GDB 02: SHARK HUNTING
Jason Gregor
January 22 2013 01:28PM
The Oilers are 19-8-5 (actual ties) in home openers including a perfect 3-0 v. the San Jose Sharks. They beat the Sharks 3-2 in a shootout in 2008, 3-2 in 1993 and 5-2 in 2003, so with it being 2013 it only seems fitting they open their home schedule v. San Jose.
I know technically this is the 2012/2013 season, but their home opener is in 2013 so just go with it.
Both teams won their season openers on the road, Edmonton in Vancouver and San Jose in Calgary, and both will try to become the 9th NHL team to start the season 2-0.
Shawn Horcoff, Sam Gagner, Taylor Hall and Ben Eager weren't on the ice for the optional morning skate. Eager's eye is swollen from his fight against Zack Kassian on Sunday and he won't play tonight. The other three were just resting.
LINEUP
Hall-RNH-Eberle
Yakupov-Gagner-Hemsky
Smyth-Horcoff-Hartikainen
paajarvi-Belanger-Petrell
Smid-Petry
N.Schultz- J.Schultz
Whitney - Potter
Dubnyk
Danis
"We'd like to incorporate him into the PK tonight," Krueger said about Paajarvi. When I asked Krueger about having more forwards involved killing penalties he said he plans on using more, but felt they weren't ready for the season opener. He wants to ensure his young guys are well-versed and completely understand the system.
In Vancouver, Krueger and Steve Smith didn't want to disrupt the ryhthm of their defence and they didn't try to hard to match lines. When I asked Krueger his strategy for home games," I look at each game as a different story. A lot of it will depend on how the game is unfolding."
Ladislav Smid liked the strategy in Vancouver because it allowed the defenders to stay in a consistent flow. He also joked that it was nice not having to defend the Sedins every shift. Smid and Jeff Petry both relish the opportunity to try and shut down the opposition's best line, and tonight they expect to see a lot of the Joe Thornton/Patrick Marleau/Joe Pavelski line.
Krueger was very complimentary of Corey Potter today and explained why he has him ahead of Fistric. He likes his body positioning and how he moves the puck. I'm curious to see when Fistric will draw in. The Sharks have a big team, but they aren't overly physical which is why Krueger replaced Eager with Paajarvi. Paajarvi was amped up to play and he is hoping to make a good impression early in the game.
SHARKS
Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski
Clowe-Couture-Havlat
Wingels-Handzus-Galiardi
Mclaren-Desjardins-Burish
Stuart-Vlasic
Boyle-Irwin
Murray- Braun
Niemi
Joe Pavelski is the only right-handed shot in the Sharks top-six, and he's enjoying playing the wing with Thornton and Marleau. "Joe demands the puck a lot, so I've had to alter my game a bit and learn to dish it off, but it is easy because I know Joe will get it back to me in a better position."
The Sharks are without Brent Burns and Jason Demers, and Matt Irwin looked very good in his first NHL game in Calgary. "We put him with Boyle from the first day of camp to make him feel comfortable," said Sharks' head coach Todd Mclellan. "We wanted to instill some confidence in him early by putting him with Boyle and on the PP with Thornton. I saw his confidence grow all week and he looked good in game one."
GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers are a perfect 4-0 in home openers/season openers v. the Sharks. They've won all three home openers in Edmonton and they also beat the Sharks in San Jose to open a season. The Oilers speed will be an issue for the Sharks and they win 4-2.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: It will feel like a playoff game for fans. The building will be loud, the Octane will unveil a few new routines and with an 8 p.m. start many fans will be a tad "louder" when the game starts. Nail Yakupov scores his first NHL goal and follows it up with a triple fist pump.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: When they Oilers start announcing winners of the signed Oiler Jerseys, at least three diehard Oilersnation readers will win. They will instantly brag about it, rightfully so, in the comments section. And knowing Nation readers they will pick guys a jersey like Kurt Brackenbury #15, Stan Weir #21, Dave Brown #32, Jim Dowd #34 or Marty Reasoner's #19. The Nation readers set trends, they don't follow them.
GET OFF YOUR WALLET
You have five days left to win a $5,000 shopping spree at United Cycle or any of the 99 other prizes in the Nation's First Annual hockey draft. It is only $20 bucks with a portion of the funds going to charity. Bragging rights are on the line boys and girls, so enter today. We are almost sold out.
GOOD KARMA...UPDATE
I`m doing my show live at the Pint off Whyte today and at 2:10 Jessie strolled in and handed me a pair of tickets to tonight`s home opener. He wanted to give to a diehard fan. What a guy.
I will be giving them away at 6:30 p.m. You have to be here to win. Good luck.
