GDB minus-2: It's crunch time
Jason Gregor
September 24 2009 02:20PM
Tonight is the last chance for players to impress the coaches, and when you look at tonight’s roster it is pretty clear which players are on the bubble.
Nilsson — Brule — Stone MacIntyre — Reddox — Stortini Moreau — Gagner — Cogliano Penner — Schremp — Eberle
Grebeshkov — Staios Chorney — Gilbert Smid — Visnovsky
Deslauriers and Dubnyk
Stone, Brule, Nilsson, Reddox, MacIntyre, Schremp and Eberle are all on the bubble. And so is Pouliot, but he is out with a slight muscle pull.
Quinn hinted today that if Pouliot and Pisani don’t get into Sunday’s game, they might get veteran status and be on the 23 man roster. Pisani is shooting to play on Sunday so we’ll wait and see.
It sounds like Quinn is leaning towards moving Cogliano to the wing and will keep Gagner and either Comrie or O'Sullivan and Horcoff as the other top three centres.
It is also interesting to look at the D-pairings for tonight. I don’t think it is a guarantee that the top four will consist of 44, 71, 77 and 37. Renney wants his defense to be more aggressive, especially at the blueline. But they can only stand up the opposing forwards if the Oiler forwards are backchecking.
The story so far...
Through six pre-season games the forwards and D-men haven’t been that cohesive yet. Quinn said it was almost like they were playing as two separate units, and there was too much space between them, especially in the neutral zone.
I’m curious how long it will take for those who ripped MacTavish for sucking the offence out of young Oilers to say the same about Quinn.
Quinn is adamant that this team will be better defensively before they work on their offence. Doesn’t that sound a lot like MacTavish? The difference is that this coaching staff has a different approach in how they are selling that message.
According to the players, the coaches have consistently relayed the same messages every day. Last year, after many games MacTavish and the media and the fans complained the team wasn’t physical enough.
But a player, who agreed they weren’t, said it was never a message the coaching staff hammered home every day. As strange as it sounds, if a coaching staff isn’t constantly focusing and reminding players how they should play, then the players won’t play that way.
The messages to the players have been clearer and right now they are being hammered home on a daily basis, and I’d expect that to continue all season. The players who buy in will play, and those who don’t won’t play and ultimately won’t be here very long.
This power struggle will be won by the coaching staff, and for some veterans and young players, they'd better realize that quickly.
The best fight I saw today
Who would have thought the best fight of the pre-season would have occurred at practice, and at Eskimo practice?
After leaving Rexall I went to watch the Eskimos practice and I witnessed the most one-sided football tilt I’ve seen in a long time.
During scrimmage, O-lineman Aaron Fiacconi and D-lineman Xzavie Jackson got into it. They threw some punches and then Fiacconi showed his hockey background: he ripped off Jackson’s helmet, pulled his head down and fed him two huge uppercuts, the second one dropped Jackson.
Jackson picked himself up off the turf and stormed off to the sidelines. Meanwhile Fiacconi went back to the huddle and got ready for the next play. Not one player said anything to Jackson. He was on the far sidelines, and then he proceeded to throw off his gloves, take off his practice jersey and walked towards the north end zone of Clark field. He walked across the endzone and towards the gate. Only receiver Maurice Mann came over to try and get him to not leave practice. Jackson barked something to him, and then proceeded to continue walking towards the dumpsters.
Thirty seconds later he returned with a shovel that he had found. He was slowly walking back towards the field when trainer TD Forss and Danny Maciocia stopped to talk to him. Jackson was visibly upset, and after some talking he left towards the locker room with Forss.
His left eye was swollen shut and had a cut on it. The strangest part for me wasn’t that he found a shovel and contemplated going WWE on someone, but that not one of his defensive teammates did anything on the field, or said anything to him on the sidelines.
Their silence told me he isn’t that respected in the locker room and I can’t see him sticking around very long. Rarely is a football fight more entertaining than a hockey fight.
***UPDATE***
I got some confirmation that the Oilers and Predators are kicking each other tires. Nilsson would seem like an obvious choice, but I've heard whispers about Pouliot and Pisani as well. Nashville has lots of cap space if they want to acquire either Pisani or Nilsson.
