch Cogliano's combative nature; he has been very involved in that department the last few games.
Neither is more than idle speculation, both from hangers-on who make money only because Sports Teams exist. The problem, is just like computer weather modeling, assumptions in, assumptions out. Any chance in them being right, is just that chance. What are there, a thousand people directly involved in the results of all the games in the NHL.
Thus a thousand actors making an unknowable of actions per game over 2520 games are needed to establish the final results. This only accounts for "legal" actions with results intended by the actors. Then there are all the unintended results, and the results of "unlegal" actions by actors, like intentionally missed calls by officials, missed decisions by coaches, etc, etc.
No doubt some get it more or less right, just like some people win lotteries, but most don't.
@Wanyes bastard child
*looks longingly at WBC's beer*
It just seems that every fall, there is this optimism and then it falls flat for some reason..... coach, injury, flu, non performing player. This team is spending to max and getting no return, at the bottom. As forensic accountant, would declare this a bad investment. Instead of finishing 9th every year, dive and then resurface. If the oil faithful, continues to buy tickets, thats great, but the leadership mistakes are to be questioned on and off the ice.
What and willingly deprive yourself of some of the best comedy writing since Spike Milligan's, alas now departed this world, last nervious breakdown.
Do you understand Deepoil? Optimism is the sign of a healthy individual, pessimism and constant discontent is not. The purpose of professionsl sports is to give entertainment to the fans. How the fans are entertaineed is their business and no one elses.
The unbounded arrogance of those like you who try to tell the fans how they should be entertained is as amazing as it is stupid. (So what that says about the mentality of those like the blind followers like the so called Mike, I leave to you.)
In short, get a real life. Get on with your lawsuits or whatever, but as they say Sh*t or get off the pot. Or Drive it or park or but get out of the way.
Hello world......
I'm engaing on this one because I know who DeepOil is -- you might notice he referred to e-mails we exchanged and that we once had lunch -- and it's laughable that he's holding himself up as some pillar of truth or whistleblower on the evil empire of Daryl Katz, given his personal situation involving the Oilers and the axe he has to grind.
I don't need the "attention."
*cracks open a heineken*
This is getting better by the second.
@Robin Brownlee
The anticipation is killing me. So can you answer this then: is the IP from the latter comments still the same as the earlier comments? You have to wonder what dude is doing in his office in Arizona (read: Edm) so late on a Sunday. Just sayin...
@Travis Dakin
*opens arems lovingly for TD to rush into*
Ooops, that's supposed to be arms. Crap!
The search for "truth" doesn't take weekends off, Rigger. Obviously :P
Who needs all that fake reality TV when we have real unscripted Reality Oilers Nation.
Puts on soft cd music, opens bottle of his favourite fluid, scrolls to next posting.
@deepoil
Yes, things have not gone as planned or intended the past few years. Agreed. My beef is...it's real easy for all these anonymous intellectuals to say "We need to give up the next 3 years and rebuild." If you were the GM of the Edmonton Oilers, would you actually follow through with the personnel decisions you suggest? Would you actually trade Hemsky for picks? How long do you think you'd keep your job if you filled your roster with the intent of landing a top-5 pick at the draft for 3 straight years? How long do you think fans would continue to pay money to come to games? There's plenty of fans that come on here bitching about $20 for PPV game. Is it OK for the team to lose millions of dollars every year just because Mr. Katz is very wealthy?
For all anyone knows, 3 horrible seasons and 3 solid draft picks may be the way this team needs to go to get back to glory but, my point is, it's hard to imagine you or anyone else suggesting this would actually go through with it if you had the chance or are even considering all the side effects this plan would have. Consider reality.
@Moop
Fox Mulder? LOL
Ya know what's funny, Deepoil and Mike even type with the same mannerisms. Hmmmm
Reality is a dish best served cold...oh wait, that's that OTHER "R" word.....
Just to clarify, I was referring to Deepoil's apparent need for attention, not yours. You can have mine (and probably anybody else who reads about the Oilers) anytime you want it.
*considers searching Brownlee's office for tapes labelled "watergate" just in case...*
On another topic, I just watched the highlights again. How did they end up giving that first goal to Brule when it clearly went off Gagner's body?
Actually, i was going to suggest to look at the penmanship, not the same person.
Interesting back and forth the last few dozen posts. I'll just say the team sucks presently and has for a while and they are almost at the cap.
So all those future forcasters, who predicted montreal last play of the game, to win by one point on a kick over of a missed field goal after a penalty to Saskatchewan for illegial substitution? Nobody can account for things like dumb coaches who can't count to twelve, or players either. Guess what, yesterday means almost nothing in todays game. A break here, a break there, you win or loose. Same with hockey, if you knew for absolute certain how the next game would turn out, you wouldn't watch.
@helmerfield
Boston did this with Kessel for two picks, this is happening right now, right here this season. Passengers please move along - leaders can stay - clear cap space and start again. There is a precedent set here by other GM's, not my idea.
@barry s
no barry, I would bet my butt off on sport select and make the government pay out until their protected limit was reached, while betting offshore as well - where the credit card is the limit.
