Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Ales Hemsky breaking away from the pack

I have man-love for Ales Hemsky.  He plays well whether he's got good teammates or bad, whether the score is 5-0 against the Oilers or they're down 3-2 with minutes to play.  He has been criminally under-rated by the NHL community and Oiler fans alike for years.  Far too many Oiler fans have suggested "trade Hemsky", even this year or last, hoping for another top pick.  Really?  How many even top 5 overall picks turn out as good as him?

I also have man-love for this Oilers squad.  I was wrong.  The loss of Whitney, while a stinging hit and one that we will feel for as long as he's out, didn't demoralize the squad.

This keeps coming as a surprise to me.  Maybe I have a pessimistic outlook in general, or maybe past Oilers teams have taught me not to expect much.  Certainly after last year, it was clear that outside of Penner and Gagner, the marquee names didn't have fight in them when the chips were down.

This year, it's different.  With Ryan Whitney out, the forwards stepped up their game.  They managed a very good cycle several times - something they hadn't even hinted at in previous games.  They kept the puck in the offensive zone and scored from puck possession alone.  This took the pressure off the defenders, though they too did step up their game.  Despite his late penalty, Ladislav Smid played a very impressive game.  He showed more offensive flair last night vs Colorado than he had all of 2009-2010.  He pinched in at the right times, he went deep with the puck (a la Hemmer), skating around the back of the net and though nothing showed up on the scoreboard, he contributed.

Andrew Cogliano played a very solid defensive game and finally had his efforts rewarded with nice boxcar numbers.  Sam Gagner fought hard along the boards as did, in fact, all of our forwards - I just mention him as a rebuttal to his critics.

They lost, but they fought tooth and nail.  They came back from a horrible third period.  I am as proud of this team as any Oilers squad ever, and I'm sorry for doubting them.

The most beautiful woman in the world; Audrey reborn

In the time it took to Bob McKenzie to type out a twitter indicating that Ryan Whitney's ankle injury may be measured in months rather than weeks, the Oilers went from being a beautiful girl in full bloom of a fresh, young romance, to suddenly crying and dumped.  Still beautiful, still young, but now damaged and will need time to heal. 

In terms of individuals, they'll all say the right things - from Tambo on down to Ryan O'Marra.  Expect quotes like: "We're still looking to win, we may be young and have a few injured players but that doesn't excuse us from effort", and "This may be a learning season for our many young players, but the best way to learn is by winning".

There is, of course, no other possible response - in public or in private - for members of the organization.  Only at the very highest levels will Steve Tambellini and Tom Renney discuss how much darker our immediate future has become.  Where my concern as a fan comes in is if they realize the long-term danger.

There seem to be two kinds of teams that draft high: those that visit the basement and use their picks to get right out of it, and the perpetual basement dwellers.  Pittsburgh, Washington, and Philadelphia are all teams that hit the bottom and bounced back.  The Penguins spent the longest time there due to their financial and arena situation.  The Capitals were losing for quite a while despite ownership's best efforts (Ted Leonsis may be the best owner in sports.)  Philadelphia went from playoff contender to bottom-feeder, and right back to playoff contender.  They had one lottery pick, James van Riemsdyk, and he's not the reason for their turn-around or Stanley Cup run last year.

The other kinds of teams that draft high are best exemplified by the New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers, and Florida Panthers.  All three have consistently had high lottery picks, even #1 overall picks in the case of the Islanders, and their forays into the playoffs have been almost as brief as they are rare.  Atlanta is doing much better this season and the resolved ownership issues should help them out, but it remains to be seen if they can truly dig themselves out of their hole.  Other teams that could be used as examples until recently are the Phoenix Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks and Thrashers are the best examples of where the Oilers could go.  Under Dollar Bill Wirtz, the Blackhawks refused to spend in free agency, and if they did, it would be a one-off contract like the one that brought Khabibulin to the Windy City.  They'd fail to follow it up and build a team around their new player.  They didn't get support for Martin Havlat, either.  As much as Chicago's success is due to Toews and Kane breaking out, Chicago was already in the midst of improving their supporting cast in the rookie season for the dynamic duo.  The Oilers are apparently intent on tanking further.

