The Copper & Blue

Book giveaway - Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems

2010-03-20T23:20:13Z

As promised during our recent review of Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems and our subsequent interview with the poet, Randall Maggs, we at the Copper & Blue continue our fight against illiteracy by sponsoring a book giveaway contest. A lucky reader will receive a signed copy of Night Work, accompanied by related swag including a book mark, post card, and hockey card. It's a real cool package, courtesy our friends at Brick Books.

To enter the contest simply send me an email with your name (and screen name, if different) and an answer to this skill-testing question: What is the name of "the man who scored on Terry Sawchuk" during his tour of Newfoundland with the Boston Bruins in 1956?

Sounds obscure, I know, but the answer (first name only) is contained in the above book short, a brilliant short film adapatation of a Sawchuk Poem. Well worth your five minutes to watch, whether you enter the contest or not. That poem, "String and Bones", can be read after the jump (including the name of the gent in question). Randall Maggs also referred to this fellow in the interview the other day; it's clear from the number of eye-witness interviews cited in the first part of the poem and the one with the man himself in the second part, that the author went to considerable trouble - not to mention all the way to Lewisporte! - to track down this story. It's a beauty.

Here is my email address Send Mail If you have trouble with the link, please leave a note in the comments. Entries close at 23:59 MDT Monday March 22; if I have my act together, I'll get the winner's book personalized by the author when I meet him at the reading at Audrey's Books on Tuesday.

Good luck!

String and Bones

(i) was

"Part of the show, hey? We all get a penalty shot
to try to close the gap? But you know how nervous you'd be,
going one-on-one against the greatest ever."

"Oh, Gerald. Well, he'd be the man to put one in."

"My son, I won't forget it. Falling down he whacks a bullet
right at Sawchuk's head. He had to be quick."

"What went on in Gerald's head? Well, who might help you
there I couldn't say. What went through mine was everyone I knew
in the world was there, including a girl from Curling
I was moony over then."

"Just a shot, you know, nothing special. I'd say
Sawchuk let it in on purpose."

"That was my own bad luck I get the middle shift
at the mill that week so never saw either game, but Gerald
had a good job with the railroad and one of the Bruins didn't make
the train, I wouldn't like to say his name, but Gerald arranged
a place that night on a pulp and paper train,
something not just anyone could do."

"Oh yes, he had his well-known temper.
Once in Detroit he whipped a skate at some reporter's head,
another time he goes right up over the screen to get at some fan.
Imagine that in all its glory coming at you."

"A fluke is what I'd have to say. Why Terry took such exception,
I wouldn't know who you could find to tell you now."

"Went after him? I don't remember that.
But Gerald, he wasn't nothing then but string and bones."

(ii) isn't

"So you're the man who scored on Terry Sawchuk."

I find him in Lewisporte, living in the cottages.
I take a table in small cafe where I can see the water.
"Oh he'll talk to you about hockey," the waitress brings
me bad coffee, "just give him half an opening."
Waiting, I glance at some notes I made that morning
on the pier, things I wanted to know. I thought of how warm
it was out on the water where I'd talked with a man and his son
on their boat about the way the fish were.

Larger than I'd expected, he arrives in a pickup,
red or maybe it was blue, looking a little at bay. He settles
his eyes on me, the only customer. I hadn't planned to say what
I said as he stood in the door. I see his eyes well up.

"Greatest moment of my life," he says.

None of this is on the tape, which begins with a clatter
of spoons and the waitress on the phone. "Half the town
was there, my son. Don't be getting on about it
being my imagination." She lays the telephone down
to fill our cups, eyeing Gerald as he checks the sugar top
for local jokers. She looks at me as if we were hopeless,
cut from the same cloth as whoever was waiting
to finish defending himself. She sighs and goes back
to her cigarette and the phone.

He pulls his coffee closer and begins. Yes the train.
And yes the game. Staring down into the cup he holds
in both hands. "Maybe he did come after me,
but he was only kidding. Yes, he did say
something. Just like it was yesterday."