The ip address is at the issuing server, not the specific computer. Big companies often have only one ip address on the main internet server than internal ip addresses within the system, even if they are all over the country. It makes security so much easiers and makes catching internal messaging even easier. Everything goes through the main server coming in, and then is dispatched to the designated receiver. This way, IT can tell who is using the internet for activities outside company policy.
@rigger
LOL, LOL - no brownlee was using the login ip of my email address when I registered, translation (NOT REAL TIME) Maybe JW can confirm my post from Cox Cable in AZ, not Edmonton my friend. Sorry, but there are two people in two different cities posting.
JW can you clear this up AGAIN, since the last public apology came from you with people posting as Deep Oil, when they were not, end result - RB was very angry for comments made by Nation readers, not Deep Oil.
@ Deepoil
More the fool you, the government only makes money on Sports Select. The players pay the winnings, the government and take all the losses. That's why lotteries are for the mathematically challenged. But keep betting, it keeps my taxes down.
@deepoil
Actually, penmanship has nothing to do with this, seeing as it's the act of taking a writing implement and formulating letters to make words. It has nothing to do with crafting sentences in grammatically correct fashion, spelling or punctuation. Pretty hard to compare penmanship when you're using a keyboard, since it doesn't involve the physical act of writing, but rather typing.
@deepoil
Don't see who benefit's from apologizing to a ficticious name?
No balls, no offspring, no immoritality.
Not to mention my wages. LOL!
You're strangely defensive about that.
@BarryS
The wages of deceit and pain in paranoia.
Should read: Not to mention PAYS my wages.
@BarryS
No dude, that was me that wrote that. LOL! No deceit here ir paranoia, it pays my wages. Kind of odd considering I counsel people for addictions, but hey, as long as I get paid from somewhere.
@deepoil
I can't say for certain b/c I'm not the GM of the Bruins but my guess is, if they could've fit the 36-goal-scorer in Phil Kessel, they would have kept him. There was no way they could fit him under the cap, Burkie offered him solid value for him and they took it. To clear cap space, yes. To clear passengers and commence the re-build, not so much.
I don't disagree the team looks rough right now and might very well need to get worse before it gets better (although for the first couple games when the team was icing a full roster, they arguably looked good in a lot of areas). Pretty easy to call for the worst right now when they lead the league in injuries. Slam them for not having enough depth to handle such injuries? Absolutely. I'm just saying I've never seen any team intentionally prepare teams for multiple years specifically to finish in the bottom 5 in the league (only in the movie Major League have I seen anything similar). It happens when mgmt and the coaching staff incorrectly evaluate their players or if a team has substantially less resources to create their team. Maybe I'm naiive but I don't see any one team cleaning house and starting over.
Actually, it is as easy to tell if two different writers write under the same way as it is if two different babilonians wrote on the same clay tablet, or someone faked an article under the name of someone else seven hundred years ago. It can easily be done if you know how. There are many examples of the second and third, the first will be childs play.
Anyone hear about Souray's ex-wifes 14 million dollar lawsuit against him? Could this possibly be affecting his play? Sounds like a brutal situation since kids are involved.
http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/sports/archive/2009/10/18/souray-in-sensational-and-ugly-divorce-battle-over-children-and-millions-tmz-and-other-sources-report.aspx
Sorry, I meant the post for Deepoil. Alas, gambling also pays for addiction counselling. The ruined lives are another matter far to dark and confusing to get into here.
If lawyers duking it out for pay is brutal, I guess so. The effect on the children is totally in the hands of both parents. As long as he can pay his lawyer he's got little to worry about. The kids could be grown up and gone from home before it gets settled.
Two years and counting, and running out of money for lawyers.
So who is deepoil? And does he work for the oilers?
@BarryS
It is a dark topic for sure, one that I listen to a lot. It's stressful for sure, but my stress load pales in comparison to theirs. Alas, the gambling also pays for treatment centers too.
@ Heavyd
You ask interesting questions, my friend. The answers, while not blowing in the wind, are known only to Mr. Brownlee and the semi-mythical Deepoil, neither of whom condescends to tell us.
Show's over, folks. After talking to the person in question, he has decided against making further posts at ON. His call, not mine.
Move along. Nothing to see here . . .
Good news. Now we can get back to feeling miserable about this season without any unwanted distractions.
*passes Rigger a beer*
What I miss? Got bored and decided to watch GI Joe the movie, it wasn't half bad...
... wait, the shows over!? Dammit...
ummm Goilers anyone?
No, Noo, NOOO! Just caught up reading the posts only to find this story ends in a cliffhanger. I need closure. I was expecting some big plot twist at the end Fight Club style. Oh well, fun reading. Nice distraction from the Oilers.
PS, Welcome to our missery flatlanders.
Is there a "horse's head in the sheets" emoticon I'm not aware of?
Well, so much for writing practice. Cranks up Moody Blue at Red Rock on Dvd/Tele. Now I have to get back at that damn novel no one will ever read.
The problem with obsessions, they don't pay very well and keep you from more monitarily viable activities.
I wouldn't be surprised if deepoil was klowe, or someone within the organization, considering brownlee knows him. Anyways, I was the looking at the schedule and I rthink the oilers will be able to go 10-4 in december, anyone think I am crazy, if so look at the schedule and it could happen.