Oilers vs. Avalanche Post-Game: How ‘Bout That Power Play?

Well, that’s a win.  The power play unit – remarkably, without Ales Hemsky, Sheldon Souray or Shawn Horcoff – was the hero here, scoring four goals and the callups didn’t do too badly for themselves either.  Ryan Potulny’s goal and assist weren’t a huge shock; after all, he’s been a dynamic minor league scorer and he didn’t look out of place in previous stints last season and with Philadelphia in years prior.

The Oilers were outshot, again, on both the powerplay and even strength, and in the latter situation they were outscored 3-1, which is why players like Taylor Chorney are stuck with a -3 rating.  In fairness though, the first two Colorado goals came off point shots into traffic.

Via David Staples and the magic of Twitter (follow Oilersnation!) comes this quotation from Colorado Avalanche beat reporter Adrian Dater:

Really?  While I’m the first to admit the Oilers aren’t exactly dominating the league right now, the Colorado Avalanche are right down with them in terms of getting outshot.  Are you really that confident that their early success isn’t a combination of Craig Anderson’s brilliance and a bunch of hot streaks?  I’ve talked about the 07-08 Senators before, but Scott Reynolds had another fun comparison: last year’s Florida Panthers, who had a midseason run of 12-3-3 (slightly better than the Av’s current record) before falling back to Earth and just missing the playoffs.  With only nine points seperating the Oilers and Avalanche and 65 games to go, it’s a little early to be that cocky.

So – a win’s a win, and it’s nice to have that in the books after this nasty little slump.  What did everyone else think?