SB Nation - Mike Comrie

Oilers News and Notes

Derek Zona — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:23:18 -0000

Hey look at that! It's a holding penalty on Dustin Penner. I'd love to talk to someone at the league offices and get an explanation as to how that is a hold on the Edmonton player. I, and everyone else that watched the game, saw David Steckel attempting to molest Penner as he carried the puck. When that didn't work, he tried to hold him. Penner pushed him away and....got called for a hold.

David Staples has a breakdown on the rumors that Tambellini is shopping the veteran core of this team and comes to this conclusion:

I also give it credence because it makes sense that the Oil would be testing the market value of these three players. This Oilers team isn't going to win big, or win at all, any time soon. Souray and Visnovsky have a limited shelf life as peak NHL players. Put this together and trading them would likely work for them as well as for the Oilers.

I still have my doubts because we've seen nothing but dithering thus far from Tambellini.

Interesting items below the fold:

Stealing money? My bet is that he was wearing a Moreau or an O'Sullivan sweater.

Another guy misses the point, scoring isn't the overreaching problem in Edmonton. Preventing goals is the problem. But sure, they need another scorer.

Birdwatchers Anonymous with a great breakdown of the Thrasher's shooting problems.

Bringing Back The Glory has a late-night donut with Robert Nilsson. Should have invited him over for a Turducken.

I missed one because I had no idea who was wearing the 'C' in Buffalo.

U.S. Versus viewers, take heart - Change is coming!

Mirtle's got a great collection of information on the Reggie Fleming news.

David Staples has done outstanding work on the arena project, past and present at Cult of Hockey

Edmonton Oilers Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Jean-Francois Jacques	other-excused	12/21/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Mike Comrie	other-illness	11/17/2009
Nikolai Khabibulin	back	11/21/2009
Fernando Pisani	other-excused	11/12/2009
Marc Pouliot	other-excused	09/30/2009
Ales Hemsky	shoulder	11/27/2009

Revenge of the minnows

Bruce McCurdy — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:34:42 -0000

Derek's great story on Peter Bondra brought back some memories that should be bitter but are in truth rather sweet. Bondra was one hell of a player, I loved the guy even when he was driving a stake through my heart. This happened twice in 2002. There was Derek's called shot hat trick against my Oilers, and then a few weeks later Bondra was the principle assassin as Slovakia knocked Canada out of the World Championships. That's a story in itself. It is without a doubt my favourite Canadian loss ever, as it was the first chapter in one of the greatest underdog stories in hockey history.

The bloodless revolution which should have set an example around the world -- one of the amicable divorcees installed a playwright as its president, for goodness' sake -- nonetheless seemed at the time to be a death blow to the competitiveness of the former hockey power, Czechoslovakia. Instead, both sides emerged as forces still to be reckoned with. It took the Czechs about five years to recover, then go on an unprecedented roll which saw them win the Olympics, two consecutive world juniors, and three consecutive world senior championships around Y2K.

The Slovaks seemed by comparison to be on the wrong side of the tracks. A tiny nation of ~5 million, they were shown zero respect, initially installed in C Pool in the worlds, then taking a gang reaming at the pleasure of the NHL, IOC, and IIHF in the winter Olympic games. At Salt Lake City earlier that winter, the "Big 6" got a bye into the second round and essentially right on into the medal since all 8 second round teams made it. Meanwhile Slovakia had to qualify among the hockey minnows for Round 2, and do so without their stars who weren't released from their NHL clubs in time. They lost their first two games before reinforcements arrived, and that was that, their Olympics were done. It was the royal shaft in about every manner imaginable, and one would imagine it was particularly hurtful to the Slovaks that they were treated in such a second class manner to the Czechs so soon after the Velvet Revolution. It was like the Czechs were treated like former Czechoslovaks and the Slovaks weren't, if you follow me.

Suddenly at the worlds, the shoe was on the other foot. As luck had it, many of the top Slovak stars either missed the NHL playoffs or got knocked out in the first round. While they still missed the likes of Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, and Pavol Demitra, every country could say the same about top stars either unable or unwilling to play. For example, the host Swedes were missing Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, and Daniel Alfredsson. Manager Peter Stastny had no trouble convincing the Slovak players who were available to show up, and they showed up on a mission. It was quite a line-up, particularly up front: the NHL's most underrated superstar, Peter Bondra; team captain and tournament leading scorer, ex-Oiler Miro Satan; deadly sniper and surprising playmaker Ziggy Palffy; proven two-way centres Josef Stumpel and Michal Handzus; rising talent Ladislav Nagy, Lubos Bartecko, Vladimir (Gesundheit) Orszagh and a couple of youngsters who hadn't (yet) crossed The Pond. The blueline corps was fairly solid but unspectacular, led by Richard Lintner and future Oiler Lubomir Visnovsky. The goaltender was Jan Lasak who had ended the season in Nashville, and he played brilliantly.

I had the good fortune of seeing all three of Slovakia's sudden-death games on the tube, and it was riveting hockey. Thanks to the wonders of Youtube, game highlights are readily available from the Slovakian telecasts of the day, and are well worth the watch if you have a few minutes.

The first two feature the Slovakia-Canada game. Against a Canadian team that featured Oilers Ryan Smyth, Eric Brewer, Steve Staios, Mike Comrie, and Dan Cleary, the Slovaks dominated early, fell behind 2-0 against the flow of play, then started their comeback on a great individual effort by Bondra with one second to go in the second period (around 8:30 of the first video). Early in the third, Comrie took an undisciplined slashing penalty, and the awesome Slovak powerplay (Bondra, Palffy, and Satan were all in the top five in the NHL in PP goals that season) made him pay on a well-engineered goal by Satan. Before Canada could recover, Bondra was set up in the slot and buried an absolute rocket (around 1:45 of the second video). J-S Giguere played well, but he had no chance on the goals by these snipers. (Listen to the play-by-play guy, who cracks me up, seemingly mocking Giguere right after the 3-2 goal.) Once ahead, the Slovaks defended more effectively than Canada had done, although in the last two minutes the Canadians poured on the pressure, and Lasak absolutely robbed Comrie with a brilliant save to preserve the win. But it was a deserved win; the Slovaks were the better team on the day.