Long silence, looking out over the water,
then he turns to me. "He said, 'How come a guy with the shot
you got isn't up with us in the NHL?' "

The Falcons' Eagle: Jordan Eberle's Ten AHL Games

2010-03-20T17:30:13Z

More photos » Jimmy Jeong - AP

6 months ago: Edmonton Oilers center Jordan Eberle (14) checks New York Islanders left wing Jesse Joensuu (58) during the third period of an NHL hockey gane in Edmonton, Alberta, on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. Edmonton beat New York 3-2. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jimmy Jeong)

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To the lay Oilers fan, Jordan Eberle is the great hope. Renowned for his clutch goals in the World Junior Championships and his exceptional senior season in the Western Hockey League, Eberle is probably Edmonton's greatest "love him or hate him" prospect since Rob Schremp. His detractors have plenty to point at: his mediocre speed, his uninspiring WHL totals before this year, and of course the condemnation of the World Junior Championships as a small sample size and the concept of "clutchness" as a chimera with no place in the modern game.

Evaluating junior prospects can always be difficult. While Eberle's numbers are far short of those of a Sam Gagner, his Regina Pats were also far worse than the teams most blue chip prospects enjoy. Context is everything, and with no known quantities to compare him to we are left to history on one hand and the orgasmic moments he gifts us with during his rare televised appearances on the other. It's sometimes not until a prospect turns professional and plays with and against men of certain ability that we can start to properly evaluate a prospect.

Jordan Eberle may just be one of these. Last season, after the Regina Pats were eliminated from the playoffs, an 18-year-old Eberle played his first games in the American Hockey League with the dreary Springfield Falcons, appearing in a total of nine contests. This year, the Pats have once again fallen out of the playoff picture and Eberle has gotten into one game so far. It is a small sample size, but it is also a teenager leaping straight from junior into second-tier professional hockey without so much as a training camp to find his sea legs.

An examination of each of those ten games follows after the jump.

Jordan Eberle made his American Hockey League debut March 27, 2009 when the Falcons took on the Worcester Ice Cats. He was certainly given an opportunity, thrown onto a line with current NHLers Ryan Potulny and Ryan Stone. Other familiar NHL names in the lineup for the Falcons that night included Devan Dubnyk, Taylor Chorney, Mathieu Roy, and of course Rob Schremp. With all those names it's easy to forget how dreadful the Falcons were, and they were pretty dreadful in Eberle's first game. Worcester outshot them 35 - 27 and Thomas Greiss outduelled Dubnyk for a 3-2 win. Eberle emerged with credit, picking up an assist on Potulny's 31st goal, a +1, and three shots. Those three shots were tied for third on the team with (of all people) Guillaume Lefebvre and behind Mathieu Roy and Ryan O'Marra. It was a weird night.

A day later, with Dany Sabourin in goal, the Falcons travelled to Albany to play the River Rats. Those unfamiliar with the AHL's schedule should be told there's nothing terribly unusual in that, and even three nights in a row in the low minors aren't particularly odd. Sabourin put on a bloody clinic, though, and in spite of 39 Albany shots the Falcons emerged with a 3-1 victory. One-time Carolina Hurricane Shane Willis scored for Springfield, as did Stone and that man Potulny again.

Eberle did one thing that we would grow used to, and two things that we wouldn't. He assisted Potulny's goal, meaning he was on two points in two games, and he would make a habit of that. He was also +2, which he wouldn't make a habit of at all, and for so far the only time in his professional career he did not record a shot on goal.

The next day (see? I told you games three nights in a row wasn't unusual!), the Falcons went back home for a visit from Portland. Springfield, for once, outshot their opponents 36-26 but Dubnyk was bad and Jonas Enroth wasn't as Portland built a 3-0 lead in the first period. Eberle was caught on the ice for one of those goals but got his revenge in the second, scoring his first professional goal at 16:15 with assists from Stone and Potulny to tie the game 3-3. Unfortunately, Eberle was caught again in the third, and Tyler Kennedy's 16th of the season against Eberle's line gave Portland the win and Eberle a -1 in spite of the goal.

Games on April 1 against Worcester and April 3 at Michigan were clearcut failures for Eberle. He went -1 both games and recorded a total of four shots but no points. Springfield lost both and the entire Potulny - Stone - Eberle line was quiet, with only a Potulny powerplay goal against Worcester (where he played with Rob Schremp on the man advantage, not Eberle) to show.

