Take two Aspirin, Call me in the morning. Oilers lose 6-1

Written by Jay

Tuesday, 09 February 2010 01:09

kevin_lowe_february

Game recap: Oilers lose 6-1 to Phoenix Coyotes

The Edmonton Oilers lost tonight again narrowly avoiding a shutout against the Phoenix Coyotes. Zack Stortini was a healthy scratch from the game while Sam Gagner missed the game due to a recent knee injury.

Shawn Horcoff finished the night at a minus 3 which gives him a healthy lead of -4 over the next worst +/- in the NHL, Pat O'Sullivan. Now at -31, Shawn Horcoff is -5 worse than the worst non-Oiler in the NHL, Rod Brind'Amor. Only Ethan Moreau finished the night worse than Horcoff at -4. On the same line, Fernando Pisani himself was -3. The trio was recently assembled by coach Pat Quinn in an attempt to create a veteran shutdown line for the team.

At the other end of the rink, Mathew Lombardi finished the night with two goals, three assists, and a +/- of +5 for the Phoenix Coyotes. Shane Doan who had 2 assists, left the game with an apparent leg injury after playing just over 11 minutes. For the Coyotes, scoring game by committee tonight with two goals from Lombardi along with goals from Jovanovsky, Vrbata, Vandermeer, and Lang. Ilya Bryzgalov made 33 saves on 34 shots only getting beat by Dustin Penner in the third period.

Earlier today, I had spoken with a few acquaintances who just happen to be Oilers fans. All of them told me that they've stopped watching games this season since they're hoping for the Oilers to lose. Instead, they check the score in the morning to make sure that the Oilers got the job done. The consensus among them seems to be that it's likely to be two or three more years at the minimum before the Oilers have a competitive hockey team. At this point, I would tend to agree with them as that being a conservative estimate.

take two aspiring and call me in morning

If you did watch tonight's game, you may want to consider taking 2 Aspirin and calling me in the morning. Well, not really, but the game was painfully boring to watch. I myself fell asleep midway through the second period with the Oilers down by four goals already.

I also heard something about Kevin Lowe recently being involved in some type of photo shoot though I couldn't find anything about this on Google. If you've heard something about this, let me know as I'm now curious.

To be honest, I was pretty tired before this game started. I vaguely recall the Oilers wasting a 5v3 power play despite generating a few scoring chances. At the end of the first, the Oilers had one of the worst power plays that I've seen in a while. Denis Grebeshkov was turning the puck over pretty much everywhere including on the opening power play at the blue line. When Ed Jovanovski scored the first goal of the game, it was one of those goals you could just feel coming. From what I recall, the Oilers shut down line was centered by Pouliot (Moreau/Pisani) and they were hemmed in the zone with their feet moving pretty slowly. I knew the goal was coming and could see it from a mile a way.

Mathew Lombardi's goal came after the Oilers failed to convert on their two consecutive/overlapping power play opportunities. It was less telegraphed, but the Yotes clearly had the momentum after killing off a two penalties.

I missed the opening goal of the period, again by Mathew Lombardi. When James Vandermeer scored while the Oilers looked lost in their zone to make it 4-0, I fell asleep a few minutes later.

No clue, here's what I looked like during the third period:

sleep

No one ever said watching the Fall for Hall would be easy, did they?

crying baby

Oilers management?

losing sucks

NHL's Worst +/- List, Can you spot the Oilers?

oilers_plus_minus_february_2010

Game Video:

Comments (3) Add Comment

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written by Horpensky, February 09, 2010

Well I haven't watched a game in a while, but for some reason I decided to watch this one. After the first period though, I saw things going downhill fast and I stopped. Good thing I did.

But as much as I want us to tank, this is getting pretty ridiculous. As fans have grown pretty much numb to losing, it can't be good for a player's mental health.

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written by jonathanjoyce, February 09, 2010

Amazing on the +/- stats. Nilsson, Souray and Staios have all missed significant time.

I was watching the game but my better half asked if we could watch a Julia Childs cooking show that we had taped instead. It was an easy yes which means I'd rather watch a 90 year old woman make a soufflet vs. watch my favourite hockey team. Bleh.

When do the Olympics start again? Any chance the Oilers will be contracted during the break?

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written by Jay-, February 09, 2010

@Horpensky, yeah even for tanking 4 Taylor, this is getting pretty harsh. I don't think that it's the same scenario, but Colorado did rebound this year after a poor season last year. At least this suggests that the psychological impact on players can be overcome.

@Jonathan, yeah the Olympic Hockey starts on February 16, but it can't start to soon. There will be an Olympic roster freeze on NHL teams February 12th, so I wouldn't expect any action until after the 28th when it expires. That doesn't leave much time before the March 3rd NHL trade deadline for Tambellini to do something unfortunately.