The Swedish game was much more one of those "team of destiny" type games. Once again the Slovaks fell behind 2-0. Late in the second period there was a frantic sequence where Orszagh pulled down a breaking Swede on a near-penalty-shot situation; the Swedes poured it on for the full two minutes of the PP with Lasak standing on his head, only to be caught on an odd-man rush when Orszagh came out of the box just in time to receive a head-man pass and go in and pick the top corner. 2-1, and the exuberance was absolutely sucked out of the Swedish fans. The Swedes still appeared to be in control in the third, but took a late and deserved penalty for checking Satan from behind. Satan got his revenge with a tying PP goal just as the two minute announcement was being made. The game went to OT with pulsating, end-to-end action, featuring a miraculous Cujo-on-Nieuwendyk type emergency save by Lasak. The damn satellite feed went down at that point, but came back in time for the shootout. Lasak remained unbeatable, with glove side, stick side, poke check, and five-hole saves; then-Oilers goalie Tommy Salo made two fine stops on low shots before Palffy and Lintner buried a couple under the crossbar to put it away.

The final featured another hockey giant, Russia. Like the Slovaks, they too had pulled off what could be considered (at least on paper) two huge upsets. The Russians had only three active NHLers, and a handful of formers, including captain and another ex-Oiler, Andrei (In the Tank) Kovalenko. Although history said otherwise, Slovakia could clearly be considered the favourites based on (known) talent. They quickly jumped into a first-minute lead which they stretched to 2-0, then 3-1 on goals by Visnosky, Bondra, and Satan. They missed some great chances to make it a three-goal lead, then came out for the third period very nervous, looking very much like a team unaccustomed to playing with a lead. They stayed back in their own end, content to shoot the puck out if they could, doing nothing offensively, falling and diving around with hero plays rather than playing the type of hockey that got them there. Sure enough, the Russians got a couple to tie it up and it looked like the Slovakian dream might come crashing down in humiliating fashion. Instead, with under two minutes left, Palffy broke out with the puck and wisely fed Bondra, who calmly fired a sniper's bullet in off the post. It was only the second shot of the period for the Slovaks, but it was the telling blow in a game that was more tense than it was wide-open exciting. For Bondra it was his 7th goal and 3rd game-winner, and raised his plus-minus to +12 (he was on the ice for 12 goals for and zero goals against); all were tournament highs.

Bondra's winner occurs around the 2:10 mark of the embedded clip, although the entire 6-minute video should be required watching for anybody who poohpoohs the World Senior Men's Hockey Championships as unimportant. Seeing the bedlam in Bratislava's Main Square in the immediate aftermath of Bondra's snipe with 100 seconds remaining in the Gold Medal Game is enough even all these years later to bring a tear to the eye of this sentimental old fool. And I'm not even Slovakian.

As the clock wound down, the joy of the Slovaks was great to see. They'd gotten some breaks along the way, but surely they'd earned a couple over the years, and when the situation presented itself, they took advantage. To see them bellowing the Slovakian anthem (the beautiful "second half" of the old Czechoslovak hymn that we once heard fairly frequently) was a wonderful sight if not sound.

For your added viewing pleasure check out this clip of the post-game celebration, highlighted around the 42-second mark when Lubo Visnovsky literally bounds into the room wearing a grin to light up the world.

Canada's quarter final loss was an anticlimax to an Olympian season, and just a momentary setback in a series of triumphs; the Red Maple Leaf would return to win the Worlds in both 2003 and 2004. That spring of 2002, though, was Slovakia's time to shine. Peter Bondra, who led the tournament in goals (7), game-winning goals (3) and plus (+12 by being on the ice for 12 goals for and zero goals against), shone the brightest of all. It was the crowning moment of a great career.

In which I called Bondra's shot. Alternative title - Thanks Tom Poti

Derek Zona — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:07:00 -0000

It was March of 2002. The Edmonton Oilers were talking about the playoff race, but in reality they were desperately clinging to 9th place and floundering a bit. I was on my way to Washington D.C. to see the Oilers face the Capitals, courtesy of Chris, a good friend of mine - the same friend that has turned me into a Caps fan when the Oilers fail to make the playoffs. He scored some fantastic seats at the MCI Center, section 214 on the visitor's blueline, though great seats at the MCI Center weren't hard to get at that time - the place was sort of empty.

At the time, Tom Poti was in his fourth season as an Oiler, he was a flawed but promising young defender prone to the more-than-occasional mental gaffe. He was also second on the Oilers in time on ice to Janne Niinimaa at 24:32 which gave him plenty of opportunities to have his nightly mental breakdown. Think of Denis Grebeshkov's troubles in the first half of the season each year and you have a solid approximation of what Tom Poti brought to the Oilers at the time. There were flashes of brilliance, but at the same time there were ghastly turnovers and missed assignments and he had begun to wear on me that spring. I was tired of watching a game waiting for the HUA from Poti, and the worst part was that he never let me down.

Poti was playing left defense that year. Peter Bondra was busy tallying up his eighth 30 goal season at right wing. With that in mind, I boldly proclaimed to my Caps-fan friend "If Ron Wilson can get Bondra matched against Poti, Bondra is going to get himself a hat trick, you watch." Off we went.

We arrived early because the Capitals staged an old-timers game featuring, for me at least, Rod Langway. Langway was always a sentimental favorite of mine - he was as unsung as they came, a rock of a defender playing in a near-shinny league at that time. He never much cared for offense, often failing to crack the forty shots mark, but when it came to shutting down the other team's best - few were ever as good as Rod Langway. The old-timer's game was played sans helmets so Langway looked exactly as he ten years prior when he was skating his last season as a Capital.

The game started well for Edmonton, as Ken Klee attempted a hard-around a la Steve Staios and instead made a ghastly turnover to Mike Comrie right in front. Comrie banged it home for a 1-0 lead. The Oilers settled in and got physical. Marchant, Moreau and Grier were disrupting the Caps' breakouts on the forecheck and in the neutral zone with extremely physical play. There was a sequence early in the game when Marty Reasoner's line held the puck deep for almost 45 seconds and the Capitals didn't seem up to the task that day after Todd Marchant scored off of a secondary rush from the circle on a wrist shot off of a nice pass from Jochen Hecht.

The second period was an entirely different story. The Caps came out with jump and Ron Wilson started putting Bondra out every time Poti touched the ice. Bondra's first goal was a one-timer from Adam Oates, Poti wasn't on the ice to be victimized. Bondra would fix that shortly thereafter. About half-way through the period, Poti lost track and let Bondra slip behind him. Glen Metropolit hit Bondra in stride and just like that the game was tied.

