Oilers Vs. Avalanche Postgame: Keeping Up With Carolina

Colorado Avalanche: 6

Edmonton Oilers: 0

Well, that was a disaster. Just this afternoon, Bob Stauffer was mentioning how the Oilers had been losing a lot of games but hadn’t been blown out; I’m not sure it qualified as a wish but if it was it got fulfilled tonight. Ugly, ugly, ugly. I didn’t think the Avalanche were actually all that impressive, but the Oilers ineptitude almost made them look that way.

This is going to mark me as an oddball, but I’m genuinely excited to see what Marc Pouliot can do in his first game back at the NHL level. This has been a season of AHL players showing they might have NHL futures (Ryan Potulny, Ryan Stone) and it would be nice if the Oilers’ first pick in 2003 could use things that are his strengths (positioning, faceoffs) to prove he can hang on to an NHL job. I can’t really explain why I keep holding out hope for this guy, but I do, and that’s what I’m focusing on for this game. He’s coming off four strong games in Springfield, and hopefully he can carry that on to the NHL level.

A T.J. Galiardi breakaway is the best chance so far, and the ice has been tilted a bit in Colorado’s favour. Jason Strudwick is all kinds of slow, but he stayed with Galiardi enough to impede him.

Marc Pouliot Watch: His first shift with Moreau and Cogliano started with the puck coming int o the Oilers zone. Pouliot got it to Smid, who moved it to Stortini, then Pouliot bailed out Stortini as the latter lost the puck, carrying it in for a shot on Anderson.

The Oilers have Pisani listed on the third pairing instead of Strudwick. I’m now trying to decide if that would be an improvement.

The Oilers’ checking line of Horcoff, Pisani and O’Sullivan is out for another defensive zone draw; Horcoff loses the faceoff, and while the line did a good job of limiting chances it was still a little bit scary. Sheldon Souray made a blind backhand pass from right in front of the net that resulted in a Colorado chance. A very nice illustration of why it’s way better to start in the offensive zone.

Brutal hit from J-F Jacques on Ryan Wilson, sparking a physical reply from Chris Durno. I wonder if it’s payback for the Wilson hit on Moreau the last time these two teams played. Wilson turned at the last second, and Jacques ended up hitting him from behind.

Four on four is entertaining; watching Sheldon Souray and Tom Gilbert bumble around in their own end isn’t all that enjoyable, but Nilsson and Penner came and bailed them out and Nilsson ended up with a nice chance on Anderson.

Gagner’s a joy to watch right now; somebody ought to tell him that Game 1 is Game 41. J-F Jacques comes out of the box; he loses a puck battle cleanly along the board as he shied away from a hit. I seem to recall Mike Milbury beating up on Patrick O’Sullivan for almost that exact same play.

Decent tilt between Stortini and McLeod; Stortini took a few more shots.

John-Michael Liles scores to make it 1-0 Colorado. Visnovsky abandons the side of the net to take the man in front while Gagner’s doing spade work to cover for Smid, who gets caught a little high. The real problem: Robert Nilsson, standing in front of the net all by himself watching it happen.

Nilsson now with Pouliot and Moreau, and that trio has a good shift as Pouliot generates two chances. I swear, I’m not imagining this; Pouliot’s having a very good game.

Sheldon Souray takes a penalty for grabbing Chris Stewart with his free hand, and the ref will call that every time.

Jason Strudwick with a very nice play to break up a pass on the penalty kill.

Matt Duchene scores after Colorado gets back into the zone; they peppered the net and the penalty killers, and while Penner was able to block shots the Oilers couldn’t clear the zone. 2-0 Colorado.

Oilers with a nice clean breakout, but the pass from Visnovsky lands in Jacques skates and as he looks for it two Avalanche players jump into the Oilers zone with the puck, leading to a good 20 seconds of pressure.

Marc Pouliot takes a penalty for kicking out Chris Durno’s legs; it was a bad penalty to take. I laughed a little bit reading Pouliot’s thoughts on Durno after the play, but he can’t do that sort of thing if he wants to stay in the lineup.

Nice penalty-killing work by Moreau and Potulny, who clear the zone with relative ease.

Very, very nice kill for the Oilers. The Avalanche couldn’t get setup and the Oilers just kept dumping the puck down the ice.

Dustin Penner with a fine chance on the shift after the penalty kill. Nilsson made a lovely blind pass to Penner who saw the puck deflected over the net.

Brett Clark takes a hooking penalty on Gagner, although the call could have gone either way (Gagner had his stick up to). Denis Grebeshkov promptly makes a stupid pinch that gives the Avalanche an odd-man rush.

No intermission segments from me today; let’s face it, the intermission segments on pay-per-view aren’t that interesting.

The Oilers power play isn’t all that interesting; Dustin Penner made a nice move to give Souray a chance to use his shot, but other than nothing terribly threatening. Lubomir Visnovsky hurt T.J. Galiardi with a shot that didn’t get through.

Wilson’s doubtful to return; these Avalanche players are dropping like flies.

Faceoff stats are 14-6 Colorado.

I don’t know what happened to Sheldon Souray from last year, but he’s looked lost in his own end tonight. Just a series of bad plays that keep resulting in Colorado chances.

Jason Strudwick wins a foot race! Sure it was against David Koci, and sure he had a head start, but a win’s a win. This comes on the heels of a nice shift for Shawn Horcoff, who lost a puck battle but then went and won it back and held off three Colorado players while the Oilers figured out who should step off the bench.