I know the Oilers have lots of D-men, but would Hamhuis be of interest to them? We'll see.
It sounds like there might be some interesting names across the NHL that might land on waivers as early this weekend.
I think we are lucky to only be behind 2-0. That was just sad to watch and i have nothing else to do as im sitting at work and still dont want to see this.
They cant win a face off to save there life, they dont go to the dirty places to score goals but oh yeah signing Mike Comrie was a great signing. This team needs a major shake up so some of the vets get there heads out there asses and play some damn hockey.
Unnamed source wrote:
Might I suggest redtube.com? Trust me. It'll make you forget all about this Oilers debacle.
Well whats good about this game, easy to make some roster decisions, lot's of people playing their way off the team.
Bye bye Shremp
Bye Bye MacIntyre
Bye Bye Stone
Why can everyone but Oiler management see that having this many small players is not a good idea?
Bob Cob wrote:
Comrie has been arguably are best player so far without him we might not have won a game yet.
Not really sure what Mcguire is talking about regarding Hemsky. I think for what he produces he has a fantastic contract. Probably Lowe's best signing.
@ Deans: Mcquire is an idiot. He just likes to hear his own voice. Too bad he didn't get the Wild job.
@ David S:
Your right that is much better then watching this crap:)
@ ronaldo:
I'm actually a fan of Pierre. One of the few guys who has the balls to rip players. When is the last time you heard Debrusk rip a guy for a poor performance? With that being said, he does say some idiot sh*t from time to time.
29 other GM's would love to have Ales Hemsky with his contract. Dummy Maquire... he was probably mistaking him for Horcoff.
@ Deans: You're right on Debrusk, I miss the little ball of hate doing every game. Always thought he was good.
Damn you Moreau!
BAAAAAA says the goat in the penalty box.
Moreau - high sticking.
*facepalm*
Fiveandagame wrote:
Isn't that a sheep?
ronaldo wrote:
Never mind, just looked it up and they are supposed to sound similar.
See that body language between Gagner Nilsson and Moreau. They didn't even look at Moreau... man.. thats not good.
With only 5 regular roster forwards I expect the offense to suck, but the defense is not looking hot either.
goalpost. well it was a shot that got through
David S wrote:
Picking up from where he left off last year ... bad penalty :(
@ ronaldo:
It's very similar... I guess I could have typed
Maaaaahahahahah... but that is kinda weird.
@ Fiveandagame: LOL
Reggie wrote:
it was but st laurent made a good play by ducking into the stick
Gagner and Cogliano. Wow!
Put O'Sullivan with them and things will happen.
Wanye, if Grebs keeps this up he can, no WILL, be the goat this year.
@ BarryS: maybe, but another example of Moreau having bad position and opting to use his stick instead of taking a stride to close the play - in the neutral zone on top of it.
@ Reggie: There was 0 reason for his stick to be around St. Louis face.
I swear this sounds like Ethan himself hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06CvUjLgK5g
I think Cogs can play wing. He looks decent out there tonight. Fighting hard for pucks in the corners.
Gagner and Cogliano look good together. For a small duo they have won some board battles and came out with the puck.
Tampa may have no interest in moving him, but Jeff Halpern would be a good pick up for the oil. 3C, veteran presence. If Tampa would take a vet back...
Smid should drop the gloves and eff somebody up. Kids huge now.
Well its been a better period, at least Schremp has shown some jump.
Check out this interview with Ethan Moreau
hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJAioFb3IOA
Is Mike Smith the guy who almost had his head taken off by a Marc Andre Bergeron shot?
Now we can't buy a goal.
Holy crap! Sam's one-timers have some heat on 'em now.
I am soooo sick of this stuipid Civic commercial and it's only the second period.
Fiveandagame wrote:
HHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Such language. and not even a real fight.
@ Travis Dakin: Completely serious now... that is one messed up goat.....
Bob Nilsson.... nice....
Nicely done Nilsson
Sam's having a great night. And Nilsson. Jeeezuz!
oh no. nillson scored. then again, maybe it will make him tradeable
ATTA BOY COGS!
COGILANO!!!!!!!!!
For the love of god. Put the kid line back together.
wow Tie game.... wow