This is demoralizing.  It's demoralizing for players like Ales Hemsky and Ryan Whitney, who are in their primes and want to get back into the playoffs, to compete and win.  It's demoralizing to older players like Shawn Horcoff and younger ones like Sam Gagner, who's been on losing teams his whole NHL career.  Franchises and fans can wait and hope the tank job accomplishes something.  Players have short careers, shorter peaks of their careers, and in a 30-team league, there's a two-thirds chance that an average player with a 10-year career will not win the Cup.  It's a 50% chance for those whose skills stand the test of time, who manage 15 years in the league.  Patience is a virtue, but the lack of it in players is understandable.

How the Oilers weren't involved in talks for James Wisniewski is beyond me.  We needed help on the back end before Whitney went down.  We need more than Jeff Petry and Martin Marincin, who might be impact players 5 years from now.  We need veterans.

Or we might end up like that other team, the other path the Oilers could go down on - the Atlanta Thrashers.  A couple of skilled wingers, a few holes in the middle, and a yawning chasm on the back end.  Tell me if this doesn't sound familiar: a team with a very complete scoring right winger and a dynamic goal-scoring left winger, with middling centres and no defence, picks in the lottery again and again.  That's the Thrashers as they were for years - Hossa and Kovalchuk.  It could also be the Oilers unless management gets serious. 

It's not that Pajaarvi, Omark, Hall and Eberle lack the will to win.  It's that they can't do it, not even the four of them if they develop into superstars.  They need support.  As star junior players realize they can't do it alone like they did when they were 18, so they realize that the franchise has to support them, or they go looking for other venues.  Losing is a disease.  Cure it or it becomes a chronic condition for the franchise.

Ryan Whitney's Ankle: The Oilers Achilles' Heel

Ryan Whitney's look of relief after scoring his first goal in the 2010-2011 season

Ryan Whitney has been the key cog for the Oilers this season.  It's not because he's the best player on the team, though he may be (it's a toss-up between him and Hemsky).  When Ales went down with the groin muscle tear, the next-best option, Jordan Eberle, is a fair substitution.  Eberle still has some way to go before he can fill the top line right wing role, but he's a very complete player.

The drop-off from Ryan Whitney to the #2 defenceman is daunting.  That's assuming the Oilers can legitimately be said to have a #2 defenceman.

Whitney hits, he's got very good positioning, he obviously knows how to pass and he's got a good shot.  Not a Chris Pronger or Sheldon Souray bomb, but it's good enough.  Ryan also provides the Oilers with something they really haven't had since Chris Pronger - an elite break-out pass.  This is absolutely vital to the Oilers offense, which is really successful only in two situations: catching turn-overs and in transition.

In short, he's the complete defenceman.

Nobody else on the team comes close.  Tom Gilbert's offensive flair comes and goes.  He can be a stand-out or simply fade into the background.  He can make great stretch passes, but he's not as reliable as Whitney in that regard.  More importantly, Tom Gilbert's actual defensive ability is suspect more often than anyone would like.  He is capable of being good defensively but this is far less consistent than even his flighty offensive efforts.  Tom seems like the guy who might lead the second pairing or be the second defenceman on the first or second, not the man you trust to lead the charge.

After Tom Gilbert, the Oilers defensive corps runs dry on offensive talent.  Ladislav Smid and Theo Peckham play similar games.  Smid is more about bruising, simple plays and some behind-the-refs'-backs punishment, while Peckham is generally better on the open ice and can line up the big hits reliably.  Smid is great on his third pairing, it's not too much responsibility for him and he provides a chippy edge to our defence.  Peckham could play on the first with Whitney, potentially lead the second pair but right now is better off as the second man there, and could definitely lead the third pairing with Smid.

Jeff Petry is an unknown at this point.  He was on for all four goals against last night versus Buffalo, but was credited with a helper on the Ryan Jones goal.  Given that it's his NHL debut, on a bad team in a slump, missing its best defenceman, it's hard to rag on the kid.

Jim Vandermeer and Jason Strudwick are known quantities.  Their foot speed betrays them in this league.  Both have adapted somewhat, getting better position and playing further back, but they're incredibly exposed on turn-overs or the kind of back-and-forth hockey the Oilers play.  A team with a slower tempo and more reliable forwards would be a better suit for either, but the Oilers are what they are.

In short, Whitney is completely irreplaceable.  Hemsky and Horcoff have decent substitutes, so does Khabi this year.