Bondra iced the game late in the third as the Oilers were trying to tie the game. Edmonton had it in the zone when the puck squirted in the air towards the left point. Poti came pinching in, but it was the wrong decision. I'd have to check with Chris to be sure, but I believe I said "Aw no, Poteeeeeeeeeeee!" as Poti started to pinch. Bondra realized that the defensemen was coming in, beat him to the spot easily and pushed the puck around the oncoming Poti - off he went. Poti couldn't stop and go the other way and ended up corkscrewing himself into the ice. Niinimaa caught Bondra, but not in time to get himself into position before the hats came onto the ice. Chris couldn't stop laughing - I called the Bondra hat trick and told him how it was going to happen.

Washington would go 9-6-1 over the last sixteen games, losing on the last night of the season to allow Montreal to squeak into eighth place and capture the final playoff spot. Edmonton won the rematch five days later 4-1, and began their "usual" late-season charge, going 8-1-1 over the next ten games. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep steaming and finished the last five games winning two and losing three. They missed the playoffs by two points - the hated Canucks took eighth place - two points which were lost in Washington at the hands of Peter Bondra's hat trick, which your author saw coming from a mile away.

Tom Poti was traded nine days later. He was sent to New York, along with Rem Murray, in exchange for Mike York. I'd like to think it had something to do with that game, but I doubt it. At least the Tom Poti Aggravation Experience had ended in Edmonton.

Some Perspective on Penner's Start

Derek Zona — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:20:43 -0000

Left winger Petr Klima of the Edmonton Oilers (right) and defenseman Steve Duchesne of the Los Angeles Kings tangle up during a game at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. Klima immediately apologized. via cdn.picapp.com

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Dustin Penner's blistering start has slowed a bit, but Big Pun continues to carry the team on a nightly basis. He's on pace for 40 goals, something that hasn't been accomplished in Edmonton since Petr Klima in 1990 He's on pace for 88 points, the most for any Oiler since Doug Weight's 90 in 2000. Let's check the twenty-one years A.G.

Year	Player	Goals	Player	Assists	Player	Points	Player	+/-
1988	Carson	49	Messier	61	Kurri	102	Muni	43
1989	Messier	45	Messier	84	Messier	129	Gregg	24
1990	Klima	40	Messier	52	Tikkanen	69	Klima	24
1991	Damphousse	38	Damphousse	51	Damphousse	89	Maciver	20
1992	Klima	32	Nicholls	32	Klima	48	Gelinas	3
1993	Arnott	33	Weight	50	Weight	74	Arnott	1
1994	Oliver	16	Weight	33	Weight	40	Kennedy	2
1995	Ciger	31	Weight	79	Weight	104	Satan	0
1996	Smyth	39	Weight	61	Weight	82	Marchment	13
1997	Weight	26	Weight	44	Weight	70	Tie	9
1998	Guerin	30	Guerin	34	Guerin	64	Poti	10
1999	Smyth	28	Weight	51	Weight	72	Smith	16
2000	Smyth	31	Weight	65	Weight	90	Tie	15
2001	Comrie	33	Niinimaa	39	Tie	60	Comrie	16
2002	Smyth	27	Marchant	40	Smyth	61	Reasoner	19
2003	Smyth	23	Smyth	36	Smyth	59	Ulanov	18
2004
2005	Smyth	36	Hemsky	58	Hemsky	77	Staios	10
2006	Smyth	31	Hemsky	40	Tie	53	Thoresen	-1
2007	Penner	23	Hemsky	51	Hemsky	71	Nilsson	8
2008	Tie	23	Hemsky	43	Hemsky	66	Grebeshkov	12
2009	Penner	44	Penner	44	Penner	88	Penner	32

Penner's projected goal total is good for 3rd over this time period. His pace would tie him for 13th in assists and 6th in points. He would join Mark Messier, Vincent Damphousse, Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth as Oilers who have led the team in Goals, Assists and Points.

He's also on pace to accomplish a feat that only one other player in the history of the Oilers has been able to pull off -- lead the team in Goals, Assists, Points, and +/-.

Sometimes, the Oilers Aren't Killing Me

Benjamin Massey — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:30:15 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

10 days ago: Edmonton Oilers goalie Jeff Deslauriers makes a save in the third period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, in St. Louis. The Oilers overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 5-3. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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Over my time at the Copper & Blue, I've developed a reputation as a bit of a ranting, negative lunatic. There's a very good reason I've acquired this reputation: it's accurate. That's pretty much exactly what I am. When the Oilers lose, I'll tear my face off with grief and when they win I'll settle for pulling my nose hairs out bemoaning how close they were to losing.

It's a stressful sort of fandom I live. One filled with black clouds of grim angst occasionally broken up by rays of bright sunshine which serve only to make the darkness seem all the more oppressive.

But in truth, I am not all despair all the time. Sometimes... just sometimes... the Oilers manage to surprise me in an astonishing little way. And so, for your viewing enjoyment and to give myself a break from a constant stream of negativity, gloom, and angst, I present to you six lovely little surprises for the holiday season that the Edmonton Oilers have provided me so far this year.

1) The goaltending isn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. Early in the season, I gave Nikolai Khabibulin the nickname "Maginot Line" because he was big, expensive, immobile, outdated, and largely useless. Jeff Deslauriers I didn't give a nickname but, then, I didn't have to because he was Jeff Deslauriers so obviously he was going to be terrible. It would have been like kicking a puppy into traffic to pick on him any more.

Well, neither Deslauriers nor Khabibulin have been terrific by any means, but they haven't been bad. Nikolai Khabibulin's contract was terrible but, a few foibles aside, his play wasn't. With a .909 save percentage and an almost tolerable 3.03 goals-against average while playing through the worst of Edmonton's defensive injuries, Khabibulin wasn't shooting the lights out but was pretty much middle of the pack for NHL starters. He's being paid like an All-Star, but I'm trying to look at his play, not his contract.

Of course, then he strained his back reaching too far for the remote or something and now we're putting up with Jeff Deslauriers. Who's... actually been a bit better than Khabibulin. A .916 save percentage, a 2.61 goals-against average, and his first career NHL shutout. The sample size is small, but Deslauriers is fifteenth in the NHL among goaltenders who've played at least ten games in save percentage. He's tied with Henrik Lundqvist, for God's sake. He's ahead of Roberto Luongo! And he's playing for the Edmonton Oilers!

That's not shabby. That's not shabby at all.

2) Ladislav Smid is quietly becoming brilliant. Obviously, playing with Lubomir Visnovsky helps (more on him later). But the book on Ladislav Smid used to be that he's was a crappy version of Tommy Albelin. Then, starting last season, we started to see more of a physical edge in his game. He got into guys' faces, he didn't take no guff, he started to "clear his neighbourhood" as the astronomers say. Then this year, his strides have been palpable. He's still not a Derian Hatcher sort, but he's getting there.

