Tom Renney Won’t Dress Andy Sutton. Cam Barker Can Fix That.

Sometimes, things are so bad that they’re worth revisiting again, in detail. Such was the case with Cam Barker’s game against Detroit, coming on the heels of a miserable outing versus the Maple Leafs.

This one really isn’t so bad. Lennart Petrell fails to seal off the far side of the net where Cory Emmerton does the real damage, while Barker’s failings are limited to allowing Justin Abdelkader to walk out of the corner and put in the initial shot.

Again, it isn’t all on Barker here. Corey Potter could have played Abdelkader better in front of the net. Lennart Petrell or Ryan Smyth could have picked up on Drew Miller’s presence earlier. On the other hand, Barker could have a) cleared the puck out of danger by winning his initial battle with Abdelkader or b) done something other than uselessly follow Abdelkader out of the danger area after the player already had his shot off.

This one is pretty much all on Barker. He mishandles the puck in front of the net, fails to take the puck off Filppula (losing his stick in the process), shoves Zetterberg too late to make any difference as the puck goes past from behind the net up to the point, then gives Zetterberg a push and is caught flat-footed as Zetterberg skates away and scores a goal unchecked. Strictly speaking, Zetterberg’s little shove of Barker’s stick isn’t legal, but even so it’s an ugly sequence.

Combine those things with Barker’s gorgeous setup of Tyler Bozak against Toronto and the Grabovski goal (memorialized for all eternity over at Leafs Nation) and one imagines that Andy Sutton will be in the lineup when the Oilers play against Ottawa on Saturday.