Game 19 - Edmonton Oilers vs. Buffalo Sabres - November 11th, 2009.

Tonight, the Edmonton Oilers (8-8-2) will play the Buffalo Sabres (9-4-1) at the HSBC arena. The game starts at 5:00 pm MT and will be on TSN. Yeah, the game's on TSN which means that recalcitrant Oilers' fans won't be squinting while trying to watch the Oilers on a bootlegged game feed tonight. Unlike the image above, it won't even cost you a mere 35 cents to watch this one!!!

Pregame Notes

Drew Stafford

Drew Stafford with shit-eating grin after scoring hat trick vs. Oilers

First, let's look back and laugh (instead of cry) at the fact that the Oilers faced one of their worst drubbings ever with the 10-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on January 28th, 2009. On that night, Drew Stafford scored a hat trick with his first goal of the night occurring just 10 seconds into the game. Speaking of Drew Stafford, there were recent rumors that the Oilers were not surprisingly interested in making a trade with Buffalo for him: Tom Gilbert for Drew Stafford?

The Oilers roster is still heavily depleted with the notable absences of Souray, Horcoff, Jacques, Stone, and possibly Hemsky. Dan Tencer reports that Ales Hemsky will be a game time decision. Over the past two games, the Oilers have managed to squeeze out three points. To the surprise of many Oilers' fans, the powerplay has been clicking and the Oilers have been playing some of their best hockey this season. In last night's game, the Oilers were finally playing more sound defensively in their zone and consequently limiting the shots against while shutting down shooting lanes.

Last night, both Gilbert Brule as well as Mike Comrie each had less than ten minutes of icetime which was somewhat surprising. Pat Quinn had decided to shorten the bench during the game and they were both on the wrong end of it. Perhaps the decision was related to the fact that Ryan O'Marra was playing on their line.

hsbc arena buffalo

HSBC Arena Buffalo

Pregame Stats:

	STATS
18	GP	14
8	W	9
8	L	4
2	OT	1
18	P	19
0.500	P%	0.679
2.94	G/G	2.79
3.06	GA/G	2.36
23.2	PP%	18.6
80.0	PK%	78.7
26.1	S/G	34.9
33.9	SA/G	30.1
47.3	FO%	51.6

By the numbers, the Oilers special teams are surprisingly more efficient than the Buffalo Sabres. For the first time in recent memory, the Oilers powerplay (23.2%) and penalty kill (80%) add up to a number over 100 (103.2%). In contrast, the Sabres have a far superior shot differential. As for the money line, the Buffalo Sabres are heavily favored to win this game (-220/+180).

Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup:

Line 1	Dustin Penner	Sam Gagner	Pat O'Sullivan
Line 2	Comrie	Brule	O'Marra
Line 3	Reddox	Andrew Cogliano	Pisani
Line 4	Moreau	Potulny	Stortini

Defence 1	Grebeshkov	Staios
Defence 2	Smid	Lubomir Visnovsky
Defence 3	Gilbert	Jason Strudwick

Goalie 1	Khabibulin
Goalie 2	Deslauriers

Buffalo Sabres Projected Lineup:

Line 1	Connolly	Vanek	Stafford
Line 2	Clarke MacArthur	Roy	Jason Pominville
Line 3	Jochen Hecht	Tim Kennedy	Mike Grier
Line 4	Matt Ellis	Paul Gaustad	Patrick Kaleta

Defence 1	Craig Rivet	Chris Butler
Defence 2	Tyler Myers	Henrik Tallinder
Defence 3	Andrej Sekera	Steve Montador

Goalie 1	Ryan Miller
Goalie 2	Jhonas Enroth

Post game reaction:

Comments (9) Add Comment

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written by Jay, November 11, 2009

Hemsky's playing which is good news for the Oilers!

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written by Racki, November 11, 2009

Yah Hemsky on line 2 in place of O'Marra. Interesting to see him down a bit, but obviously this is just temporary. But gives us a bit more depth (or so you would think - hasn't looked that way yet).

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written by Jay, November 11, 2009

Hey Racki,

Yeah, Hemsky hasn't looked like himself during this game for sure. The first period was pretty ugly with the Oilers getting hemmed into their zone. I think they're probably pretty tired from the combination of the back-to-back games and the short bench.

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written by jonathanjoyce, November 11, 2009

Pretty good road game i thought, notwithstanding that 5 minute power play at the end.

If I can track down a computer on Friday or Saturday I may send in a game report from Phoenix. I'll be at the Habs game tomorrow night. It's one of the games where ticketholders get a free ticket to another game if they win so there might be a few people there. I did a ticketmaster search for 10 tickets, best available and got first row. We'll opt for something cheaper, but can you imagine?

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written by Jay, November 11, 2009

Jonathan,

Yeah, it was a decent effort all things considered. It sounds like Grebeshkov's out with a knee injury.

Good luck on getting the free tickets!

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written by action games, December 18, 2009

I think that was the best game for the season with some very enogh scores and great action with entertainment Hemsky hasn't looked like himself during this game for sure,i really enjoyed this season and looking for other season.