EDMONTON - Former Edmonton Oilers' coach
uggs boot Craig MacTavish always liked to say, “You never critique a win,” but we’re not behind the bench, so we’ll just say it was Ho 2, Hum 1 Thursday night at Rexall Place. Let the record show the Oilers halted their seven-game losing streak by holding off the New York Islanders, getting two goals on their first three shots by Gilbert Brule(notes) and Dustin Penner(notes) before the game was six minutes old. They killed off seven penalties, including a five-on-three for 99 seconds in the final five minutes, with two of their five healthy defencemen Ladislav Smid(notes) and Tom Gilbert(notes) gnawing at their fingernails in the penalty box. Let us also say that Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk(notes) lasted longer and was a whole lot better than Islanders starter Nathan Lawson(notes), who made his way to the bench after Brule’s goalmouth shot, and Penner’s short-handed burst eluded him. He was replaced by fellow rookie Kevin
NBA jerseys Poulin(notes), who was playing in his first NHL game. Dubnyk, who had six of his previous 10 games go to overtime or shootout, refused to let this one go past 60 minutes He was good early; also good late, stopping Michael Grabner(notes) on a breakaway 90 seconds in, then making a couple of excellent saves during the five-on-three, only allowing Blake Comeau(notes)’s perfect shot in period two, off a Rob Schremp(notes) feed. But this was a yawner, folks. It was the 28th-place Oilers versus the 29th-place Islanders, a long way from the glory days of both clubs 25 years ago, although both teams wore their throwback jerseys and Rod Phillips was in the 630 CHED booth doing one of his 10 Rod’s Classic’s games in
Hermes Scarf his farewell season. It was far from a classic, but you don’t always get truth in advertising when the puck drops. “Our penalty-kill won us the game,” said current Oilers coach Tom Renney, who didn’t try to sugar-coat the victory. Five-on-five, he didn’t like his team much after their early start, especially in the last two periods, and in the faceoff circle they got killed and chased all night long. Zenon Konopka(notes) was 11-0 and only played eight minutes. Schremp was 13-5. The Isles, who came in on a 7-1-1 run, won 39 of 59 draws and had 31 shots, but only had the one goal. In large part because of Dubnyk. “He really stood tall,” said Renney. Literally (he’s six-foot-six) and figuratively, although he’ll likely watch tonight in Vancouver as Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) gets back in the net. Tall in the first minute, especially. Grabner could have deflated the Oilers bench with his burst. “Good way to get into the game, but only
Broncos NFL Jerseys if you save it,” laughed Dubnyk. The Islanders had 15 of their 31 shots on the power play, with 10:42 of five-on-four and 1:39 two-men up when Smid got his third minor (interference, tripping, roughing) and Gilbert cleared it into the seats by mistake. With Jim Vandermeer(notes) (a recurrence of his sprained ankle) gone, they were down to Theo Peckham(notes), Jason Strudwick(notes) and Jeff Petry(notes) to kill off the five-on-three. But the Oilers killed it off, the sixth straight game they’ve refused to give up a power-play goal after a terrible PK to start the year. “It’s one of the worst feelings when you
Red Monkey Jeans do that, especially when you can watch it go over the glass and there’s no complaining,” said Gilbert, who played almost half the game (28:43). “The key to the penalty kill is your goalie and Devan’s been great all year. He’s come a long way,” said Andrew Cogliano(notes), who set up both goals, giving him five points in his last six games. His pass to Penner sprung him for his bolt down the left side after Dubnyk had cleared the puck over the glass. “When he’s skating and he’s so big, nobody’s really stopping him. We haven’t had one of those short-handed goals in a while either.” Sam Gagner(notes) had the last
Boss Sweater one, on Dec. 1 in Montreal.