Potulny and Eberle were finally united as a powerplay tandem April 4 at the home of the Lowell Devils. Potulny scored again at even strength mid-change with both Eberle and Stone not yet on the ice, and the Eberle - Potulny tandem finally hooked up for the first time in the three games in the third period, Potulny setting up Eberle for a powerplay goal. But their line had been scalped by Barry Tallackson and Nicklas Bergfors at even strength, so even with the goal and an eventual 4-3 victory thanks to a late Charles Linglet winner Eberle was -2.

April 5, in Portland, was more of the same. This time Eberle was more of a setup specialist, taking advantage of a real firewagon game to set up Potulny's 35th on the powerplay early in the first period and Bryan Young's third at even strength midway through the second. Eberle was the first assist on both and picked up three shots for his trouble. But he was also -1: after Young's goal Eberle and Potulny were twice victimized by Mathieu Darche, once shorthanded with Rob Schremp as their wingman and once by an empty-netter with Schremp as the extra attacker as well as their usual centre Stone. Portland emerged with a 6-4 victory and Darche was first star.

Seven games in, a few things were apparent. First, Eberle was damned lucky to be playing with Ryan Potulny. Second, Eberle was making Potulny better as much as Potulny was helping Eberle. Eberle had two goals and four assists in those seven games, and all four assists had been first assists. Offensively, Stone was effectively a non-factor aside from a second assist here and there but Potulny had seriously picked up the pace when he had Eberle on his opposite wing. Finally, despite those six points Eberle was -3. He was never billed as a defensive stalwart and he was being burned by near-NHL players like Bergfors and Darche rather than bums, but he was still being burned. How much of this was due to the ineptitude of the Falcons and how much of this was due to Eberle is beyond this commentator's ability to assess.

Eberle and the Falcons enjoyed a long rest before taking on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers away on April 10. It was Eberle's first game at even or better since his second way back on March 28, as he picked up his first ever second assist on Potulny's 36th goal to make up for being caught out for a Junior Lessard goal late in a shift when Potulny had already got off.

His final game of the season took place the next night, April 11, in Hartford to take on the Wolfpack. Hartford had a 2-0 lead five minutes in thanks to AHL snipers Patrick Rissmiller and Artem Anisimov - Eberle was on the ice for Anisimov's 37th goal of the season. Eberle picked up a measure of revenge on the power play, setting up Ryan Stone for his first power play marker since Eberle had joined the Falcons to make it 2-1. Dan Urquhart scored for Hartford but again Springfield's special teams pulled them back into the game: first, Potulny scored his 38th on the powerplay with Eberle on the ice but uninvolved in the play, and finally Potulny returned a favour to Eberle, setting up the 18-year-old for a powerplay goal of his own. From there, things got out of hand and the Falcons wound up losing 5-3, all three Springfield goals coming on the man advantage, but Eberle had made his mark. -2, sure, thanks to a Greg Moore empty-netter, but a goal, an assist, and third star from the apparently impressed Hartford press box. Rob Schremp, to pick a name, despite playing a game tailored to his strength on the powerplay was pointless and -2.

That closed the book on Eberle's first taste of professional hockey. Nine games, three goals, six assists, nine points. In those nine games, Potulny had upped his production to eight goals and five assists to lead the Falcons. Of course Eberle had been playing with the best line the Falcons could provide him, but he'd played a major role in making that line as good as it was. Potulny's time with Eberle alone was more productive than any single month of his season. But he'd also been primarly victimized by a rogue's gallery of near-NHLers, 20 and 30-goal scorers. He'd endured two minuses thanks to empty-net goals but had not seen a single empty-netter go his way. The Falcons certainly hadn't gotten worse defensively while he'd been there; they'd always been pretty awful. As many extenuating circumstances as possible were on Eberle's side.