It is an axiom, at least to me, that defensive defensemen take forever to develop. Defending is hard, guys. You can't just work on a big slapshot or some fancy stickhandling moves and still put up results while learning the game. Until you figure out exactly how things work in the show you are going to get run over. For a long time, Smid was getting killed, but more and more he's figuring it out. We saw the same thing with former Oiler Matt Greene, only to trade him just as the light was starting to go on. Every player in that mold goes through the same thing and the trick is figuring out which kids will eventually get it. Smid is starting to get it.

3) Who the hell are our forwards, and why are they doing so okay? Ryan O'Marra, Colin McDonald, Ryan Potulny, Gilbert Brule, Liam Reddox, Ryan Stone oh god I could keep going. No, it's not the second and third lines of the Springfield Falcons, it's a list of guys we've called up, plugged into the starting lineup, and told "surprise! you're NHL players!"

Well, the results could have been a lot worse, couldn't they?

Colin McDonald, that big palooka, scored a goal. Ryan O'Marra, who I ragged on so much he was on the verge of becoming a running joke, looked better in the NHL than he ever has in the AHL. Liam Reddox slumped towards the end but looked so promising at the beginning of his callup I pronounced him the new Fernando Pisani. Gilbert Brule is this team's fourth-leading scorer (seriously), and no matter what Derek says that's pretty damned impressive in any context. He has nine goals and twelve assists for twenty-one points in twenty-nine games. His previous career highs were nine goals and ten assists for nineteen points in seventy-eight games with Columbus in 2006-07.

Ryan Stone, meanwhile, has been getting positive notices for everything but his scoring. He's banged, crashed, made life miserable for opposing players, looked after himself in his own zone, and chipped in five assists in thirteen games. His return from injury immediately made our fourth line into a credible opponent, and that's been vital to the Oilers' recent success.

Not one of these guys were being counted on to be any sort of positive at the beginning of the year, and yet they've all helped the team, some in big ways, others in small ones.

4) There's a lot of try in this team. Much as I hate to resort to crappy colour-man clichés, it's true. Remember the doldrums of the last couple of seasons where the Oilers were just going through the motions? Crappy players playing a crappy game and afterwards Craig MacTavish would say things at the press conference like "I don't know what else I can say to these guys. They need to figure things out for themselves."?

Yeah, that's not happening anymore. We've had a couple tremendous comebacks already this season, and we've had a couple pretty ugly losses where the team kept fighting until the conclusion anyway. Losing is a lot more bearable when you can see the team cares about it.

5) How incredible is Lubomir Visnovsky? Really damned incredible, that's how incredible. He's been healthy, for the most part, which was a pleasant treat in of itself. But it gets better. His seven goals is tied for third on the team, behind only Dustin Penner and Gilbert Brule. His twenty-three points is second, although he's only one up on Ales Hemsky, the human incarnation of how much the hockey gods hate us. He's +12, which on a team this crappy is hard to do. Among Oilers to play at least twenty games, he leads in time on ice per game. His .767 points per game pace is right back at the élite level he showed from 2005 to 2007 in Los Angeles.

He's sixth in the league in defensive scoring and he's delivering surprisingly excellent defensive results. He's sixth in the league in plus/minus among defensemen, which sounds like I'm making it up. There's nothing not to love about Lubomir Visnovsky's season so far. Some say that he needs to shoot more. Maybe, but I'm reluctant to mess with an All-Star season on a non-playoff team.

6) Special teams haven't been useless. Considering the dearth of offensive creativity and the mediocre lot of defensive forwards we've dealt ourselves, you'd expect both the powerplay and the penalty kill to be completely dire. And certainly the penalty kill has been pretty bad, if not awful, with a 78.8% kill rate plunking them 23rd on the table. To tell you the truth, I'd have put us a lot worse than 23rd at the beginning of the year and that was without considering all the injuries we've picked up, so even that ugly number carries a glittering gem of consolation. If you can throw out guys like Steve Staios, Zack Stortini, and Jason Strudwick on an NHL penalty kill and come up 23rd, things aren't so bad.

The powerplay, on the other hand! Just as devoid of personnel, just as wracked by injury, so ill-conceived that people were trying to talk themselves into Mike Comrie as a legitimate powerplay specialist, and yet they're hitting at a 19.5% rate! That's fourteenth in the league! That's average! I am delighted with average. Whenever any aspect of the Oilers is average, considering what a below-average team they are, that's something. Particularly when the powerplay has been such a history struggle for the Oilers over the last several seasons. It's nice to see results improving even when the team is not.

Not ready for prime time

Bruce McCurdy — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:15:01 -0000

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For quite some time I have had a pet peeve about the make-up of the Oiler roster. Too many young unproven guys, too many old expensive guys, and nowhere near enough prime-of-career guys. I wrote this and this on the subject last April, noting the gaping hole in the middle of the age spectrum. What has changed so far in 2009-10?

Let's look at the forwards. So far this season Oilers have already used 19 (!) of them. I have divided them into 5 groups, by hockey age (as of Feb 1, 2010, as defined by Hockey-reference.com):

Entry level (age 20-22): Cogliano, Gagner, O'Marra
Developing (age 23-25): Brulé, Jacques, McDonald, Nilsson, O'Sullivan, Potulny, Reddox, Stone, Stortini
Prime (age 26-28): Hemsky, Penner
Late prime (age 29-31): Comrie, Horcoff, MacIntyre
Veterans (age 32-34): Moreau, Pisani

If that seems like a lot of developing players, it is. Let's check out the distribution by number of players, number of GP given those players, and percentage of ice time.

Age	#fwds	%fwds	%GP	%TOI
20-22	3	15.8%	17.5%	17.3%
23-25	9	47.4%	43.8%	39.8%
26-28	2	10.5%	15.3%	19.5%
29-31	3	15.8%	13.4%	14.6%
32-34	2	10.5%	10.0%	8.8%

(The same categories are represented by the blue, red, and green lines respectively in the graph up top. ~~Sorry for its poor quality, although it's much better if you click to view it in full size~~. New and improved!)

Pat Quinn has ridden his prime time horses -- both of them -- pretty much as hard as he can. Still, for every minute one of them spends on the ice, younger players have received nearly 3 minutes. So what have all these developing players done with said ice time? Results after the jump ...