If the MRI on Whitney's ankle comes back really bad, as Bob McKenzie has rumoured, the wheels have officially fallen off the wagon this season.  Worse, it will likely slow development for the kids, since they won't get those nice break-out passes, and their mistakes are going to be much more costly.  The Oilers, rather than compete with the Flames for last in the West, could now find themselves in a competition with the Islanders and Devils for last in the league.  The embarrassing loss to a tired Buffalo team, after close defeats against San Jose, LA, and Vancouver, adds to the problem and is a bad sign for the Oilers sans Ryan Whitney.

Let us pray.

Kyle Wellwood on the receiving end of a Cam Barker love tap in the playoffs

The Oilers have been playing really well lately, their best hockey of the season.  That may be somewhat of a surprising position given a look at their record, but it's true.  Without their best player and best all-around centre, the Oilers have strung together three very close defeats at the hands of three very good teams.  They were more competitive against San Jose, Los Angeles, and now the red-hot and loaded Vancouver Canucks than they were in many wins this season.

The Canucks were the best team of the three and it showed, they had consistent puck possession and as the game went along they figured out how to limit the Oilers tendency to create odd-man rushes.  San Jose, not gifted with the fastest players in the league, had the roughest time with the Oilers.  Los Angeles, despite improving defensively in recent games - in particular their wins against Detroit, Nashville, and especially Colorado - is inconsistent at that spot as the Oilers showed.  If it was later in the season, and coaches were gathering video for a potential playoff matchup, I suspect the young Oilers success at breaking LA's defence might make for coach's room or locker room viewing.  LA looked awfully exposed.

Vancouver did not, but they're one of the favorites to win the Cup and the best team in the West along with Detroit.

Today's game against Buffalo will be telling.  The Oilers have had three close defeats in a row, and those can demoralize - especially giving up a lead and then a game winning goal late against Vancouver.  Their compete level against Buffalo today will be telling, since that's a team they can beat.  Hemsky's return to the lineup may very well spark them into a performance, or it may lead to some confusion.  Do you split up Hall and Eberle? Regardless, Hemsky should help the embarrassing power play.

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Learning to Fly

Normal people think bungee jumping is crazy, bungee jumpers think skydivers are nuts, skydivers look funny at base jumpers, and then... there are the wingsuit wingnuts.

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

LT's post today, possibly the 10th this year in which he mentions how much he enjoys watching this year's Oilers, inspired me to comment and I'll echo these comments here:

Much as we try, I don't think it's possible to appreciate this year's team enough.  They're kids, and like children, they grow up too fast.  Young and hopeful, full of potential and not burdened in the least by expectations or a ticking clock, this may be the most enjoyable Oilers team I've ever watched.  They're not a winning team and quite unlikely to make the playoffs, but that just means there's nothing to stress and worry about.  For the next couple of years, but this year in particular, there's no anxiety about where they're going, what they'll do when they get there, and if they have the talent, the pieces, the chemistry, and above all the will to seize glory.

It has been 30 years since the 1980-81 season, when we first had the majority of the pieces.  Look at that season.  Dominated by red losses early on, slowly turning more and more green before a dominant finish.  The Oilers had done that the year before in '79-80, but the momentum didn't carry over.  After '80-81, however, things would be different for the next decade.

This could be the closest thing we have to the 1980-81 season in our lifetimes.  With more teams, a hard salary cap, and early unrestricted free agency, it won't be the same but it is sure coming close.  It's a magical season because unlike even next year, there are no expectations on this team.  We're Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams and we're just watching greats play the game.  There are no contract anxieties, no worries about the playoffs, no concerns if we have the right supporting cast.

Like real children, as they start coming into their own, we're in a special and rare moment where dreams and reality are interwoven.  The potential is there and right now it's undefinable, nobody knows how good Hall, Eberle, Pajaarvi, Omark, and even Gagner and Peckham can be.  We're free to let our imaginations run wild and dream.  And we can dream because there's enough reality, enough of a solid grounding for this team that we know for sure that something special is here.  These aren't flights of fancy about Jason Bonsignore, Steve Kelly, Boyd Devereaux and Michel Riesen.  These kids are here, in the NHL.  They're producing.  They're clicking.  They're having fun and clearly loving every moment of it.  Above all, anyone who sees them can sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Which is exactly where the Oilers as an organization are.  I truly urge you to read LT's blog and catch up on the top 20 prospects this year because we are sitting on an embarrassment of riches:

Martin Marincin - 1st in WHL defencemen scoring, 2nd in WHL rookie scoring, 2nd in team scoring (after the very potent Brett Connolly).  Boldly moved from Europe to the WHL and adjusted immediately to the game, showing far more puck ability than expected, as he was projected to be a stay-at-home defenceman.  Key component of Slovakia's World Juniors team.