Eberle made his return to the Falcons last night in Wilkes-Barre to take on the minor Penguins. The Falcons are dead last in the American Hockey League at present and played like it. Well, mostly played like it. Eberle's linemates had deteriorated from Potulny and Stone to Chad Wiseman and Charles Linglet but it was still the best the Falcons had to offer and he got started right where he left off, scoring on his first shift and his first shot and then, at 6:19 of the first period, getting the first assist on a Colin Fretter powerplay goal.

Eberle also suffered his inevitable EV-, this time when Konstantin Pushkarev scored his eighth of the year. The Falcons stormed out to a 4-1 lead but collapsed as the Penguins bombarded Jean-Philippe Levasseur with rubber: the shots wound up 55-26. But although the Falcons surrendered the three goal lead Levasseur held on into overtime, where Deryk Engelland scored for Wilkes-Barre with Wiseman and Fretter but no Eberle out, and the game was over.

But a goal, an assist, and even on his first game back. That's a pretty good pace, wouldn't you agree?

An interview with Randall Maggs, the Sawchuk Poet

2010-03-19T19:45:09Z

Randall Maggs, author of "Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems". (Photo courtesy Brick Books)

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The unincorporated village of Floral, Saskatchewan, has a fame in the hockey world wholly incommensurate with its tiny size. It is of course the birthplace of Gordie Howe, greatest player of his day - "day" being loosely defined as a third of a century! - and honoured member of the Extremely Short List of Greatest Hockeyists of All Time.

Floral now has a second claim to fame. Simply by being in its place at the right time, it inspired one of the greatest hockey books it has been my pleasure to read. In the mid-90s Newfoundland-based poet Randall Maggs was conducting a book tour through western Canada which took him on the road to Floral. (Or should I say, the road through Floral.) Just seeing the name "Floral, Saskatchewan" on its best-known building, a grain elevator older than Gordie Howe himself, transported Randy to a different time and place, a time when hockey was central to his life. The seed that was planted that day took some time to sprout, but eventually flowered into a magnificent book, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.

As the title implies, the subject of Night Work is not Gordie Howe himself but his Detroit Red Wings teammate, Terry Sawchuk, the talented, troubled 'tender who is still ranked by many as the greatest goalie of all time. Undeniably he was at the forefront of his own time, the so-called Golden Era of Goatending (roughly, 1950-67), emerging from that era with NHL records for games played, wins, and shutouts that each stood for decades. Renowned for both his brilliance and his darkness, "Ukey" would become the perfect subject for an in-depth character study that was as long in the making as his records were in the breaking.

While Terry Sawchuk dominated the NHL in the early 1950s, Randy Maggs and his brother Darryl were growing up with their own dreams of hockey fame in Sawchuk's home city of Winnipeg, skating on the same rinks that "Ukey" had skated (scraped?) on. Darryl would go on to play in the NHL, while Randy wound up in the Hockey Hall of Fame! That was the setting when Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems was launched two years ago, there with the plaques of Sawchuk, Howe, and countless other greats of the age whom the Sawchuk poems recognize and remember with honesty and dignity. There with the greatest prize they had all dreamed of and battled for, the Stanley Cup.

I have personally installed Night Work on my nightside table on the "to-be-reread" pile with Peter Gzowski's The Game of Our Lives, Scott Young's The Leafs I Knew, Ken Dryden's The Game, and Andrew Podnieks' Portraits Of The Game: Classic Photographs From The Turofsky Collection At The Hockey Hall Of Fame. Each is an enduring classic.

Having serendipitously initiated contact with the publisher, we at the Copper & Blue pressed our luck and requested an interview with the author. We wound up with an interview and a half! Randy responded to our questions graciously and loquaciously, his remarks as insightful as they were delightful. (Now you know why I am not a poet.) Read on following the jump for hockey-soaked reflections of the past and of today, of the game's place in society and its role in ending the Cold War, of the motivations of men who play hockey and those who write poetry.

Two of the poems mentioned in the interview, "Guys like Pete Goegan" and "Different Ways of Telling Time", can be found in this post; I couldn't resist adding a third at the very bottom, "One of You", Ken Dryden's favourite which speaks eloquently to the singular craft of goaltending.

Randall Maggs tours western Canada next week, giving readings from his award-winning book, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems in Edmonton, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Vancouver (details here). Stay tuned to the Copper & Blue for a chance to win a signed copy of the book.