Age	G/GP	P/GP	+-/GP	G/60	P/60	+-/60
20-22	0.14	0.45	-0.08	0.58	1.82	-0.07
23-25	0.16	0.40	-0.23	0.73	1.77	-1.07
26-28	0.45	1.06	+0.36	1.41	3.34	+1.16
29-31	0.23	0.44	-0.20	0.86	1.64	-1.12
32-34	0.13	0.22	-0.07	0.57	1.00	-0.29

No surprise to see Penner and Hemsky with massively greater production on a per-game basis. Even parsed on a per-minute basis their goals and points output is roughly double all of their teammates. No adjustments have been made to account for powerplay time, which obviously will favour those players. That said, the starkest contrast of all can be seen in the plus/minus columns, where the prime timers have been awesome while all other groups have bled goals against. This is particularly noticeable in the age 23-25 bracket, where several still-not-ready-for-prime-time players have posted some underwhelming numbers at both ends of the rink: Robert Nilsson, 1 goal, -12; J.F. Jacques, 2 goals, -9; Patrick O'Sullivan, 4 goals, -11. Ouch, ouch, and more ouch.

I'm not for a moment suggesting that if the Oilers added a couple more players in their prime years they would produce on the level of Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky. I do, however, think the team would benefit from having something resembling a "cluster" of players around those peak years. It was a problem identified last year, and one that was hardly solved with the addition of Mike Comrie.

Without getting into a statistical breakdown on the blueline, it is readily apparent that the Oilers have another big split in the experience levels of their players. Of the 8 players with 10+ GP, four of them are currently age 26 or younger (Gilbert turns 27 in January), and the other four age 33 or older. Only 29-year-old Dean Arsene (2 GP) fills the void in between those two groups. And in goal it's more of the same, where the choice is between old and breaking down or young and inexperienced.

On the roster as a whole, the Oilers have already used 31 players in 2009-10. Just 5 of those players -- Penner, Horcoff, Comrie, Arsene, and the departed Steve MacIntyre for goodness sake -- are currently between the ages of 27-32.

Early results suggest it is not a recipe for success.

Situational Faceoff Percentage

Scott Reynolds — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:00:30 -0000

Faceoffs are reasonably important. Especially faceoffs in the offensive or defensive zone where puck possession leads more directly to success. Gabe Desjardins has demonstrated the impact of the outcome of a faceoff at even strength. No doubt there would be similar results if one looked at the outcome of faceoffs on special teams. I bring this up because the Edmonton Oilers are not very good in the faceoff circle and have recently taken to using options like Patrick O'Sullivan and Dustin Penner in order to compensate for an injured Shawn Horcoff, ineffective Andrew Cogliano and "signed-to-play-wing" Mike Comrie. I wanted to look at what their track record might tell us about what we should expect from them going forward. In order to do that, however, I wanted to first look at the difference between faceoff success on the power play, on the penalty kill and at even strength.

More after the jump...

First, I need to acknowledge that Tyler Dellow has already given us some data that shows teams and players have a much better faceoff percentage on the power play than they do when short-handed. It seems obvious, but isn't always something we think of when we talk about a particular player's faceoff percentage. I decided to put together a couple of charts illustrating this point. The first is a chart of players that took more than 200 faceoffs while short-handed last in both 2008-09 and 2007-08:

The final "totals" column is just adding all of the faceoff performances together so those that took more faceoffs contribute more to the average. That means that the players who took the most faceoffs over the last two years on the penalty kill ended up losing a significant portion of their success. Although for some players there are some pretty big jumps from year to year, in absolute terms, the guys who did the best at even strength also tend to do the best short-handed.

The next chart is for players who took at least 200 faceoffs while on the power play in both 2007-08 and 2008-09:

I think there are some pretty interesting things here. The guys taking the most faceoffs on the penalty kill are generally what we might call "specialists." Teams really don't want to lose draws when they're penalty killing and make it a priority. On the power play, faceoff ability takes a backseat to offensive ability in general. The only player you might regard as a specialist who makes the list is Rod Brind'Amour who, in his best year, won two thirds of his faceoffs on the power play. This will generally serve to drag down the numbers of the specialists and pump up the numbers for the stars. Again, there isn't a lot of consistency at the player level from year to year but the totals stay very similar.

So, back to the Oilers, when deciding which guys should be taking draws I think it's probably wise to just look at even strength numbers. For instance, Dustin Penner's faceoff percentage in 2007-08 was 55.0% in 189 faceoffs but in the 93 faceoffs he took at even strength he only won 40.8%. Here are the career numbers at even strength for all of the Oilers who have taken 50 or more faceoffs this season, adding in Marc Pouliot and subtracting Shawn Horcoff:

It's not the prettiest of charts. There are only two guys on the team who have cleared 43% for their career and, at least so far, Dustin Penner and Patrick O'Sullivan aren't good options on the dot. Sam Gagner has improved a lot so far this year (100 wins and 103 losses) and could be a decent option going forward but with Horcoff not taking draws the Oilers could really use some help in this area. For most clubs faceoffs aren't a big deal because the pack is bunched so close together but the Oilers are bad enough territorially and bad enough at faceoffs that it could well be hurting them. It would obviously be preferable to improve the territorial play but it's probably significantly easier to improve the faceoff situation.

And poor Marc Pouliot. Gilbert Brule hasn't been used at all on the PK so when Pouliot gets back he's likely going to immediately step into some pretty tough minutes (defensive zone draws and lots of PK). It's a virtual guarantee his counting numbers are going to be awful as he heads for restricted free agency. Good luck getting paid kid!

Coyotes at Oilers - Game Preview #24

OdinMercer — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:15:08 -0000

The Phoenix Coyotes arrive in Edmonton via Helicopter to take on the Oilers on Monday, November 23rd.

View full size photo »

So I was going back through the archives of the beginnings of this site and found something in my posts that I missed. Quality mocking pictures. AP Photos have been great and I'll continue to use them, but really I love putting up random stuff for opposing teams. I like a good photoshop. I even like the odd LOLcat here or there. So from now on MORE FUNNY PICTURES! Because I'm not a serious person and this is fun time.

On to the serious serious business of our game tonight. Our Injury picture is starting to look up at least a little. Matthew Lombardi was back last game and Ed Jovanovski is on the trip, but no one is sure if he'll be in tonight, not even the Phoenix Coyotes. Zbynek Michalek is getting closer to coming back and reports have him skating in practice. So we've done fair with them out and are getting better. Hopefully that means we can weather injuries that come later in the season as well. For Edmonton, they've been in a bit of a funk losing 5 of 6 and now being without Nikolai Khabibulin with a back issue as well as a laundry list of players like Mike Comrie, Denis Grebeshkov and Fernando Pasani among others. So we aren't the only ones fighting the injury bug.

