GDB 12.0: SLUMPBUSTER
Wanye
February 10 2013 01:18PM
A slumpbuster is defined as "something way below your normal standards that you know you can win at." You take what you can get to get back in the game. That's todays game vs Columbus in a nutshell. And its a matinee too. *yawns*
To the casual fan a game like this could be described as "skippable" and "probably boring." But not here among the OilersNation hardcore who live and die with every match - even a puzzling pair of afternoon matches in a single weekend must be watched from start to finish.
Its well known that the Oilers have a 0-1,235 record in matinee games in franchise history.* They are usually emotionless affairs that are forgotten quickly afterwards. That will probably be the case today too - Columbus is still probably seething from losing to the Mighty Oil in the Draft Lottery last year but are too toothless to do anything about it.
Coming in stone cold the Oil have to lay a beatdown on the hapless Blue Jackets today. Oilers fans have watched the last 10 days or so frozen in horror. Will this be another year where we have to make up slogans to give some sizzle to the annual tank campaign?
Or will the Oil catch fire and climb back into playoff contention? A serious beatdown of the Blue Jackets getting things back on track is exactly what the doctor ordered. Then another pantsing back in Edmonton next game too.
Losing this match is not an option.
LINES
We have no idea what the lines are today. You want lines? Ask Jason Gregor. We shoot from the hip son - not from the brain. Here are the lines from last game, lets just pretend they will be the same for the sake of argument. It's not like lines last very long when you are trying to play your way out of a losing streak anyways.
Hall-Gagner-Hemsky
Hartikainen-RNH-Eberle
Yakupov-Smyth-Paajarvi
Eager-Vande Velde-Petrell
PREDICTION THINGIES
This too is the domain of an expert like Jason Gregor but he INSISTS they are included in all GDBs even ones he can't write as he is in Calgary calling the Rush game. How the heck are we supposed to predict what's going to happen. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW DAMMIT?
Ahem.
Here goes.
GAME DAY PREDICTION: Oilers dust Columbus 6-2. The Nuge breaks out with a pair of goals and celebrates with ice cream on the way home from the rink.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Within 5 minutes of the telecast starting some announcer will say "Imagine Yakupov was a Blue Jacket?" picking the lowest hanging fruit on the proverbial branch early.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Steve Tambellini runs into Scott Howson in the press box prior to the game. Tambellini flashes his trademark smug grin recalling besting Howson at the Draft Lottery last summer. Howson - knowing his days as a GM are numbered - dissolves into tears and curses Tambo at the top of his lungs. History will remember neither man.
*Or worse even, where would you even look something like this up?
Dooby with his Brodeurian tribute!
No SOG in the PP. Good grief! We really need to start finding ways to get pucks to the net. The SN panel was right, you can't always expect to carry the puck across the blue line every single time, sometimes you have to dump and chase.
J.Schultz is a BEAST!!
Doobie saving our ass - we are being outplayed by the fn Blue Jackets ...
11 shots in 40 min vs Columbus...really..matinees suck
or....
Unreal -
Slump busters ? who exactly are we talking about.
Doobie you have proved you are a # 1.
J.Shultz, Solid man, what a player.
Outplayed by the Jackets- what a joke, i dont care if we win or not, this effort is not acceptable.
Playoffs ? we talkin Playoffs ? riiiiight.
This is proof i feel that we have rushed our picks to come in and make a difference. This is not juniors.
Hey all, anyone got a stream for this game?
Out of the Ralph Krueger-coached teams I've seen play, the Oilers are threatening to overtake Switzerland as the most entertaining to watch.
this snoozefest started at 6PM CBJ time
not a matinee
Funny, the first Troll came at 6:16
Why are you watching the game and reading Oilersnation ?
What...a little emotion..from us..oh I spoke to soon...
12 shots? against the pathetic CBJ? with overhyped guys like Hall, Eberle, RNH Yak and Schultz?
looks to me like Tambo wants Jones or MacKinnon
moar #1's!!!!111!!
Oh look, 94 goes back to the box. *facepalm*
MPS with the shorty!!! Nice breakaway by Gags there!
Staple Smytty to the bench ....
regardless of outcome great shot PRV and nice pass gags
Winning ....
Gagner with the empty netter! Nice of Nuge to give that one up, he could have had his first goal there probably.
