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Oilers Game 15 - New York Islanders at Edmonton Oilers [November 2, 2009/Nassau Veterans Memorial/PPV 5:00pm MT] The Edmonton Oilers (7-6-1) will be playing the New York Islanders (4-4-5) at Nassau Veterans Memorial tonight at 5 pm MT. The Oilers continue to struggle in terms of missing key players due to injuries. As well, the Edmonton Oilers have lost three of their last four games by shutouts. In contrast, the New York Islanders have been on a hot streak with 3 straight wins against top-level teams including the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals, and Buffalo Sabres. Visit the Low On Oil Hockey Forum for more (live game time) updates/GDT
Pre-game thoughts: On the surface here, we have two teams who's better days were both in the '80s facing each other tonight. As such, if this were the early '80s teams, we'd have quite a battle to watch tonight. However, both the Islanders and Oilers are far removed from their Stanley Cup winning glory days. As for the Islanders, they're on a pretty hot streak right now with wins against some top-level teams in the Eastern Conference. In contrast, the Oilers themselves have been on a recent slump. The daily line has the Islanders favored to win tonight by a small margin (-120/+110). Both the Islanders and Oilers have pretty similar statistics in terms of their special teams (penalty kill/powerplay). At this point in the season, the Islanders have fared far better at the faceoff circle (53.5% vs. 47.1%). For the Oilers the keys tonight will be to get more shots on net than they have been this season. Dwayne Roloson's expected to get the start for the Islanders. With the Oilers youth brigade on the blueline, they've had difficulty with their break-outs and getting the puck out of their zone. On the other side of the ice, the Oilers have had difficulty getting the cycle going down low. Lastly, the Oilers forecheck has been pretty anemic looking as of late. The Boston Bruins in particular were effective in moving the puck to a winger 10 feet off the boards against the Oilers instead of trying to continually move the puck up on the boards (like the Oilers). In today's Edmonton Journal, Pat Quinn was quoted as saying: When you give up too much and spend too much time in your zone, a victory is getting it out instead of putting it in their net. Edmton Oilers projected lineups: Notes: Lubomir Visnovsky and Mike Comrie are both game-day decisions as to whether or not they will play tonight. Penner-Hemsky-Horcoff Jacques-Gagner-Nilsson O'Sullivan-Brule- Pisani Moreau-Cogliano-Stortini Smid-Visnovsky Chorney-Grebeshkov Gilbert-Strudwick Khabibulin 
New York Islanders projected lineups: | Matt Moulson | John Tavares | Kyle Okposo | | Jeff Tambellini | Josh Bailey | Doug Weight | | Sean Bergenheim | Frans Nielsen | Jon Sim | | Richard Park | Nate Thompson | Tim Jackman | | Mark Streit | Bruno Gervais | | Brendan Witt | Radek Martinek | | Andy Sutton | Jack Hillen | | Dwayne Roloson | | Martin Biron | Period 1 - Oilers 1 / Isanders 1 - The Islanders started off the period quite strong utilizing a similar style to Boston with a strong forecheck and some good pressure down low.
- The Islanders had some turnovers in the neutral zone that lead to scoring chances for the Oilers.
- For those who like to make fun of Ethan Moreau for his centering passes to no one, he managed to bank one of those off an Islanders skate. It then beat Roloson with the five hole.
- John Tavares answered back for the New York Islanders off a feed from Doug Weight.
- It was a brutal goal to give up. Taylor Chorney looked like he fell when getting the puck behind the net. Grebeshkov then fell on top off him and Weight took the puck and passed in front to Tavares for a goal.
- Hemsky's looked pretty dangerous and has had a few chances created by some nice dangles. He hit a goal post on the most recent attempt.
- Penner hasn't been very noticeable this game so far. He had a good scoring chance while standing in front of the net in the slot, but he missed on the shot.
- Gagner's had a few chances so far too.
