Eberle/Horcoff/Omark Show / Beers and Jeers Edmonton Oilers Game Recap

BEERS & JEERS GAME RECAP

Welcome to another fine Edmonton Oilers Beers & Jeers Game Recap.

-------------------------------------

FINAL SCORE

EDMONTON OILERS - 8

VANCOUVER CANUCKS - 2

-------------------------------------

TONIGHT'S STARTING LINES

Taylor Hall (4) - Shawn Horcoff (10) - Jordan Eberle (14)
Dustin Penner (27) - Gilbert Brule (67) - Linus Omark (23)
Alexandre Giroux (12) - Jared Aulin (47) - Ben Ondrus (25)
Teemu Hartikainen (56) - Chris Vande Velde (54) - Zack Stortini (46)

Ryan Whitney (6) - Jeff Petry (58)
Jim Vandermeer (2) - Theo Peckham (49)
Jason Strudwick (43) - Johan Motin (39)

Nikolai Khabibulin (35)
Martin Gerber (29)

-------------------------------------

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS



-------------------------------------

BEERS & JEERS PLAYER GRADES

The Cult of Hockey Grading System:
10 perfect game,  9 extraordinary,  8 great,  7 good,  6 above average,
5 average,  4 below average,  3 poor,  2 terrible,  1 deserves to be in minors.

#2 JAMES VANDERMEER - (7) What he lacks in offensive skill, he makes up for it in effort. Seeing him play, I'm not entirely sure why the Coyotes gave up on him like that. He was a team best +3 and had 2 assists. How much did he play? 21:22.

#4 TAYLOR HALL - (7) Hall was good but he wasn't on the Eberle level of good. Hall had 2 assists and was a +1. He has great hockey sense and he's starting to understand the NHL level. I know this is pre-season, but he's going to be OK this year. He's going to put points up. He had a great chance to score but just missed. I can't wait to see him score in the regular season.

#5 LADISLAV SMID - (0) DNP

#6 RYAN WHITNEY - (7) Again another solid performance. Whitney is, and will be the best Oilers defenceman this year. He just doesn't do anything wrong. As much as I miss Lubo, Whitney is a rock! Oh.. he also had a team high 3 blocked shots.

#10 SHAWN HORCOFF - (8) BEERS Horcoff had a good game. He had 2 goals and an assist for a 3 point night. His downfall? 29% on the faceoff dot. Horcoff would have received a 9 if he wasn't so crappy on faceoffs.

#12 ALEXANDRE GIROUX - (5) He played 11:24 and really didn't do anything special. He had 2 hits and 2 shots and if this was his last "look", I assume he goes to OKC relatively soon.

#13 ANDREW COGLIANO - (0) DNP

#14 JORDAN EBERLE - (9) BEERS What can I say about this kid? How about "HOLY FREAKING AWESOME!". He scored 2 minutes into the game and never looked back. He fed off of Horcoff and played a near perfect game. He only played 14:21 but scored 2 goals and had an assist for 3 points. 2 shots, 2 goals. Not bad for a rookie. I sure hope Eberle and the rest of these kids can do this in regular season.

#16 COLIN FRASER - (0) DNP

#20 BRAD MORAN - (0) DNP

#22 JF JACQUES - (0) Injured

#23 LINUS OMARK - (9) BEERS WOW! Finally the real Omark stands up. No more playing with the pluggers (no offense to the pluggers), Omark has his own coming out party. His slick and sick youtube moves came to life tonight. He made a 4 player deke into a goal. Crazy, crazy stuff. If the Oilers do keep Omark, he needs top 6 minutes or he's just not effective. Look at last game and today. Big difference.

#25 BEN ONDRUS - (6) He's going to be a good player for the Barons. He played well tonight and I would suspect that this was the end of the road.

#26 KURTIS FOSTER - (0) DNP

#27 DUSTIN PENNER - (7) Faster than last year, by a long shot. Penner had good chemistry with Omark and Brule and he scored twice to show he's still got it. While it wasn't his usual power forward game, he was very effective.