Smid cant go behind the net on a 5 on 3
Our normal TV crew from Sportsnet is so much better than TSN. Personally I find Chris Cuthbert's voice to be grating. ... so CFL.
As long as Neimi is playing goal for the Sharks.....it's still tied 2-0.
We use to call them scratch n win girls back in college.
Feel free to mix in a save, Dubey.
All Hail, Nail!
yak taking a page out of laraque celebration book
YAKUPOV!!!!!!!
Yak city bitch. Yak Yak city bitch.
F Me what is up with the D/ Dub tonight
our star rookies were horribly exposed there... darn. Hopefully it just fires them up.
About Dubs-- does he look like a solution or a problem? Or are we going to try to win every game 6-5?
in case anyone is wondering woman's tennis is on TSN2 for a few mins.
Dubnyk is a disaster tonight.
Thornton line in mid season form. Might not matter who's playing goal for our Oilers tonight.
ELPH
Anyone know a site I can watch the game on?
http://forum.wiziwig.eu/forums/29-NHL-Icehockey?s=edec9233efab67ff4ff7e193fea5ca5b
They post feeds for every game every day... Only for use if you have no access to TV, Radio and are unable to use CentreIce.
Maybe we can find him a job with the power company? #whosethenewguy?
he hasnt been great but he hasnt had much help at all.
was a good 1 game run the oilers had though. good times.
WE WANT 10!!!!
This sucks ....pull him already
I'm thinking that Danis is going to get put in for period two but ya I agree san jose seems like mid season.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the oilers in this dressing room between the period.
lol
Well two things I've noticed:
Yak upon should keep his stick on the ice unless waiting for one timers and the oilers are still terrible
That is all, carry on
6-1 SJ after one??? Dubnyk's GAA will take a kicking after this... gasp... Do we put a call into Van or Ottawa and see what they want for a goalie?
For the love of God ....... WHY?????
When's the next lockout?
cue DSF in
3
2
1
they could put anyone in net, it wouldnt matter a lick with the coverage around him.
though, at this rate, joey moss better find a place to hide before he gets the green light to go in
6-1????? Did I just wake up. What a disaster. No PK.NO zone coverage. Thornton is just running their show. No defensive zone coverage at all. What a dumbass penalty on Hemsky again. And the penalty on Potter was so stupid he just have been given 4 minutes for being a dumbass. the guy was down. The ref was there and then you continue roughing him. What did that accomplish?Nothing. Dubnyk is being left hung out to dry. The second goal I don't give him But the other5 are on the team. Regroup. Focus on man coverage down low. And then generate off the rush. 8-4 final
Seth Jones hunting
I agree, he hasn't had much help. Still, at least 3 of those goals are as soft as DSF's manhood.
Ya, I went there.
No sandpaper.
On the 5th goal the Oilers were standing around watching. Not the usual standing around and watching but an impressive version that should redefine the term. Potter is an idiot.
Wow. Let's hold off on planning the parade route just yet. A lot of exposed weakness tonight.
Well on the plus side, my Nation Pool is getting a big bump... So there is that.
I'm too shamed to complain.
I still believe. Come back coming!!
Damn this koolaid tastes like piss tonight.
Down 6-1 after a single period against a clearly superior team.
... at least Krueger knows how to give a speech in this situation.
so this is your fault.... get off our board!!!
:) jk
Fistric should have started this game.oh well Potter is making it a good case that he does next anyways. Too many statues on the ice tonight too.
Imagine this team in the playoffs.
I believe it will go something like this, ahem...
"SWEET MOTHER F**KER!"
I have the sharks feed and want to scratch my eyes out. We could use a couple 5 min powerplays .....
You can make the first period highlights into a video manual on how not to play defense or defensive zone coverage in general and include the forwards too. Its tough to watch Bantam or Midget players making these types of obvious mistakes, but these are NHL defenseman. Two D men together behind the net chasing one guy leaving not one but two forwards alone. Chasing behind the net on a 5-3. Two D chasing one player on a 2-2 leaving one guy standing in front of the net alone. You see this sort of coverage often in atom hockey.
For all those that said Edmonton's defense was sub par I salute you guys tonight. Oilers defense made me and everyone else thinking that they would be fine look stupid. There was at least two or three of those D tonight in the first period that looked like they should not be playing professional anywhere.
I skipped yoga for this....
Needs: 1) veteran top 2/4 defence man; 2) goalie not named Dubnyk or Khabibulin; and 3) ugly, axe wielding, nasty, mean checking forward who can play 10 minutes a night.
Thanks to Tambellini for all your off season work finding none of these players. Have you calculated our draft odds yet, Tambi?
So...Whose it gonna be this year? McKinnon, or Jones?
Who could have seen that coming?