Five for Winning:

Get the Goalie!: Jeff Deslauriers hasn't gotten a whole lot of ice time this year only getting 5 starts and going 2-2-1 in his chances. He's sporting a .895 save percentage and a 2.96 GAA. Not bad, but not outstanding. Fun fact, he's allowed one more goal in each start than his previous start. 10/12/09 - 1 goal against Nashville, 10/25/09 2 goals against in Vancouver, 11/10/09 - 3 goals against in Ottawa, 11/18/09 - 4 goals against versus Colorado and on 11/21/09 5 goals against versus Chicago. I can only Conclude the Coyotes will score 6 goals tonight.

Our PK has been great as of late!: We even made the top ranked PP unit in the league look silly on Saturday. We're playing responsible and agressive instead of lazy and waiting for things to happen and it's really paying dividends. While we don't have a shorthanded goal yet, we're getting chances and eating up the time efficiently.

Still getting defensive contributions: Keith Yandle has been solid on the blueline with other big names absent and it's really made a difference. He's been more responsible with the puck and is pinching at the right times instead of all the time. The payoff has been that he's been racking up the assists and even some goals like the one against the Flyers.

Time for Mueller to Step up!: Yeah, the HNIC guys are idiots, but if Peter Mueller doesn't start elevating his game soon those dumb rumors may come true. He's had periods here and there where he looks solid, but overall he still looks lazy and isn't winning battles. More importantly he's simply been invisible. Start getting things done Peter or you'll be trade bait for something GMDM and Dave Tippett want.

Dominate the Circle: Phoenix went from being one of the worst teams at faceoffs to one of the top teams this season. The Coyotes have won 51.9% of all the faceoffs they've taken. On the other end, Edmonton is dead last in the league in faceoffs at 45.8%. That should mean more puck control time and more opportunities for the Coyotes.

GO YOTES!

Edmonton Scoring Chances, Year to Year

Derek Zona — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:30:11 -0000

More photos » by Adrian Wyld - AP

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The best thing about the work that Dennis King (and now others) is doing on scoring chances is that we're beginning to get some data to work with. His work with the Oilers numbers last year was excellent, but limited. Now that we've got a second season to work with, we can start to do some analysis on these datasets.

Knowing that the rest of the Northwest is being tracked this year is exciting because we'll be able to do some intra-divisional comparisons. I've decided to take a look at the Oilers at the quarter pole this year and compare those numbers to the total chances from last year. Things look bleak, especially for the veterans on this club. Shawn Horcoff, Fernando Pisani, Steve Staios, Jason Strudwick, and especially Ethan Moreau look incomparably bad by this metric. Even though there has been hand-wringing over the amount of kids on the team (including some by me), there are some kids that are doing much better than I thought.

The above chart compares those scoring chances by player. I've compared Gilbert Brule to Kyle Brodziak because he's been given pretty much the same job that the departed Brodziak had at even strength last year. I've also compared Ales Kotalik to Mike Comrie as they've had similar jobs at even strength.

There is some interesting stuff going on here. The chart shows 24 comparable players and 17 of them have a lower chances for per 15 value. 19 of them have a higher chances against value. We can safely say that this team is worse at evens this year. No doubt the injuries and flu have something to do with this, but it should be noted that the team is bleeding at evens this year.

Brule is not handling the role as well as Brodziak did. In fact, he's giving up a half of a chance more per 15 than Brodziak did - if he gets similar time on ice, that amounts to three extra goals against this year. Prior to his injury, Ryan Stone was doing just fine - it will be interesting to see how Quinn handles him when he's healthy again.

Horcoff's play has been brutal by these numbers - he's off a full chance per 15 minutes. That's an extra eight goals against at even strength this year. Moreau is off by the same amount, but he is now surrendering 2.594 chances per 15 more than he's creating, easily the worst among regulars on the team and given his performance last year, is a signal that he may be done.

By far, the biggest falloff this year has been by Andrew Cogliano, as he has seen his differential slip by over 1.5 chances / 15 this year, to -1.726.

For all of the accolades that Ladislav Smid has received, those accolades don't mean much in this case. His chances differential is the same as it was last year. I have a hunch that if his chances were broken out between his time spent paired with Lubomir Visnovsky and time without, you'd see a rate that was one of the best on the team with Visnovsky and one of the worst without Visnovsky.

Comrie has been a better player at even strength thus far. Dustin Penner's CF and CA are both up this year, as are Ales Hemsky's total chances. Souray, though limited this year, has strikingly similar numbers. Ryan Potulny had success in his extremely limited time last year, and he's having success again this year in extremely limited time.

Lastly, I don't believe that Theo Peckham is, or was, healthy, at least during his callup this year. The foot must still be bothering him as he was just abysmal by this metric.

Author's note: Vic has determined that the goal / scoring chance rate is 1/7 in his findings thus far. All GF/GA math in this post is based on that.

Price / Halak - The Stats - October 2009

Chris Boyle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:15:02 -0000

Entering the 2009 season the Canadiens franchise had plenty of unanswered questions. The goaltending question is an eternal one in Montreal and with both Price and Halak entering RFA years, 2009 should offer no reprieve. Late 2009 has mimicked early 2009 as inconsistency has plagued Carey Price. Jaroslav Halak although solid on nights, has also not taken the opportunity presented to him by Jacques Martin and cemented the number one job.

With neither goalie grabbing the hammer, the majority of fans have aligned themselves on one side or the other. I refer to them as Team Price and Team Halak. Both teams seemingly rise and fall with each performance. Both teams rally to attack one side should they falter and boast and offer, "I told you so's" when they excel. The 2009 campaign got off to a rousing start for Team Price as he opened the season 2-0 and was outstanding leading the Canadiens to a 2-0 start despite being out shot 81-44 and having 148 shots directed at him in 128 minutes. When Halak faltered in Calgary, the attacks on Halak and the management team for not starting Price were loud. Then Price was bombed in Vancouver and after Price lost 3 straight the controversy was back and Halak was awarded another start. Team Halak struck back. Halak offered up two strong starts in a row and Team Halak was now mounting their high horse. After 14 goals in 229 minutes the lines had once again become blurred. So what has changed?

