Oilers lose game and Sam Gagner to injury

Craig Anderson of the Colorado Avalanche got his third shutout against the Edmonton Oilers this season. In total, Craig Anderson now has six shutouts this season. Speaking of shutouts, the Oilers have scored exactly zero goals in their past two games against the Avalanche now while allowing nine goals against.

The Oilers managed to not only lose this game, but they've also lost Sam Gagner who injured his knee during the game. Sam Gagner played just under ten minutes before leaving the game due to injury. Marc Pouliot moved up to center the Oilers top line in his absence.

The shot clock for this game provides a very accurate reflection of the game itself. In total, the Oilers were outshot 42-20 during the game. In the first two period alone, Jeff Deslauriers faced 29 shots while the Oilers only managed to generate 12 shots themselves. Not many would find much flattering about a 3-0 score, but tonight the score was very flattering to the Oilers squad which was completely dominated by the Avalanche. Yet again, the Oilers found away to completely embarrass themselves on Hockey Night in Canada.

Jeff Deslauriers made 14 saves to keep the game scoreless after the first period. The Oilers made numerous potentially costly turnovers during this period with culprits including Visnovsky, Grebeshkov, and Stortini. Stortini failed to clear the puck at one point which lead to Taylor Chorney getting undressed in front of the net and Visnovsky taking a subsequent penalty. Shawn Horcoff took a bad holding penalty in the neutral zone which lead to a brief 5v3 advantage for the Avs.

Wojtek Wolski opened the scoring following sustained pressure in the Oilers zone. It was his first goal in 6 games.

Jeff Deslauriers let a soft goal in from Ryan Wilson which was forgivable considering how many shots he faced tonight. Brandon Yip scored on the empty net after Dustin Penner turned the puck over at the Oilers blue line. The Oilers had two back-to-back power plays in the third, but didn't manage to test Craig Anderson very much.

embarrassment

Oilers embarrass themselves on CBC

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More embarrassment

more embarrassment

Was the game really on CBC?

Game Video:

Comments (4) Add Comment

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written by anyonebutdetroit, February 07, 2010

Yeah - it was poor. I was at the game and the Oil were pretty lifeless. Edmonton reminds me of the Avs of about a year ago. The Oil are 3-20-2 in their last 25 games - its about time to sit / trade whoever you can and see what you have in the system.

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written by Jay-, February 07, 2010

Hey Sean, this was one of the worst games I've seen the Oilers play yet. The score probably should have been much worse.

I'm hoping that Tambellini's able to move some dead wood before the trade deadline.

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written by anyonebutdetroit, February 07, 2010

yeah, agreed, the Wilson goal was much more soft. Wolski had a golden chance setup by Duchene, but it was stoppable - it shouldn't have been - Wolski should have put it top shelf, but he didn't get the puck high enough and gave Deslauriers a change to make a save.

I hope Tambellini can make some moves too, but I just looked at the nhlnumbers.com - ouch - he has his work cut for him! Lots of guys (Horcoff, Hemsky, Visnovsky, Gilbert) signed for quite sometime.

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written by Jay-, February 07, 2010

Hey Sean, yeah it's not a good situation at all. In fact, it's absolutely brutal for the Oilers.

There's tons of bad contracts on the roster starting with Khabibulin whom no one knows if he'll play again or if he does, will he be any good? Either way, it's three more years at $3.75 million cap hit.

Then there's four more years of Shawn Horcoff an a $5.5 million cap hit which is already looking horrific this year.

After that, we've got a few old vets like Moreau and Staios who despite being spent forces combine for $4.7 million in cap space for one more season.

Then we've got a few inconsistent underachievers like Nilsson and O'Sullivan that cost another $5 million together.

After that, we've $15 million in cap space for Souray, Visnovsky, and Gilbert which isn't good, but not the biggest problem.

The there's a litany of RFA's to consider resigning from Gagner, Comrie, Cogliano, Grebseshkov, to Pouliot and Potulny. There's not much cap space to do this either.

Oh well, it's an absolute mess. It will take a while still for the Kevin Lowe contracts to expire. Tambellini's added to the problem instead of helping solve it much.