| Return Of Tommy The Terrible Paves way For Oilers Come From Ahead Loss | |
| Dennis King | October 22, 2003 |
Total collapse marks 6-4 loss to visiting Blues.
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Torres | Smyth | Hemsky | Brewer | Cross | |||||
| Chimera | Reasoner | Dvorak | Smith | Staios | |||||
| Moreau | York | Pisani | Bergeron | Ferguson | |||||
| Isbister | Horcoff | Laraque | |||||||
| Salo | |||||||||
| Conklin | |||||||||
| Scratched: Stoll and Semenov are healthy scratches. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
Hey, I don't blame Pete Peeters.
The last time I checked he wasn't Rumplestiltskin.
So even though there was seemingly a new committment to value for the dollar this fall in the Oilers training camp, ie drag Tommy Salo kicking and screaming into training methods that would reflect the fact he's earning around 12% of the team's payroll, at the end of the day Salo is nothing but a big pile of straw.
In keeping with the barn theme; on this night he was a horse's ass.
3-2 sat the record of the Oilers as they entered this game and lo and hehold they were 3-0 at home with goals aplenty and I don't know if anyone cared to check but over the last couple of season's it's been the Oilers home record that has more than anything else kept them from getting any farther than 6th in the Western Conference ladder.
No they haven't been world beaters on the road but they have been good enough.
The early '04 season script was popped into the typewriter and with just a few subtle changes, ie Radek Dvorak did something useful for once, it was 3-0 Oilers a scant 14:12 into the contest. Jason Smith had made a lovely tip on a likewise Cross feed to open the scoring, Marty Reasoner had collected the 2-0 garbage off said shocking effective play by Dvorak and 3-0 was the tally after Mike York found Blues goalie Brent Johnson leaning off his post and he slipped one through and past him.
Blues coach Joel Qunneville wasted no time in yanking his starter to replace him with the somewhat ailing Chris Osgood who always plays well in Edmonton no matter which unifrom he dons.
You know the Oilers can score the odd shorthanded goal but their penalty killing still reeks. Eight goals allowed in 40 chances is downright horrific. The Blues scored number seven when Doug Weight threw a harmless shot at the net that Salo didn't even bother to try and stop. I don't know where his mind was but it wasn't on this game.1:23 later it's 3-2 as Reed Lowe lobs a bad angle shot at Tommy who promptly drops and pushes it out in front of his crease. Mike Danton would collect the spoils.
St. Louis tied it at 3-3 at 5:11 of the second periopd as Pavol Demitra let go one of his few harmless shots yet this one still managed to elude the Oilers netminder.
15 seconds later the Blues took the lead for good and after another goal made it 5-3 lightning struck the Oilers bench and somehow through the wilderness Craig Mactavish got the idea that maybe it wasn't Salo's night so he replaced him.
The Oilers came out like gangbusters in the third period with 13 registered shots and no less than five other shots drew the iron behind Osgood. They would make it 5-4 on Hemsky's bankshot but the dye had already been cast.
Folks, do you like your 3.9 million dollar making veteran goalies who never improve?
| |||||
|
| |||||
| Tommy Salo - The result would not have been possible without him. A 902 SV PCT heading in which currently now sits at 874. | |||||
| Chris Pronger - Three assists in 31:19 of icetime where he somehow still managed to finish at +2. | |||||
| Ales Hemsky - No offense to Ryan Smyth but sometimes I feel so sorry for Hemsky knowing he doesn't have one teammate who can match his skill level | |||||
| |||||||||
|
|
If it wasn't for the nightly pathetic play of Radek "I only have promise because Lowe says so" Dovorak, the a lot more people would focus on Fernando Pisani, specfically to put him mug on the milk cartons of Northern Alberta. He played 7:12 in this game and that's time usually reserved for the likes of Laraque...A whopping 28:46 icetime for Steve Staios. He's been a great pickup and he's supposedly in great shape but how much longer can he last with this workload? Just 19:35 logged for Jason Smith. Interesting......Mike York is a streaky player and he's now scored in two straight games so let's see if that continues on Thurs in Denver.
| |||||||||
|
|
Back to .500 it is for the Oilers as they finish off their homestand. Now it's off to Colorado for a one game road trip before another 3 game homestand.
| |||||||||
|
|
Oilers head to the land of the faux Superteam as Colorado plays host on Thursday night at 7pm MST. You can catch the game on SN West.