Won ass wipe ...
Robbery - GTF out of town Oilers.
Just a horrid effort i dont care, win or not.
CBJ Dominates you.
Wake the H-LL Up.
Well, good news is we won. Bad news is I've never seen a team with so much potential firepower create so little.
Well we didn't deserve that one. Dubnyk was awesome. Really matur play by RNH. He could have tried the long shot to get on the board but instead he made a nice pass to Gags for the sure win. Good things happen to players who play a team-first style like that and I am sure that he will be rewarded with a goal soon. Also nice to see Paajarvi get on the board because he has been working really hard. Smyth's penalties are moronic and need to stop right now. A win is a win. GO OILERS GO!!
Great job Devan, it's Doobie time!
Anybody see Hallsy in the second half of the third period?
Sometimes an ugly win helps jump start a streak.
I hope the Oilers can turn this around now, would like to start seeing some chemistry through the line up, some winning and confidence.
back to back games. The Oilers got out shot and out played. DD deserves all 3 stars because he was unconscious tonight. What a performance. that is the way you walk in and steal a game for your team. Thats a make up game for the san Jose loss earlier this year. I call evens now.
How many frakin penalties are we going to take? Smitty needs a brain purge and reboot to 2013. Because the penalties he took tonight would have been fine 5 years ago but its 2013 and that crap just gets you 2 minutes for stupidity.He has got to be better than that. Needs Struds to slap him upside the head with one of those ugly sweaters he thinks are fashionable.If that doesn't work we could have Gregor hire a voodoo guy to shake a chicken over Smittys head to exorcise the stupidity that seems to have seeped into his brain of late.
MP on the PP and the PK tonight. He had the freshest legs tonight. He skated hard tonight and kreuger rewarded him with more minutes. Paid off big time. Kreuger gets big time applause from me for the way he managed his bench for the last 0 minutes of the game. The Oilers locked down the last 1:30 minutes and took home a much needed win. Kudos to him for recognizing who was into the game.
Big time maturity on RNH's part for not shooting at the empty net. That is what gets you alot of love from your teamamtes and the coaching staff.
Ryan Johansen in the minors? How is this guy not in Oiler Blue yet. What is Tambo waiting for? Another lottery win? Good luck with that. The only reason I don't trade for him now is that were likely to see Curtis Lazar drafted by the Oilers. But man if Lazar is not there for the Oilers when they pick, plan B should immediately be to trade their pick to Columbus for Johansen. Columbus is too stupid for their own good.They should have taken the Islanders offer and loaded up.Ryan Murray is 5 years away from being a legit dman. The Jackets only wish they has a JS they could count on on the back end.Howson has 3 first round picks this summer. He should make sure he has at-least one more. Just to ensure he has 25% chance of being right.
Im curious to see if Smyth sits for a game or 2 when Jones comes back, He looks lost out there right now.
starting to not regret picking old gags as my star for the year.. who would have thunk he would be leading the team in points :)
Caught the last half of the game,but didn't see Rynan Whitney play tonight. Was he a scratch again?
kruger better get ahold of his bench fast...two sets of rules...one for the young and inexperienced and one for the vets..smyth has clearly lost a step and is using his stick in an effort to keep up..either out of frustration or lack of discipline he is hurting the team ..anyone else would have been benched..
And who replaces him. Hordichuk?
Healthy scratch.Other than a dumb scrum penalty FISTric looked ok, I can't see him coming out of the lineup barring injury.
So one of the Oilers Captains.. manned up and kicked a guys stick away from him. Wow... how intense.
A is for ____________________.
It would have been an even uglier loss, I guess. But they have yet to play a really sound game - the power play is an embarrassment, and how they killed 7 penalties is a miracle and a testament to Dubnyk's hot streak and Columbus's monumental incompetence.
You really just said what I was thinking, lol.
I have been pretty hard on the Oilers this year, so I thought I would put out a positive post for once.
A good example of Gagner being on the ice for every goal, for and against. He is the sole reason either team scores on any given night.
His beauty pass to PRV was as good as his chasing around Umberger was bad.
Smyth is starting to look like a mole for other teams out there with all his blatantly dumb penalties.
Conversely, I've tried to be good cop, but your positivity brought out the bad cop in me. If only the Oil could generate that kind of chemistry.
