Every Single Thing Darcy Hordichuk Did

Saturday night versus the Calgary Flames, Darcy Hordichuk made his 2013 debut for the Edmonton Oilers. He had four shifts, and played a whopping 1:11, all of it coming in the first period. After the jump, every single thing that Hordichuk did on Saturday night.

This is Darcy Hordichuk (16 for Edmonton) entering the ice for his first shift. Ralph Krueger sent the fourth line out for a defensive zone draw, and had Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93 for Edmonton) take Hordichuk’s spot, just in case Belanger was tossed from the circle (which is an interesting choice in its own right). After gaining possession, Nugent-Hopkins passed the puck off to Petrell (37 for Edmonton) at centre and went ot the bench to allow Hordichuk on the ice.

Hordichuk was the trailer on this play, and Petrell tried to pass to him but the puck redirected off a Flames stick; Hordichuk continued on to the net and then wheeled around.

Here he is at the blue line. After the puck went towards the blue line Petrell got on his horse and stalled the Flames breakout, eventually forcing a turnover; Hordichuk will quickly touch the puck and then immediately pass it into Eric Belanger’s skates, at which point it ricochets deep into Calgary’s zone.

The Flames chase the ricochet down and finally break out, but are stymied thanks to the efforts of Petrell and Smid. Jeff Petry takes the puck and passes it to Belanger, who in turn forwards it to Hordichuk on the offensive side of centre ice.

Hordichuk can’t handle the pass; it bounces off his stick and the Flames gain possession.

Hordichuk can’t catch up to Dennis Wideman, who takes possession and passess off to T.J. Brodie. He can’t catch up to Brodie, either, who skates up and makes a pass without trouble. After Brodie makes the pass he just glides, so Hordichuk angles towards him and throws a late but harmless hit (at the very edge of the screen). Brodie had passed the puck while inside the defensive zone faceoff circle; Hordichuk catches up with him just inside the Flames’ blue line.

This comes right after the Flames crashed the Oilers’ crease to make it a 1-0 hockey game.

Flames win the draw; Hordichuk goes on the forecheck.

After Petrell and Justin Schultz engage at the side boards (Petrell landing a big hit on Sven Baertschi) the Flames get the puck out; Hordichuk follows it back to his own end. Side note here: Eric Belanger picked up on Justin Schultz’s aggressive pinch immediately and responded accordingly, getting back to make this a 2-on-2 rather than 2-on-1 rush for Calgary.

Calgary gets a not especially threatening shot off, Dubnyk stops it, and that’s it for this shift.

Ryan Smyth (94 for Edmonton) dumps the puck in; Magnus Paajarvi (91 for Edmonton) will briefly pressure and then circle to the bench; Shawn Horcoff (10 for Edmonton) is already changing. On comes the fourth line.

T.J. Brodie collects the puck and sets up for the breakout; Darcy Hordichuk forechecks. Brodie will pass cross-ice and slightly behind him to Dennis Wideman.

Wideman (26 for Calgary) surveys his options; Hordichuk gave Brodie a little tap with the stick and then circled around to put pressure on Wideman.

Wideman takes his sweet time and then finally passes as Hordichuk lumbers into him. Hordichuk lands a good hit, and Wideman’s pass goes directly to Petrell – basically the definition of a successful forecheck.

The Oilers are bunched up a little bit because of Hordichuk switching wings – both Petrell and Belanger were already on the left side – but Justin Schultz (19 for Edmonton) jumps in to offer them a right wing option.

Petrell smartly decides to pass to Schultz, but his pass is no good – he’s sent the puck not even to where Schultz is, let alone to where he is going to be, but rather to where he was.

Eric Belanger, however, makes a quick play here, getting his stick on the puck. He can’t control the puck – he’d been going to the net, then turned suddenly and got his stick out – but he does manage to redirect it to Schultz. This isn’t really Hordichuk-related, but Belanger’s had a tough stint in Edmonton so it seemed only fair to highlight this particular nice play.

Schultz takes the puck, and Hordichuk goes to the net with his stick down. Schultz opts for the shot instead of the pass, which Kiprusoff handles fairly easily.

This is where Hordichuk does something stupid. He decides to crosscheck Dennis Wideman. The puck’s frozen (and Kiprusoff is on the other side of the net), the play is effectively over, and Wideman’s been nowhere near the puck since the last time Hordichuk hit him.

Wideman goes flying, a minor scrum ensues, and the Flames go on the power play.

Three seconds after Hordichuk’s penalty expires, Jay Bouwmeester’s shot squeaks between Devan Dubnyk’s legs and the Flames have a 2-0 lead. Hordichuk never makes it to the Oilers zone in time to be involved in the play; all he gets to do is collect a minus.

With more than 45 minutes left in the game, this is the last time that Darcy Hordichuk will appear on the ice. He did not have a good shift in the game. On his first, he made a bad pass, couldn’t handle a pass on his stick, and then threw a late hit. He didn’t get a chance to do much of anything on his second shift. He makes a great forecheck on his third shift, which results in a big hit and a turnover, but he negates all that by taking a bad penalty. His fourth shift lasted all of three seconds as he skated out of the box just in time to collect a minus on the Bouwmeester goal.