Copper & Blue: Why hockey? Why poetry? Why hockey poetry?

Randall Maggs: Why hockey--why not? When I think back to my childhood and youth, I think about winters mainly and being at the rinks from morning until night. In the writing of this book, though I was not consciously dealing with this at the time, I was looking at landscape and climate and how they shaped our natures, our lives and values. The book has a strong cultural focus obviously though that kind of emerged unconsciously. When you look at the subject matter of the poems, other than the 1967 section, there’s not much that deals with game action. I’m looking at the people and the age as much as anything really and the game provides a pretty good way of getting at these. When you think about games and their reflection of cultural values, this is probably not surprising.

Hockey is a marvel really. Anyone who watched that last game when Canada and the US battled it out for 67 minutes knows this. That’s probably the game of my lifetime, the dramatic way it worked out, the fact that the Olympics were in Canada, Vancouver my hometown, Canucks my team, Luongo’s past difficulties, etc. A great moment for me in these Olympics. . . when Luongo and Demitra paused with each other in the handshaking at the end--Demitra having missed that open net at in the last minute of the Canada-Slovak game-- and that big delighted sympathetic grin on Luongo’s face.

My own strong belief is that hockey played an important part in helping to end the Cold War. People stopped paying attention to the government bullshit. The Russian people came to know Orr and Gretzky. We came to know Tretiak and Kharlamov and were saddened at Kharlamov’s death in a car accident. We didn’t want to fight the Russians, other than on the ice. There will always be people who don’t care about sport, fair enough. But there’s so much they don’t see. And so much they miss.

When I began working hockey into my writing, I was a long way from thinking about a book of poems about Terry Sawchuk. "The Season of Wayward Thinking," the oldest poem in the book, has nothing to do with Sawchuk and little to do with hockey really. The game provided me with a metaphor to explore the difference between Western Canada, the world that I'd grown up in and Newfoundland, the world that I was living in at the time.

What seems to have caught the interest of the media with this book was the mix of hockey and poetry. To a lot of people they seemed incompatible. These are just two aspects of life that have given me great pleasure. In my view, you can write poetry about any subject, plums in the fridge, a wagon out on the lawn, if you find the right way to do it. I don't think I could write a good poem myself about goal scorers (though I know one young poet who certainly can); my interest was in defenders. I find defenders more interesting psychologically, more subtle and complex, more aware of themselves. I know there were people who had little interest in the poetry in Night Work because the subject was hockey, and others who were sports-minded but had little interest in the hockey because it was dealt with in a book of poems. I've been up against that kind of thing all my life. Seemed I had my arts friends and my athletic friends, for the most part, two different crowds. Sad, really.

The day before the launch at the Hockey Hall of Fame, I was interviewed on both Prime Time Sports and Classical FM 96.3. I got a kick out of that. And I did discover there were a lot of readers who did enjoy both poetry and hockey, or were sufficiently open-minded to give the book a chance. That was really uplifting. By far, the best part of my experience with this book has been meeting so many people who appeared willing to venture into unfamiliar territory. One woman who invited me to read in Nanaimo had to ask her husband what the blue line was. She enjoyed the book primarily for its poetry but, in the process of her reading, became interested in the game as well. One male on-line reviewer of hockey books mentioned that, because he knew nothing about poetry, he kept the book by his bedside and managed only to read a poem or two a night. But still, for him, it was the "hockey book of the year."

Copper & Blue: Why Terry Sawchuk?