Anton Lander - Captain of the 2011 Swedish Junior team, captain of Timra IK of the Elitserien, a renowned two-way player in his league and well on his way to beating his personal scoring mark from last year.

Curtis Hamilton - He's a big man (6'3, 202), can't call him kid or boy.  Has shown way more offensive flair this season than past years, currently tracking 1.4PPG with the best +/- on the team.  Recently bumped up to the top line on Canada's WHJC squad.

Tyler Pitlick - Good-sized centre who will be competing with Lander for the two-way role on the team.  Like Marincin, he moved to the WHL, though his origins were much closer in the NCAA.  After struggling somewhat early in the season, has picked up the pace.  The +/- is middle of the pack for the team, which is something to note.  A surprising omission from the US WJHC training camp, but given the heavy veteran presence on that squad, not a huge concern.

And that's just the kids exceeding expectations this year.  Lowetide has a much more thorough rundown of our prospects on his site - like Ryan Martindale, Teemu Hartikainen, Toni Rajala, and more.

The Chicago Way

No caption necessary

From the moment the new CBA was signed, the hard cap made it obvious that teams couldn't buy Stanley Cups any more - or try to, like the Rangers and Leafs.  What wasn't immediately apparent was how important drafting would be.  Everyone saw how good the Penguins would be, but they had Sidney Crosby, a generational talent, and they got extremely lucky with Malkin.  In any other draft year, Malkin would have gone first and second overall would have seemed a distant second, but with Alex Ovechkin on the board, the Capitals chose him.

Meanwhile, time went on.  The Oilers went to the Cup Finals in the first year back from the lockout, carried on the wide shoulders of Chris Pronger and buoyed by some stellar play from heretofore minor contributors like Fernando Pisani.  Stellar play from Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff, with a once-in-a-career burst of motivation from Raffi Torres and a rejuvenated Jason Smith provided offensive punch and grit.  Dwyane Roloson played lights out and is still, to this day, under-rated by the league.  All this was held together by a team that listened to Craig MacTavish, a team that was completely selfless.  They sacrificed their bodies to block shots in numbers that I haven't seen since.  They never doubted themselves.  For all players and staff involved, including Pronger, this was probably the peak of their careers.

Though they lost to the Hurricanes, the 2006 Cup Finals looked like a fluke to NHL insiders, I suspect.  No team modeled themselves after the Hurricanes or the Oilers, though the Ducks were quick to snatch up Chris Pronger.

When the Ducks won the Cup the year after, it was a different story.  The story had nothing to do with market size or TV audiences, but the regular season standings.  The Ducks were a dominant western team, the Senators were a dominant eastern team.  The Ducks played mean, tough hockey.  They beat you up, they took up the space in front of both nets and they had more going for them than Chris Pronger and a couple of people peaking at the right time.  The Senators were skilled, fast, and offensively talented like few teams since the mid-90s.  When mean and nasty beat skilled and speedy, many teams modeled themselves after the Ducks.

A year later, when the Wings won the Cup, few teams modeled themselves after the Wings.  It's tough following the only generational talent drafted in the 90s (Nick Lidstrom - he's earned it, and Chris Pronger is making a good case for himself.)  It's especially tough when that team is led to the Cup by the #210 overall pick in the 1999 draft (Zetterberg), and then #171 overall pick in the 1998 draft (Datsyuk).  As good as the Wings are as an organization, that was luck.  Luck can be imitated but never duplicated.  I suspect that the Oilers' penchant for drafting obscure Europeans way off the board comes from a desire to imitate Detroit.  What the Oilers got wrong is in wasting quality picks on guys high on potential and short on ability.  Those get taken in later rounds.

Of course, Detroit beat the Penguins that year.  And something funny happened.  The hockey world at large started noticing that Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin weren't exceptions.