Not much. Both goaltenders continue to fail to elevate themselves from an approaching platoon. Price and Halak have almost identical save percentages, while Halak holds the edge in goals against average. Halak also has a superior record at 5-2, but it has been accrued against inferior opposition as his opponents winning percentage is .545 (25-20-10) while Price's 2-5 record was accrued against a .650 opponents winning percentage (25-13-3).

Note: records reflect the team record when the goaltender faced them. I did not reference the Islanders as 5-4-5, but as 1-3-3 (their record when Halak faced them on Oct 22 and 1-4-4, their record on Oct 26). It would be disingenuous should Atlanta slow down to reference an under .500 record in April when they were hot and 4-1-0 entering Montreal on Oct 20.)

I used the Roy/Hayward duel as an analogy before the season, but I do not remember really caring who played in 1988, just that I hoped the Canadiens would win. This recent controversy has taken on a life of it's own. I get the feeling that some fans have begun to put their personal vindication of their opinions above the success of the team. It is why I refer to the divide amongst Canadiens fans as different teams. It is utterly exasperating because to this point it is the equivalent to arguing who is crazier, Amy Winehouse or Courtney Love? They are both batshit crazy.

I have gone over EVERY goal in October and 80% of them were unstoppable, they have both let in some suspect goals, but none more so than the other. Neither has significantly outplayed the other. One seems to be the Tortoise, one seems to be the Hare. Price at his peak has been dominant (Maple Leafs, Sabres, Blackhawks), but he has a tendency to nap and crash back to reality (Canucks), while Halak goes out, saves the pucks he should (Thrashers, Islanders), doesn't stop the ones he shouldn't (Flames, Penguins, Rangers) and offers a steady compliment. At the end of the day, their statistics are not that different. It was the same story last season. The goaltending is NOT the problem, it is the easy scapegoat. It is the simple corollary.

My opinion? If this team was a legit contender I could understand the cry for consistency and the Halak argument, but with a team that looks to be middle of the pack I would ride out the inconsistencies of the goaltender with the higher ceiling. The fanbase seems to have settled on goaltending as it's scapegoat and is happy to ignore the lack of secondary scoring, abysmal defensive zone coverages and atrocious special teams. The goaltending is but a symptom of a greater issue; targeting the symptom of anemia by drinking 5 red bulls a day does nothing to cure lymphoma. As each issue is addressed individually, the goaltending will miraculously improve.

For those who want to jump to emotional conclusions, this is probably not the article for you. I don't believe in simplistic judgments based on flawed statistical categories, so I have pieced together as many statistics I could for you to make your own judgments. I have tracked every goal. I have tracked where the shots are coming from, how many are blocked, how many are wide, where they are being scored from on the ice, where they are being scored on the goaltender, even strength, powerplay and save percentage from each distance. My intent is to track these things all season and give you a comprehensive month to month look and offer a comparable for Price and Halak, as well as eventually a comparison to their league leading peers.

I avoided statistical manipulation, there is no "remove the seven goals Price gave up against the Canucks and his SV% is.....". If you chose to ignore the winning percentage of the teams faced to make your argument, so be it. If you want to ignore the video evidence of each individual goal, be my guest. I have provided as much information possible in one place and hopefully through this research and presentation, Eyes on the Prize will be able to offer you a more rounded look for you to form your opinions.

SHOTS AGAINST

Price and Halak's statistical achilles heel is that they play behind a porous Montreal defense. A defense in transition and minus its best player, struggled in October to limit shot attempts. Beginning with the season opener when the Leafs directed 92 shots at the Montreal goal (46 shots, 21 missed shots and 25 blocked shots) Price and Halak have been faced with a consistent barrage. Price has been facing almost a shot attempt per minute on the ice (412 shot attempts in 436 minutes). Compare that to Tim Thomas who has faced 444 shots attempts in 542 minutes or Martin Brodeur who has faced 502 in 672 minutes.

The basic assumption behind these charts is the closer the shot to the net, the more likelihood of it resulting in a goal. The short charts below would reinforce this assumption as the majority of goals given up by Halak and Price increase the closer they move towards the goal and their save percentage also declines with each one.

Looking at his charts, Price has been almost flawless from 50+ ft and has really struggled from 20 ft and in. He only surrendered 3 goals in October outside of the slot and almost half (12 of the 25 goals) were scored within 10 ft of the net. Contrast that to Tim Thomas who only faced 8 shot attempts in all of October from within 10 ft. and Martin Brodeur who faced only 12 shots AT THE GOAL in 236 more minutes (almost 4 full games).

Depending on your perspective, his struggles could also be blamed on terrible special teams as 12 of the 25 goals he allowed in October occurred on the penalty kill (some may blame the penalty kill struggles on Price, I believe the video evidence below proves otherwise) resulting in a massive drag on his save percentage. The results between his even strength save percentage and penalty save percentage is a staggering .268. From .935 five on five to .667 shorthanded.

Halak has been very dominant between 20-40 ft. allowing only one goal all season, but he has also been victimized by the Canadiens soft defense down low as his SV% below 20 ft. is only marginally better than Price's .692. Where Halak has outdistanced Price is his consistency. His penalty kill SV% and regular strength percentage have not suffered from wild swings like Price. Although his 5 on 5 is not in the .930s, he has maintained an .850+ special teams percentage, a huge improvement on Price's .667. Halak has been a much more consistent option for the Canadiens through October 2009-10.

If the Canadiens can limit the shot opportunities below 20 ft. and improve their penalty kill, you will witness a spike in Price and Halak's numbers. Hockey is a team game and goaltending statistics are a reflection of team play. Can a superstar goaltender overcome defensive shortcomings? Yes, but not to the extent where he will lead the league statistically. Can an average goaltender look like a superstar when insulated in a strong defensive system? History has shown that answer to be yes. Rick Wamsley in 1982, Bob Froese in 1986, Byron Dafoe in 1999 and Roman Cechmanek in 2001 all had huge statistical years that were never duplicated on other teams. When you combine a superstar goaltender with a defensive coach you get Patrick Roy in 1989.

Unfortunately the Canadiens possess neither a superstar goaltender, nor an elite defensive coach. Carey Price has the potential to be a superstar, but at 22 is still midway through a steep learning curve. Halak at 24 has proven over the last 12 months that he is an NHL caliber goaltender, but has not shown that he can make the leap to the next level yet (and for those with short memories, Halak was a major question mark through October 2008).

