Oilers vs. Blackhawks Postgame

Chicago Blackhawks: 4

Edmonton Oilers: 2

Hey, look, a loss.

I got home tonight, looked at the ticker, looked at the remote for my PVR, and decided that I didn’t have the fortitude to sit through the game.  So I won’t.

I will take this opportunity to mention some of the tools that I use when I want to look at a game indepth and verify what I just saw.  For instance, this tool, provided by Vic Ferrari, allows the user to scroll through and see how the coaches ran their bench.  Most nights for the Oilers, it’s an endless succession of 1-2-3-4, but a few games ago the coaching staff decided, ‘aw shucks, we’re sick of losing, let’s try matching the lines.’

The astute observer, either of the game or of the shift chart, will note that Quinn & Co. rather diligently sent out Horcoff, Moreau and Pisani against Toews, Kane and Brouwer.  It was a mismatch; in terms of shots Horcoff finished the night +6/-17, and in Corsi he finished +13/-34, but somehow he finished even on the night, and added an assist on Pisani’s goal.  I’m guessing the line had a brutal evening against some superior players.  On the defensive end, the staff also matched Gilbert/Souray against the Bane of Cabbies and his confederates, and they posted similar numbers to the ‘shutdown’ trio.

Those shot totals are here, by the way; another handy tool from Vic.  By the look of things, the notion of sending out those five as human sacrifices (much like MacT used to do with Stoll and Reasoner, before they were run out of town to the sound of crowds cheering ‘minus-23, minus-17, minus-23!’) was somewhat effective at shielding the rest of the team, but nowhere near enough.

This is the 11th loss in a row for Edmonton, and if they can somehow squeak through St. Louis and Calgary, they’ll be 0-for-January.