#28 RYAN JONES - (0) Injured

#29 MARTIN GERBER - (0) DNP He was dressed but never went in.

#33 STEVE MACINTYRE - (0) DNP

#35 NIKOLAI KHABIBULIN - (6) He played OK. He didn't face a lot of shots or tough one for that matter. This was a good game for him to play in. He got a win and some game action. He will need some more games before I get comfortable with him in net. For what it's worth, he didn't look distressed or in pain, so at least the injury might be OK now.

#36 GREGORY STEWART (0) - DNP

#37 RICHARD PETIOT - (0) DNP

#38 JEFF DESLAURIERS - (0) DNP

#39 JOHAN MOTIN - (5) Motin will be a good guy in OKC. I like his style but he's not quite NHL ready yet. While he didn't look out of place, he wasn't commanding the ice. He did earn an assist on the Omark goal in the 3rd. His bad part of his game tonight? 3 giveaways. Tied for a team high.

#40 DEVAN DUBNYK - (0) DNP

#41 TAYLOR CHORNEY - (0) DNP

#42 RYAN O'MARRA - (0) DNP

#43 JASON STRUDWICK - (6) Strudwick was Strudwick. Same old, same old. But a little above average.

#45 SHAWN BELLE - (0) DNP

#46 ZACK STORTINI - (6) AWESOME! His fight that is. He went toe to toe with Darcy Hordichuk and it was one hell of a fight. Storts was bleeding like a stuck pig after that fight and definitely looked the worst. He had PP time and some PK time. Stortini is expected to take a more improved role with the club. I think he's going towards that.

#47 JARED AULIN - (5) He was OK. Nothing great. I watched him close because I wanted to see him and how he plays. He seems like a decent two way player. No real complaints. His main niche is his faceoffs. He went 9 wins 6 losses for a 60% percentage. I would think the Barons sign him. Worth it on the faceoffs alone.

#48 ALEX PLANTE - (0) DNP

#49 THEO PECKHAM - (7) Solid game. He didn't take any stupid penalties and played well. Peckham is making it hard for the Oilers to decide. How do you not keep him? He played 21:31 and had a team high 5 hits. The Oilers need more guys like Peckham.

#54 CHRIS VANDE VELDE - (6) While I did like him -- before and after his goal -- he didn't stand out from the other Canucks players. He and Hartikainen played well together and if I was a betting man, I'd play them together with the Barons.

#56 TEEMU HARTKAINEN - (6) Same as Vande Velde. Decent job tonight, just won't make the team this year. He will have a good season in OKC and will grow to be a great player down the road for the Oilers.

#57 COLIN MACDONALD - (0) DNP

#58 JEFF PETRY - (6) A young Tom Gilbert. Petry played well and didn't really screw up too bad, but he didn't make an impact in the game. His assist on the Vande Velde goal was the result of some good passing. Petry will shut down guys all year on OKC.

#67 GILBERT BRULE - (7) While I was a fan of Brule tonight, I wasn't a big fan of the 3 giveaways, I was a fan of the 3 hits and the 67% face off percentage. I was also a fan of the two assists. Brule pays a wild style so sometimes giveaways occur. You can tell he loves playing with Penner.

#68 TYLER PITLICK - (0) Sent back to Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL).

#77 TOM GILBERT - (0) DNP

#81 JAKE TAYLOR - (0) DNP

#83 ALES HEMSKY - (0) DNP

#85 LIAM REDDOX - (0) DNP

#89 SAM GAGNER - (0) DNP

#91 MAGNUS PAAJARVI - (0) DNP

-------------------------------------

EVENT SUMMARY

GAME SUMMARY

-------------------------------------

BAD TIMING PENALTY (what is a Bad Timing Penalty?)

None -
-------------------------------------

POST GAME VIDEO



-------------------------------------

CLICK HERE TO VIEW TWEETCAST

Thank you for reading OilersJambalaya.com and OilFieldHockey.com. We are changing the way you look at the Edmonton Oilers. One reader at a time.

Cult Of Hockey - Edmonton Journal

-Written by Smokin' Ray-