Ya, he gives vets so much leash. I mean, Whitney in pressbox for first time in career? Why not publicly whip him in Churchhill square? Let him off easy
I am very concerned with the shots the boys are getting. We would probably be back in the basement if it were not for Doobie. Somewhere along the line before we run out of games, the boys better start scoring or its another year of taking trash talk from the irritating nuck fans........the nuckler in particular. This guy drives me up the bend. Maybe a chat with the "Champ" will do the nuckler good.
That was an incredibly weak call. A lot worse goes on in a scrum without being called. Contrast that with the stupid between the legs trip that Potter got away with and yet again the reffing leaves me baffled by how this league handles its officials.
Good teams win ugly , so maybe we are better than we give them credit for .
The SOLE reason? Really? And here I thought hockey was a team sport...silly me. He's currently sitting at -1, which I'll take over some other people's plus/minus.
None of Smyths penalties hurt the hockey club, so he's off the hook as far as the blame game goes. Give it a rest.
.975 goaltending allows a few mistakes to easily be forgiven.
Gagner was good. I will try to overcome my Gagner phobia.
@Has Taylor Hall asked to be traded, yet?
Are you trying to suggest that the only penalties that hurt a hockey club are those that result in goals against? Not only is it time where your most offensive players are typically not on the ice, but the defensive specialists are more likely going to need to block shots (get hurt), and certainly will be tiring out a lot quicker. Smyth should be damn grateful there isn't a suitable replacement allowing him to be benched for a game. He's turning into Ethan Moreau, but slower.
PS: Has Belanger actually changed his game for the better or are we just appreciating him more for those specialized things he has always done well? I've been liking his game a lot, despite his lack of scoring touch.
@Rob...
Rule no.1 .....The W is all powerful and the singlemost important element in pro sports. How it's achieved is of little importance.
Even the Oilers better players spend 2/3rds of the game on the bench. A minute or two here and there isn't really an issue. I'm okay with Smytty playing the role of a prick in the lineup. The Oilers don't have enough guys who're tougher to play against. Hooking and holding tend to catch up to teams, the more violent infractions like highsticking,elbowing,slashing types, often send a message.
The more Ryan Smyth is pissed off, the better. Last time i checked taking penalties against the Bluejackets had very few consequences.
Party on....Smytty. Come Saturday afternoon, first slapper hammers Jonathan Quick right between the eyes. Rip that cateye cage from the rest of his mask,put him on his heels so Yakupov gets a hatrick.
Rule #2 - when Khabi had the .940 save % last year we waited for the bubble to burst and it did big time on the backs of one of worst ever Nov's and Dec's on record - if we do not get some 5 on 5 or PP scoring this team will have the same fate - Smytty could be a given a free pass for the first penalty but the 2nd no way and Kreuger has shown with Whitney that either his ice time will decrease (he's already on 4th line)but the only place left now press box don't be surprised when line-up gets healthy this happens.
Observation - Rule 3? - I believe the Oilers will only get out of this rut (maybe with this ugly W) once their Dman making a play in breakout - Other than J-Schulz the only player I saw make a hockey play and beat someone in defensive zone was Petry (but even he only a couple of times)
- if they just beat one forechecker then you have created a 5 on 4 or 4 on 3 and our forwards should be given all they need
- after watching Detroit game and the Vancouver game you see these opponents (even their 4th thru 6th Dman) do this on a regular basis
Smitty is either too old/slow or is not accepting his new role. He looks like he has a piano tied to his ass and he really looks uninterested in things. I realize he is a well liked/respected player but 26 pims in 12 games is awful. All stick infractions....A sign of fatigue, or frustration. Either way a message needs to be sent. Now that Hordi is on waivers, VV can be up and Smitty can share some popcorn with Whitney.
@Slats
The all important money element of the game has prevented teams from having depth on the blueline. Even competitive teams are hard pressed to have a legitimate #1 and 2 blueliners. The role of the 4-7 guys nowadays is to rest the 1 and 2 guys till they're able to go back on the ice. Teams invest in their top seven forwards, top 3 d, and a goaltender. The rest of the positions could probably be filled out at Walmart.
Edmontons 4-7 d (N.Schutz,Smid,and Whitney types)are fine, as long as they remain affordable. As the kids mature and have greater impacts in games, it'll make the contributions of the 3 or 4-7 d less noticeable.