- JF Jacques got an instigator penalty in a fight with Sutton. He received a game 10 minute misconduct for that and the Islanders got a power play. Sutton's about the size of Dustin Penner so Jacques was pretty brave to step in after Sutton levelled Gilbert.
- So far, the Oilers have done a decent job with killing the penalty and there's less than a minute left at for the start of the second period.
Period 2 - Oilers 1 / Islanders 3 - Overall, Grebeshkov and Chorney have been a weaker pairing for the Oilers. If they're on the ice, you can look to find them in their own zone.
- During this period, Horcoff beat Roloson but rung the shot off the post.
- Horpensky has spent a ton of time in the Islanders' zone, but they've mostly cycled the puck without getting quality shots on net. The Islanders are second in the NHL in blocking shots.
- Shot totals are 23-17 and the Oilers are having a hard time finding clear shooting lanes from the point.
- The Islanders scored two goals during this period. Both Goals were scored by Bandon Wit.
- The first was dubbed a "fluky goal" by the announcers, but it was a shot on net that went through traffic. As for the second goal, the Oilers had the kid line on the ice with Grebeshkov/Chorney. The Islanders had the Oil hemmed in their zone and Khabibulin made a number of saves before a shot from the point got redirected in traffic.
- The Oilers will start the third period with the lion's share of a 2 minute penalty to Grebeshkov. Grebeshkov received a delay of game penalty when a clearing attempt went over the glass and out.
- The Kid line is looking like a failed experiment (yet again), but JF Jacques had previously left the game after receiving a game misconduct.
Period 3 - Oilers 1 / Islanders 3 - There was no scoring during this period.
- The Oilers managed to kill two penalties, but were not given a powerplay during this particular game.
- Other than the top line, the other Oilers lines were again unable to generate much if anything in terms of scoring chances or even shots on net.
Post game thoughts: Oilers lose 3-1 to New York Islanders.
Earlier this year, the Oilers were on a roll. Yet, many astute bloggers in the Oilogosphere such as Johnathan Willis, were quick to note a few things. First, he noticed that the Oilers shot differential was slopped against them. After that, Jonathan Willis noted that the Oilers were one of several early teams that were winning games with unsustainable shooting percentages. I for one am not going to factor in the flu bug or injuries to a great extent. When you take a step back and look at the previous games, the Oilers have been shut out 3 times while they lit up Detroit's mediocre backup goalie (Howard), then managed to only score one goal tonight. Again, the Oilers lone goal was a pretty fluky deflection off an Islanders skate. If we leave the flu bug and injuries out of this--the Oilers continue to get outshot on this recent skid. For the most part, the Oilers breakout has been very ineffective against aggressive 2 man forechecks. The Oilers have often lost puck battles in their corners and have allowed opposing teams to walk in on their net. As well, the Oilers have allowed teams wide-open shooting lanes from the point combined with forwards screening/deflecting shots into the net. In short, the Oilers defensive zone coverage stinks. :) In particular, both Grebeshkov and Chorney were a rather poor defensive pairing. Both were on the ice for three even-strength goals against. During one of the goals, both of them went beind the net. At the press conference, Pat Quinn referred to them as Fumbledee and Fumbledumb (?might have said Thimbledee and Thimbledum). As for offense, the Oilers only line to generate any real chances is that of Horcoff (Gagner)/Hemsky/Penner. After that line, our offensive is pretty much abysmal. Khabibulin's played very well in net again tonight, but they're getting heavily out-worked, outshot, and out-chanced. To me, it's starting to look like the Oilers have some serious flaws in either one of conception or execution of their system. Again, the Oilers played decent in the first and faded hard during the later two periods. After generating 9 shots on net in the first period, the Oilers were only able to get 14 more over the next two periods (6 shots in the third even with pulling our goalie). In total, the Oilers were outshot 37-23. Update: Robin Brownlee over at Oilers Nation is speculating that Shawn Horcoff might have a shoulder injury. During this recent game, Andy Sutton had levelled Shawn Horcoff with a pretty hard check. Oilers Post game Video:
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