Let me go back to the 1990s for a second.  Look at those drafts on Wikipedia or hockeydb.  Those drafts look so brutal compared to the 80s and especially the mid-2000s onward.  I am certain this has to do with the change in the game at the time.  With big, hulking brutes dominating play, only big, hulking brutes could compete.  This doesn't mean just the Hatchers, Lindroses, and Leclairs, but big, grown men.  Not boys.  6'3 or not, if you came out of the OHL straight to the big show, you'd be lucky to weigh 190lbs soaking wet.  All your speed and agility wouldn't matter a whit with Derian Hatcher or Luke Richardson hooking a ride (literally) and then driving you through the boards into the third row seats.  It was a game where you dumped the puck in, you lumbered after the defencemen as they slogged their way across the ice, you pounded them and they pounded you in the corners, and another forward was fighting the other defenceman in front of the net.  They'd go hammer and tongs at each other until the puck was cleared, in the net, or the whistle blew.

Not much room for the Taylor Halls and Steven Stamkoses of the world in that scenario, much less the Patrick Kanes and Sidney Crosbies.  If you were small, fast and skilled, you had to be phenomenally good at making plays in order to offset yourself as a liability along the boards or in front of the net.  It makes me wonder what kind of career Danny Briere could have had if he was drafted in '06 instead of '96.  Pat LaFontaine always comes to mind for some reason.

With the rule changes, however, it was becoming apparent that skilled draft picks could get by on skill alone.  First Crosby and Ovechkin, then a year later Malkin (he spent an extra year in Russia), followed by Toews, Kessel, Kane, and Backstrom.  That was followed by Stamkos and Doughty, and the year after Tavares and Hedman.  Since the lockout, kids have been making an impact in a way not seen since the early 80s.  If they didn't dominate in their first year, they often have in their second (Tavares having the roughest time, possibly because of foot speed, possibly because he's alone on the ice.)  Certainly Taylor Hall looks like a potential world-beater.

Is it a consequence of an incredible run of luck in prospects?  Or is it more an effect of the rule changes that favor speed and skill over sheer goon power?

Other Teams: Burke

Brian Burke and star acquisition Phil Kessel in happier times

I might be the only Brian Burke fan in Edmonton, certainly the only Oilers fan I know of who likes Burke, a strange state of affairs I'll explain at a later date.  The many Leafs ex-pats in Edmonton likely feel the same way as Toronto residents do - they wish he'd followed the Chicago Way.  The Chicago Way being trendy this year (at least until Philly wins the Cup), this is a tough criticism to fight against, given that the Leafs traded two first-round picks for Phil Kessel.  Of course, last year's turned out to be second overall and  given the Leafs' travails this year, it's possible that the Boston Bruins will be drafting in the top 5 and are almost guaranteed to be top 10.  First overall, barring an unlikely lottery win, is not in the cards.  Currently the Leafs sit 13th in the East and 27th overall, though improvement for this team seems possible.

For the rest of this post, I'll do like I did yesterday: I'll set aside my fan-induced dislike of the Leafs and judge them, Burke, and Ron Wilson as impartially as I can.

The Kessel trade defines the Leafs now and will continue to define them for the next decade.  In Brian's own words, in September of 2009 when he pulled the trigger, "It's a very high price but it's one we feel makes sense for us [...]"  He knew it was a gamble.  Draft picks and prospects and even legitimate NHLers always are (chemistry, injuries, coach and system, etc.)

Kessel came highly touted in the 2006 draft, as a natural goal scorer who scores like a small player but has the size and strength of an average NHLer.  He showed flashes of that in his first two seasons, putting up 11 goals and 18 assists (-12) in '06-'07, then followed that up with 19 goals and 18 helpers (with a -6).  It's only in '08-'09 that he took off, smashing the 30-goal barrier decisively with a 36 goal, 24 assist campaign and ending the season with a very respectable +23.  He made only 232 shots that year, which gave him a 15.5% shooting percentage that is good but not an outlier for star players.  For comparison, Jonathan Toews is having a fairly average season for him this year and is banging home 13.4% of his shots.

