Panic at the Disco

Last night goalie Devan Dubnyk allowed another 5 goals on the way to the teams second loss in as many games. Dubey’s stats line now looks like this 6.52 GAA, .831 SV%. Those are terrible numbers for a number 3 goalie let alone a number 1. But can you blame Dubey for most of these goals? No I don’t think so.

There are other stats that show signs on how the blame cannot all be placed on Dubnyk. The defense was horrendous allowing 44 shots on goal, 22 in the first period alone. Now I’m not talking about just the defense alone, this was a team thing. No one on the Oilers looked motivated to play until the third period, it was a lackluster effort all around. Dallas Eakins in his presser said that he pulled Dubnyk after 31 shots because he felt bad for him, even comparing him to the goalie from Slapshot “Ma hallergies are to the fans”.

Eakins Press Conference October 5 2013

There were some bright spots to last night’s game, 1 or 2. Justin Schultz was all over the ice last night offensively, ringing one shot off the post and another one off the cross bar. I’m still not convinced the shot off of Luongo’s shoulder than cross bar didn’t actually go in the net. Winger Nail Yakupov looked good last night, he was engaged physically all night, and if it wasn’t for just whiffing on a few shots he could have had a goal or two.

Listen all in all there have been highs and lows for the first 2 games, just like there will be the rest of the season. I’m not going to write this team off or Dubnyk off yet either. Fans are frustrated and rightfully so, it’s been seven years out of the playoffs and the impatience of the fan base is growing. Let’s regroup and get ready for Monday Fans.

Oilers Rig Week In Review

This was another big week for www.theoilersrig.com; we added another contributor with Jackie Dawson coming on board. Jackie wrote a great piece on Friday about the over reaction of fans and it is just as relevant today as it was before last night’s game, if you missed it have a read here.

Another still relavant piece was posted by Jeremy Thompson about Devan Dubnyk’s performance thus far, it was a wildly popular and provocative article! Check it out here.

We also found out the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be returning to the line up tomorrow night against the Devils and Alex Thomas give us his thoughts here.

Jeremy Wright, or as I like to call him, J-Dubs brings us the first of a series Lost in the Shuffle. In the first installment he takes a look at defenseman Jeff Petry.

I also wrote a blog about the idea of Taylor Hall Staying at center all season and what that might look like. I’m may be ready to retract my statements on the idea after last night, but I think it is still something worth considering and want to know what your thoughts are on it, you can read that here.

Look for the next installment of Oilers Rig Radio this Tuesday at 7:30 MST, I’m sure there is going to be much to talk about!

I’ll leave you with this song by Panic at the Disco, it’s only relevant because article title bears the same name as the band, and I like this song.

Thanks for Reading