3-0 Colorado. Kyle Quincey took an innocent shot that looked like it deflected in off Ladislav Smid.

Denis Grebeshkov got thumped with the puck coming out of his own end, but Sam Gagner came back and helped him out. I’ve been very impressed with Gagner’s play of late.

Andrew Cogliano is saying not nice things after taking a high stick in the face. No idea why Galiardi didn’t get called for the penalty.

Ladislav Smid went after Yip in the corner after Yip grazed Deslauriers.

Ugly shift for Potulny, Penner and Nilsson; they were penned in by the Colorado kids, who generated chance after chance after chance.

Great to see Tom Renney’s name come up under Kelly Buchberger, who remains pessimistic about the Oilers play. I actually enjoy Buchberger interviews as a rule; he doesn’t sugar-coat anything.

Andrew Cogliano finally draws a penalty as Tucker shoves a stick between his legs; the Oilers go to the power play.

A slightly better power play that time around, but still nothing worth mentioning, really. No serious chances.

End-to-end action; Colorado had the puck just sit on the goal line as it almost squeaked through Deslauriers, and then Potulny came back the other way with a chance in close. Visnovsky had a rare moment with the puck as he coughed it up under a heavy forecheck leading to the Colorado chance.

Beauty chance for Patrick O’Sullivan off a very nice shift for the Horcoff line.

Denis Grebshkov pinches up to centre, leaving Strudwick and Jacques on defence; the puck turns over for a Colorado 3-on-2. Strudwick is taken out of the play on a give-and-go, and Jacques doesn’t do anything about the forward standing right in front of him because he’s not remotely intuitive as a defenceman. 4-0 Colorado.

Moreau just thumped T.J. Galiardi. The much maligned captain has had a pretty good game, all things considered, and the fourth line is having a good night as a unit.

Denis Grebeshkov never saw a pinch he didn’t like; it’s killing me tonight.

No intermission interview for Gene Principe because there’s some kind of closed door meeting in the dressing room. Gene explains all of this in very animated fashion, doing a little dance as he waves his arms towards and away from the dressing room.

After a Stauffer/Chabot interview (I’m actually a fan of what Stauffer does; as far as paid Oilers employees go he’s relatively outspoken) Principe gets to interview Rick Olczyk. No word on whether Gilbert Brule can clear waivers or not 😉

10 seconds into the period and Colorado has a serious scoring chance. This doesn’t bode well.

And just a few seconds later Patrick O’Sullivan draws an interference penalty has Kyle Quincey knocks him down; but that power play only lasts a few seconds as Dustin Penner takes a hooking call.

Big pokecheck by Jeff Deslauriers; Matt Duchene blew by Jason Strudwick and came in all alone. Just moments later Horcoff stick-checks at the puck and trips Liles, giving the Avalanche a 4-on-3 power play. Sticking with the seconds later theme, Kyle Cumiskey blows the puck by Jeff Deslauriers from the point to make it 5-0.

I can’t believe the puck didn’t just go in; Gilbert had an empty net off a Gagner rebound, but Kyle Cumiskey is playing multipurpose man and blocks the shot.

Pouliot gets rubbed out entering the zone, and in retaliation Zack Stortini throws a vicious hit at the boards. The boards are surprisingly resilient, knocking Stortini to the ice.

Colorado makes it 6-0 as Duchene blows by Strudwick again. Sheldon Souray sees it happening, makes a desperation dive to knock the puck away. Duchene flips the puck over to Yip, who Strudwick has moved to cover (although not well), Yip flips it back to Duchene and Duchene puts it past the now prone Souray and into the net as Penner desperately tries to get back. Jason Strudwick has been absolutely terrible tonight.

10 minutes left, but nobody has any doubt about what the outcome is going to be.

My game summary in a single sentence: Ethan Moreau has been one of the Oilers six best forwards.

Nice chance for first Ryan Potulny and then Robert Nilsson, but Anderson, as usual, is splendid and prevents either from going anywhere.

I’ve spent some time thinking about it, and I now wish Fernando Pisani’s clone were the sixth defenceman instead of Jason Strudwick. I’m not sure there’s a slower defenceman in the league.

Chris Durno takes a weird call as he bumps Deslauriers, falls down, and trips Grebeshkov all at the same time. The tripping call is the one the referee settles on.

Power play starts. Power play ends. The less said about the interim, the better.

Horcoff with a brutal, brutal give away in his own end. It goes nowhere, not that it matters at this point, but he can’t make that play. 

Plenty of competition for the DFF star tonight, not so much for the other three spots.

1. Tom Gilbert. Aside from the odd moment, Gilbert was effective tonight, which puts him miles ahead of some of his fellow blueliners, and most of his team.

2. Sam Gagner. Once again the Oilers’ most dangerous offensive players, although if that’s not damning with faint praise I don’t know what is.

3. Marc Pouliot. A nice game for Pouliot, playing his fourth game in four nights. He managed three shots and did a fair bit with his smidgen of ice-time.

DFF Star: Tom Renney. Yes, that’s right, Tom Renney. Normally Jason Strudwick would get this honour, but let’s face it: it wasn’t Jason Strudwick who sent him out for more than 20 minutes against the Avalanche. Let’s just break that down into even-strength ice-time, to see what happens:

All hail Tom Renney, getting done what needs to be done.