At the time of the trade, Phil was only 21 years old and already a 36-goal scorer.  The Bruins could not sign him for what Phil wanted while remaining under the cap.  The 5-year, $27m contract that Kessel got from the Leafs is fair market value for a UFA with those stats, probably an overpayment for an RFA if other teams weren't going to sign him.  Since the Kevin Lowe offer to Thomas Vanek a few years ago, however, RFAs have lost their "untouchable" status, especially star prospects.  With the contracts Kessel would be getting as offers, the Bruins could have been getting 4 1st round picks as compensation.  Two first-rounders was a fair gamble.  It's obvious that Burke expected his team to be better, and given Philly's success in partially rebuilding through free agency, and Burke's own success in Anaheim (completely changing the squad that lost in the 2003 Cup Finals), it's not unreasonable to think he could do it again.  Kessel was a worthy gamble.  The Leafs arguably lost the bet but that remains to be seen - all sorts things can happen in the future.  Even if Seguin pans out, Kessel isn't bad compensation.

This brings us to the rest of the Leafs: this is a completely different squad than that under Cliff Fletcher.  They're younger, faster, and very soon will be better.  I dare say the Leafs are, for the moment, a better team than most of the non-playoff Eastern competition - except in goal, and except down the middle.  Of all the teams in the league, nobody is weaker down the middle than the Leafs are.  After Grabovski, there's this big, yawning chasm the size of the Grand Canyon, and then in the second line role is Tyler Bozak.  The 24-year-old is almost a rookie, having played only 37 games last year and 33 this year.  He may very well develop into something much more, but for now he's playing big minutes without big experience.

The other hole the Leafs have is puck-moving defencemen.  Despite having gotten the better of Calgary in the Phaneuf trade, Toronto is coming to realize Dion's limitations.  He may have size, strength, hitting power, shooting and good (but not great) passing, Dion has the same weakness he's had for years: positioning.  I'm obviously not a scout, heck, I'm not even a Pee-Wee coach, but this has been the knock on Phaneuf since day 1 and continues to be.  Given that Calgary felt OK in dealing the younger Phaneuf rather than the older Iginla, and that Phaneuf has dropped off the media's radar after 3-4 years as "the next Stevens", I feel justified in posting this.  He doesn't read defensive plays very well.  At age 25, Phaneuf is still learning defence but he's getting to that age, especially since he started young and has a lot of experience, where people worry if he's ever going to "get it". Phaneuf isn't horrible defensively, but not the elite, all-around defensive stalwart he's paid to be; the Chris Pronger, who Kevin Lowe famously remarked about, "when he's on the ice, you feel as if nothing can go wrong."  Of course, with many players, the light bulb often just suddenly turns on - one month they're the same-old same-old, the next they're the player they were projected to be.  As Dion ages, feels the pressure of being captain, and realizes what it takes to win, this may very well happen.

Despite their awful position right now and the pain of seeing the #1B draft choice in Boston, knowing that another high pick is going there, the Leafs are in good position.  They're young, they're tough, they're fairly quick.  The talent level and potential aren't as good as the Oilers, but their defencemen are better at actual defence (Toronto has no Whitney, but they have a lot of Smids.)  They have a lot of cap space and no players on entry-level contracts who are going to get big raises three years from now, unlike the Oilers.

Brian's real talent is in bringing quality free agents.  Like Paul Holmgren, he has a knack for signing the right guys for cheap.  Clarke MacArthur is this year's best example, and despite poor numbers, Colby Armstrong makes the Leafs a markedly better and tougher team when he's on the ice.

A solid goaltender will put them just behind the playoff race.  A puck-moving defenceman should get them possibly into the playoffs.  A second-line centre (nobody's going to trade a first-line centre away) will give them a real future.

I suspect it's a lot easier to be optimistic, or at least realistic about the Leafs when you don't have 43 years of frustration behind you and twenty media outlets focusing on every foible.  If Leafs fans could take a deep breath, and look on their team with my eyes, they'll see that the promise of a proper rebuild wasn't wasted.  It might have hit a hiccup with Kessel/Seguin and not gone the Chicago/Pittsburgh/Washington way, but we should see more out of them next season and potentially after this trade deadline.

Just for fun, let's compare goalies:

J.S. Giguere: 2.80 GAA, .894 SP.

J. Gustavsson: 3.10 GAA, .894 SP.

N. Khabibulion: 3.40 GAA, .899 SP.

D. Dubnyk: 3.07 GAA, .915 SP.

Khabi was our man in net when the Oilers were blown out during Nightmare November, and very few of those were his fault, as Tyler Dellow of MC79 details so accurately (for the 8-2 Rangers shellacking, at least).