Right off the bat, I admit that it would be hypocritical of me to blame the Edmonton Oilers for their lack of finish. It’s an ailment that I’ve experienced several times throughout my life. Rollerblades make their way out of the closet a couple times a year, but I skate like Alexei Semenov… after he’s downed a fifth of scotch and three bottles of Nyquil. Books go unread aside from the first couple chapters, dancing lessons never make it past the initial planning stages, and tanning attempts result in nothing more than a series of sunburns.
So it would be hypocritical of me to point a stubby finger at the Oilers for their lack of finish last night, choking away a two-goal lead en route to a 5-4 season-opening loss to the Winnipeg Jets. However, the Oilers won’t make any strides (toward the postseason or beyond) until they can put their foot down on an opponent’s throat and finish the job. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the loss – most of it belonging to Devan Dubnyk – but let’s start off with some positives and work our way down.
The Good
-Jesse Joensuu might be the best thing to come out of Long Island since Billy Joel, and he isn’t half as pretentious. The big left winger was easily the best Oiler on the ice last night. Whether he was forcing a turnover to keep the play alive, winning a board battle, drawing a penalty, throwing his weight around, or showing the stones to engage Dustin Byfuglien, Joensuu made something good happen on nearly every shift. He’s my new favorite player. I’ll be viewing the Oilers on Saturday night, but I’ll be watching Joensuu.
-If you were looking for steady, simple defensive play Jeff Petry provided it last night. Calm and cool with the puck, positioned perfectly without it, Petry had a really strong game and provided some much-needed stability on the back end. If his play proves to be contagious the Oilers could be just fine.
-He didn’t find the scoresheet, but David Perron was buzzing around all night and showed a real strong ability to anticipate the play and find open areas to work through. Plus, you have to like how he was chirping the Jets all night and showed a willingness to back up the chatter. He was easily the best part of the second line, which featured Perron skating with a couple of duds.
-I’m not sure if his goal was vintage Ales Hemsky or a sign of things to come, but I know it was as beautiful as any sunset I’ve ever witnessed. I admit, I yelled “shoot!” immediately before Hemsky tickled the twine, and it was great to see him dangling with a purpose rather than just putting on a meaningless exhibition.
-Did anyone figure Luke Gazdic would net the first goal of the season? At this point 72 hours ago I would have guessed that a gazdic was the noise you made when you’re eating peanuts and one of them goes down the wrong tube. Score a goal, win a fight, endear yourself to a new fanbase; not a bad night for the kid.
The Mediocre
-It was a mixed bag for Anton Belov in his Oilers debut. He showed off a cannon from the point, made a few outstanding outlet passes in traffic, and didn’t back down from the physical Winnipeg forwards. However, he also had a couple nightmare clearing attempts and got crossed up Nick Schultz at times. He’s a work in progress, but there’s a lot of potential and he could prove to be something special as the season progresses.
-There were some customary flashes of brilliance from Nail Yakupov, who looks woefully out of place on the third line. Based on last night’s performance, I don’t understand how Ryan Smyth deserved more ice-time (17:33 to 14:57) more power play time (3:23 to 2:44) and a more prominent role than the Russian sniper.
-I thought he played a decent enough game, but there’s no way Andrew Ference is 5-foot-11. No way Jose – or anyone else trying to convince me otherwise. Ference was dwarfed by Winnipeg’s big forwards all night and, like a wandering goat enveloped by a thicket of mighty redwood trees, I lost sight of him on more than one occasion.
-Speaking of pint-sized Oilers and a lack of finish, Mark Arcobello was Johnny-on-the-spot and could have potted a couple goals in the third period. Give some credit to Ondrej Pavelec for coming up with the saves, but Arcobello isn’t going to get many better chances to make a positive impression and make people forget the Oilers’ woes at center.
The Bad
-I won’t go into much detail about Taylor Hall’s night – you’ve seen, you’ve heard, you know. We’re currently 60 minutes into Dallas Eakins’ experiment with Hall at center, and thus far it’s been an abject failure. His speed, skill and tenacity seem much better suited to the wing, although it will be interesting to see how he performs when Smyth is taken off his wing.
-While Petry, Ference and Ladislav Smid commonly make the safe play in their own end, Justin Schultz is likes to attempt the nifty one every now and then. When it works it’s dazzling, eluding an oncoming forechecker with ease and making the play up ice. When it doesn’t work it’s a clumsy mess, pinning the Oilers in their own end. Schultz will get better, and he probably won’t choose to stare at the clock with the puck on his stick again.
-It’s a little premature to draw any conclusions, but Jordan Eberle looked scared of the puck whenever it came near his stick last night. When you have a second-line right winger who refuses to handle the puck because he’s afraid of oncoming defenders, you find yourself with a very ineffective and disjointed line that fails to create much offense. That was the case last night. Eberle needs a lot more Perron (or even Hemsky) in his game if he’s going to produce anywhere but on the power play.
-It’s official: Smyth’s stick is the place where promising offensive zone entries go to die. He doesn’t belong anywhere near the first line. Smyth doesn’t have the speed to keep up with Hall or Hemsky and he’s a turnover machine in the neutral zone, forcing his linemates to spend the majority of their shift in their own end recovering from his mistakes.
-After all the articles, columns and blogs anointing him as the Oilers’ unrivaled starting goaltender Dubnyk was atrocious. I’ll give him a pass on the Frolik goal through three bodies, but you can put the other four directly at the feet of the big netminder. Dubnyk couldn’t control rebounds or corral the puck consistently, and didn’t deliver the saves his team needed in the third period. The defense did an admirable job all night, the team gave him four goals, and Dubnyk just couldn’t get the job done on his end. You won’t win many games when your most important player on the ice is your worst player on the ice.
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Quick Spills
-In another sign of just how good Gazdic’s night was – all 4:59 of it – Ben Eager was placed on waivers this morning. I would expect him to clear waivers and end up in Oklahoma City, but it’s another interesting (if not completely unexpected) development as the Oilers turn to new and unfamiliar players to fill jobs that guys like Eager were supposed to handle.
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