GOALS AGAINST

The Canadiens goaltenders allowed forty-six goals in October and while watching the games I rarely found fault with either goaltender. I could easily have just referenced my memory to make my points, but I decided I would go through each goal individually and try to assess blame. I tried to assess the goaltenders positioning. Were they playing too deep in the net? Were they over committing to the shooters? Were they over pursuing the play and creating opportunities while scrambling back in to the play? How was their gap control, puck tracking, anticipation and rebound control? Were they exposed because of defensive zone turnovers? Deflections? Poor defensive zone coverages? etc etc.

Through 46 goals I found 1 bad goal and 8 that were suspect. I considered a goal suspect if there was a screen involved but the goaltender hadn't battled through the screen, if a shot from in close was stoppable if the goaltender was at his sharpest (ie. Raymond off the wing in Vancouver. If Price was sharp, he has the ability to make the save. So even though it was a partial breakaway, more often than not I expect Price to make that save from that angle, but it can not be categorized as a bad goal) or if the goaltender made a small technical error.

I also tracked where the goals beat the goaltender. I illustrated it below with the five main zones + the zone across the bottom which represents goals scored into an empty net (cross crease feed or tap-in). It was interesting that all the heat Price takes for his glove hand that Halak was more vulnerable allowing over 30% of his goals high glove-side.

Video evidence below (Goals deemed bad or suspect are in bold.)

1. Gill giveaway behind the net. Ponikoravsky one-time from the slot beats Price low stick side. No chance. 25 ft
2. 5 on 3 PP. Tomas Kaberle slap shot tipped in by Stajan at the side of the net. No chance. 9 ft
3. 5 on 4 PP. Scramble in front of the net. Matt Stajan taps it into an empty net. No chance. 5 ft
4. Point shot redirected. Tim Connolly pounces on loose puck and beats Price low stick side. 25 ft.
5. Ryan Kesler breakaway from the blueline. Great move beats Price along the ice glove side. 2 ft.
6. Mason Raymond in alone off the boards slides it through Price's 5-hole. Stoppable. 5 ft.
7. 5 on 4 PP. Tic Tac Toe to Steve Bernier who had an open net. No chance. 9 ft.
8. 5 on 4 PP. Price makes the initial save. Sedin all alone shovles it into an empty net. 10 ft.
9. 2 on 0 breakaway. Price cheats pass and Henrik Sedin makes him pay beating him high glove side. 8 ft.
10. 5 on 4 PP. Price stops initial point shot, Samuelsson puts the rebound through the 5-hole. 9 ft.
11. Scramble in front of the net. Price commits to one shot and cannot recover. No help from the D. 8 ft.
12. Mike Comrie wrist shot beats Price high glove side. Looked stoppable. 34 ft.
13. 5 on 4 PP. Point shot tipped in low stick side. No chance. 21 ft.
14. Defensive zone turnover leads to O'Sullivan alone in the slot. Beats Price low stick side. 28 ft.
15. Hejduk shot deflected in off Gorges. Price may have stopped it if his stick was in position. 30 ft.
16. Cumiskey throws the puck towards the front of the net. Deflects in off Belle's skate. No chance. 10 ft.
17. Ryan O'Reilly out of the corner untouched, Price makes the save, but cannot stop the rebound. 11 ft.
18. Chris Neil in the slot all alone. High glove side. No chance. 26 ft.
19. Daniel Alfreddson one timer on a 5 on 3 powerplay. Low glove side. 31 ft.
20. Alex Kovalev all alone in the slot. Snapshot blocker side. 30 ft
21. 5 on 4 PP. Alex Goligoski shot from the point on the PP. No screen beats Price high glove side. 55 ft.
22. 5 on 4 PP. Chris Kunitz clear cut breakaway from center beats Price 5-hole. 15 ft.
23. Kris Versteeg behind the goal shot deflects off Bergeron in between Price's pads beating him 5-hole. 8ft.
24. Cam Barker one-timer from the faceoff dot. Price is deep, shot beats him high glove side. 31 ft.
25. Patrick Sharp one-timer from the slot beats Price low glove side opposite to his momentum. 37ft

1. Eric Nystrom in the slot unchecked. Snapshot beats Halak high glove side. 19 ft.
2. Slap shot from the point. Tipped in front by Nystrom beats Halak low stick side. 13 ft
3. Slap shot from the point off the post. Jarome Iginla bangs in rebound beating Halak high glove side. 19 ft.
4. Kronwall slapshot from the blueline through a screen beats Halak high stick side. 60 ft.
5. Colby Armstrong from the faceoff dot beats Halak low glove side. 25 ft.
6. Halak gives the puck away behind the net to Josh Bailey allowing for an easy tap-in. 5 ft.
7. Halak stops initial shot, Ansimov left alone and beats Halak high glove side. 6 ft.
8. Ales Kotalik left alone in the slot. Beats Halak high glove side. 14 ft.
9. Gilroy slapshot from the point. Halak may have been screened as he is beaten low stick side. 61 ft.
10. Marian Gaborik breakaway from the blueline beats Halak 5 hole. 5 ft.
11. 5 on 4 PPG. Tambellini drives hard to the net. Halak is not set and exposes his 5 hole. 5 ft.
12. 5 on 4 PPG. Spacek giveaway leads to a cross crease feed and an easy redirection for Jeff Tambellini.
13. Turnover. Guerin feeds Crosby all alone at the side of the net. One-timer beats Halak low-stick side. 17 ft.
14. Halak stops initial shot, rebound to Sidney Crosby who beats a sprawled Halak top shelf glove side. 19 ft.
15. Halak stops point shot, scramble in front and Rupp puts home the rebound beating him low stick side. 5 ft.
16. Crosby alone in front, spin-o-rama. Halak makes initial save hits Crosby's skate and trickles in 5-hole. 5 ft.
17. 5 on 4 PP. Point shot rebound to Ponikoravsky in the slot who wraps it home low stick side by Halak. 15 ft.
18. 5 on 4 PP. Lee Stempniak slap shot from the point beats a screened Halak high glove side. 54 ft.
19. Cross crease feed to Ponikoravsky, beats Halak from a bad angle with a perfect shot high stick side. 19 ft.
20. 6 on 5. Kaberle takes a point shot that deflects off Hamrlik and Spacek to beat Halak low stick side. 63 ft

The October verdict: Patience is required. Patience for a Canadiens team integrating 10-12 new players. Patience for a team that is missing its only legitimate All-Star. Patience for a coach who is still installing a new system and approach and finally patience for the two kids between the pipes.

Chris Boyle is a frequent contributor to Eyes On The Prize and goes by the handle Wamsley.
He is a lifelong Habs fan and the editor of fantasysensehockey.net.