Line Matching: Oct 22 & 23 on the road

Here’s some better-late-than-never analysis of the Oil’s line match-ups on road games against the Hawks and the Avs.

The Edmonton Oilers played likely their worst game of this young season in a 3–0 loss to Chicago. Joel Quenneville’s Blackhawks dominated the entire game, and despite not running up the score, the game never really felt like it was in reach for the Oilers.

Most frustrating of all was Ales Hemsky, who has had a poor start in every area except the powerplay, and who was virtually invisible in this game. In any case, here’s how MacTavish and Quenneville managed their lines, using Vic Ferrari’s Time On Ice Tool and the same procedure as in previous installments:

Cole – Horcoff – Hemsky
Nilsson – Cogliano – Gagner
Moreau – Pisani – Penner/Pouliot
Pouliot /Penner – Brodziak – Stortini

Souray – Visnovsky
Grebeshkov – Gilbert
Smid – Strudwick

MacTavish swapped Pouliot on to the third line, generally dropping Penner to the fourth line in so doing. When Penner was on the third line, he played centre, with Pisani switching back to his natural right wing position.

Kane – Toews – Verstteg
Havlat – Sharp – Brouwer Byfuglien –Bolland – Ladd
Burish – Fraser – Eager

Keith – Seabrook
Campbell – Johnson
Walker – Hendry

Toews Line: 53.1%
Sharp Line: 8.5%
Bolland Line: 21.5%
Fraser Line: 17.0%

Keith Pairing: 76.7%
Campbell Pairing: 16.5%
Walker Pairing: 6.8%

Toews Line: 37.8%
Sharp Line: 6.3%
Bolland Line: 48.6%
Fraser Line: 7.2%

Keith Pairing: 12.0%
Campbell Pairing: 83.7%
Walker Pairing: 4.3%

Toews Line: 12.8%
Sharp Line: 61.7%
Bolland Line: 16.0%
Fraser Line: 9.6%

Keith Pairing: 38.8%
Campbell Pairing: 24.3%
Walker Pairing: 36.9%

Toews Line: 15.2%
Sharp Line: 35.4%
Bolland Line: 16.5%
Fraser Line: 32.9%

Keith Pairing: 33.3%
Campbell Pairing: 21.4%
Walker Pairing: 45.2%

Toews Line: 41.1%
Sharp Line: 14.6%
Bolland Line: 18.4%
Fraser Line: 25.9%

Toews Line: 41.5%
Sharp Line: 17.7%
Bolland Line: 33.3%
Fraser Line: 7.5%

Toews Line: 10.7%
Sharp Line: 45.9%
Bolland Line: 33.6%
Fraser Line: 9.8%

Coming the day after a very bad showing in Chicago, I was optimistic that the Oilers would rebound against the Avalanche, especially given the goaltending options available to Tony Granato. It was, however, not to be, as the Avalanche won 4–1. The most memorable moment for me was Ian Laperriere (somewhat hypocritically) mocking Zach Stortini’s fighting style as he skated to the penalty box.

Here were the line-ups:

Cole – Horcoff – Hemsky
Nilsson – Cogliano – Gagner
Moreau – Brodziak – Penner
MacIntyre – Pouliot – Stortini

Visnovsky – Souray
Grebeshkov – Gilbert
Smid – Strudwick

Smyth – Stastny – Hejduk
Tucker – Sakic – Wolski
McLeod – Arnason – Svatos
McCormick – Guite – Laperriere

Foote – Clark
Hannan – Liles
Salei – Leopold

Stasnty Line: 23.6%
Sakic Line: 26.8%
Arnason Line: 38.2%
Guite Line: 11.4%

Foote Pairing: 70.5%
Hannan Pairing: 16.4%
Salei Pairing: 13.1%

Stasnty Line: 21.9%
Sakic Line: 16.2%
Arnason Line: 39.0%
Guite Line: 22.9%

Foote Pairing: 11.4%
Hannan Pairing: 42.9%
Salei Pairing: 45.7%

Stastny Line: 55.2%
Sakic Line: 27.6%
Arnason Line: 14.9%
Guite Line: 2.3%

Foote Pairing: 18.9%
Hannan Pairing: 39.6%
Salei Pairing: 41.4%

Stastny Line: 0.0%
Sakic Line: 35.1%
Arnason Line: 37.8%
Guite Line: 27.0%

Foote Pairing: 11.3%
Hannan Pairing: 66.0%
Salei Pairing: 22.6%

Stastny Line: 24.3%
Sakic Line: 33.6%
Arnason Line: 27.1%
Guite Line: 15.0%

Stastny Line: 31.1%
Sakic Line: 30.4%
Arnason Line: 18.8%
Guite Line: 19.6%

Stastny Line: 28.8%
Sakic Line: 2.7%
Arnason Line: 49.3%
Guite Line: 19.2%