Mathieu Garon was the best player on either team. He single handedly kept the Oilers in a game in which they were outplayed. On the other hand Peter Budaj was not particularly solid. Both third period goals were stoppable.
Penner bagged two, including the winner with 6 seconds left. He looks like he’s a lot quicker this year than he was last year.
Gilbert and Grebeshkov played a lot of minutes against Sakic’s line. There were a few giveaways and a decent amount of chaos when they had the puck in their own end but boy can they both move the puck well. Grebeshkov had 2 helpers and looked right at home when he filled in for Souray on the PP in the first period. I hope they move him up to the first unit to see how he looks. That way both Souray and Visnovsky can play on the right side on the PP and set up for one timers.
The fourth line didn’t do much of anything.
Ok most of the Oilers didn’t do much of anything at even strength.
Again with Penner, he looked great on the PK tonight with Pisani.
Through preseason and the first game Garon has had some trouble with right handed shooters going low blocker on him. It’s like how Jussi Jokinen would come down on a goalie that catches with his left and snap it low blocker, but reversed.
Faceoffs and time of possession were two glaring weaknesses for the Oilers. The two are closely linked statistically and the Oilers lost on both counts tonight.
The Oilers could really use a calming presence on their back end. I don’t think they have one right now, but maybe Gilbert turns into one sooner rather than later.
Just like the last few preseason games, the Oilers were badly outshot in the game. This is not a winning formula unless your goalie is the first star and the other team’s goalie is only starting because the guy hiding from Tony Granato on the bench is named Raycroft.
It was hard to see the players’ numbers on the third jerseys. Maybe it was just my TV, but something about the uniforms hurt my eyes.
Shawn Horcoff won 27% of his faceoffs. Cogliano was 1 for 7, good for a 14% rate. Pisani was twice as good at 2 for 7 and 29%, while Brodziak was 4 for 6. Pouliot was 1 for 2 and Gagner 0 for 3. Maybe the term work in progress is being optimistic. I seem to remember a while ago Moreau was one of our better faceoff guys on his strong side, and last year Penner took a few draws and didn’t fail so miserably. How often does a team go 14 for 50 in the dot and come out ahead in the game? Wow.
Ales Hemsky played less than 16 minutes. Did I miss something here?
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