The Week That Was: Between The Pipes

Jeffrey Chapman — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:33:03 +0000

Khabibulin’s season debut gave the Oilers a chance to win. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The Oilers are having trouble putting goals into the net. Fortunately, they’re getting some solid goaltending between the pipes.

Between February 8th and February 14th, the Oilers played three games.

February 9th in Detroit (Khabibulin)
February 10th in Columbus (Dubnyk)
February 12th vs. Dallas (Dubnyk)

Here are the results, followed by cumulative season numbers.

Nikolai Khabibulin made his season debut against the Detroit Red Wings. And, as frightened as I was by that prospect, Khabibulin kept the Oilers in that game, turning aside 28 of 30 Detroit shots, allowing two power play goals. The Oilers were only able to put up one goal, and Detroit trumped Edmonton by a final score of 2-1. Khabibulin’s SV% finished at .933. Not bad for a day’s work.

Add together Devan Dubnyk‘s two starts against Columbus and Dallas, and Dubnyk turned aside 64 of 69 shots (39/40 versus Columbus, and 25/29 against Dallas). 64/69 works out to a SV% of .927, which is right about at Dubnyk’s season average of .923. The Oilers went 1-1 in these two games.

Solid goaltending hasn’t been a problem. If this team could score four goals against Colorado tomorrow, that’d be nice.

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Devan Dubnyk’s 39 Saves Snaps Oilers 5 Game Winless Streak

Jeffrey Chapman — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:27:46 +0000

Dubnyk was a rock in Columbus, stopping 39 of 40 total shots. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

They don’t ask “how you won”, they ask “if you won”, right? Let’s hope so.

Devan Dubnyk’s 39 saves helped power the Edmonton Oilers to one of the ugliest 3-1 victories you’ll ever see in the National Hockey League. Full marks go to Devan Dubnyk who kept Edmonton in a game that could clearly have been a 5 or 6 goal blowout.

The Oilers were outshot 40-14.
I wanted to create another bullet point because that’s an incredible amount of shots to be outshot. That’s 26 more shots allowed than taken. You will not win a lot of games when being outshot by 26 goals.
Did I mention how well Devan Dubnyk played? The victory is Dubnyk’s fifth of the season bringing his record to 5-3-3 with a 2.45 GAA and a .928 SV%, which is nearly super-human.
Ales Hemsky got the festivities started in the first period with a goal that should never have happened. Sergei Bobrovsky had a chance to smother the puck with his catching glove, and he made the wrong choice. Ales Hemsky picked up the pieces and made it 1-0 Oilers.
The Oilers got Eric Belanger back tonight after being off a week with broken toes. While playing through broken toes, he was 52% at the dot. Other success stories at the dot tonight include Sam Gagner at 57% and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at 53%. Small victories.
If you guessed that Magnus Paajarvi would have tonight’s game winning goal, come collect your prize. A shorthanded goal scored with just over three minutes remaining in regulation. This game was bizarre.
Sam Gagner had an assist on that goal. He also had an empty net goal for a two point day.
Ryan Smyth had a day he’d like to forget, taking three minor penalties. Putting him on the fourth line as the centre hasn’t been good to him. The fourth line of 55-94-37 is…interesting.
Jordan Eberle almost had a goal, but it was ruled no goal because the puck made contact with the stick while it was higher than the crossbar.
The power play? 0/4. Devan Dubnyk’s Big Pad Saving Association kept the Blue Jackets power play at 0/7. Seriously, buy that guy a steak.

What can you take from this game? The Oilers had the ice tilted the wrong way for a large majority of this game. Devan Dubnyk played the role of Rich Uncle and bailed everyone out, and a timely shorthanded goal from Magnus Paajarvi saved the day.

Devan Dubnyk has 337 saves, which leads the NHL. He’s 37 ahead of 2nd place Ryan Miller. His .928 SV% is 8th amongst NHL goalies w/6+ games.

— Dan Tencer (@dantencer) February 11, 2013

Feels good to get off a five game winless streak, but it feels like this team robbed a Scotiabank to do it.

ON TO THE NEXT ONE

The Oilers begin a five game homestand Tuesday against Dallas.