Randall Maggs: I played my minor hockey in Winnipeg, where he grew up and played himself. My Silver Heights team played Elmwood and East Kildonan, his former teams, on the the same North End rinks as he'd once played on. When I was playing midget and juvenile in Winnipeg, he was having those first five great years in Detroit. With Gordie and Delvecchio, Kelly, Lindsay and Pronovost. Terry had been the one player more than any other who had fascinated me. There were plenty of players in the old NHL from Winnipeg but there was something always special about him. I'd always liked goalies. I liked the gear. Sawchuk--that name just had all the magic of the game in it. In my head I could hear it spoken by Danny Gallivan. Foster Hewitt as well. And both of them speaking with a kind of wonder and disbelief at what he could do in the Detroit net. He was a great big-game goalie and then of course there was always the irony of his living the great Canadian dream and really being miserable and something of a tragic figure almost from the beginning. Then things began to deteriorate for him and that was always a mystery to us. The trade to Boston and all the fuss over the so-called breakdown. And more and more there was the talk of how difficult he could be and how much a loner he'd become. I was never able to reconcile that with my early idea of what he was like. Finally in 1970, the terrible and never satisfactorily explained death. By then, though, expansion had arrived and I wasn't watching much. 1967 had marked the end of my watching.

In the mid-90s, a reading tour through Saskatchewan brought me back to the prairie for the first time in many years and got me thinking about my growing up in that part of the world, in places like Claresholm, Vermilion and Winnipeg. Driving into Saskatoon for a reading, we passed a small town with two elevators and not many more houses, and the name up on those elevators, Floral, really jolted me. Floral was Gordie Howe's birthplace, and everyone would have known that back in the days of the Six Team League. Suddenly I was transported back to that time and that world.

Copper & Blue: You mention many figures from the game's "dark side", for example Doug Harvey who is a frequent character in Night Work. What drew you to explore this aspect of the game, and of humanity?

Randall Maggs: As I mentioned above, it was the dark side of Sawchuk that puzzled me because that was not my earlier sense of him. I wanted to understand how that developed and that led me to looking at what it was like to play goal in his day. That’s why this book ended up being about all the great goalies of perhaps the greatest age of goaltending, Hall, Worsley, Plante, and Bower as well as Sawchuk. To a lesser extent I’m looking at all defenders, who seem to me much more complex in nature than offensive players. They have much more responsibility and a much subtler role than offensive players. Who gets the blame when the team loses? But what goalies were up against in that day was astounding. And yet they were so good that they revolutionized the game, not just goaltending but offensive play. Scorers had to develop new techniques to beat them, the slap shot and intentional deflection, for example. Defensemen became more offensive. Running the goalies became more prominent. And in that transition period, the goalies had such poor equipment and coaching.

I bring in not just Harvey but [Eric] Nesterenko because they also had battles with alcohol. Harvey didn’t fare any better than Terry with the problem but Harvey was essentially different in that he sought out friends. Remember that he left the coaching job in NY because he couldn’t get anyone to go for a drink with him. At least that’s the story. When he was working with Indianapolis he had his buddies from Newfoundland as drinking companions. That story of the sweaters he gave them is a true story. My brother was in Indianapolis at the time. The story is that Harvey did die alone. If that’s true, that makes his tragedy even greater. Nesterenko is included because of his common heritage with Terry as well as his common problem. But he seems to have found a way to deal with it. He was very receptive to my visiting him but wouldn’t talk about the game or the old days at all. I thought for a while I'd pretty much wasted my time travelling into the mountains to see him. But I realized later that he had told me much more than I realized at the time.

Copper & Blue: I saw your brother Darryl play a number of games with various WHA teams over the years. What role did Darryl play in offering insights, anecdotes, and connections?

Randall Maggs: You probably saw him play more than I did. My brother was the key to the book. I know hockey from my own years of playing the game. I'm still at it though not as quick and steady as I think I once was. What I didn't know was the professional game. That's what he was able to provide for me. My brother is quiet, very observant and in possession of a great and very dry sense of humour. He's acutely sensitive to the absurd. All of this very helpful. His mark is all over the book and he's got a copy on the bar of The Crystola roadhouse which he owns in Colorado. The poem "Guys Like Pete Goegan" comes directly from one of his stories. I also got the Harvey material from him.

He and I met up last month and drove from the Ute Pass just outside of Colorado Springs up through the mountains to Park City; my daughter Adriana had a feature film being screened at Robert Redford's Sundance Festival. A brilliant young actress from Saskatchewan in the film, Tatiana Maslavy, won the Breakout Actor Award. That was pretty special.

Copper & Blue: Many famous hockey names appear in the acknowledgements; to name but one dozen of several, Johnny Bower, Ken Dryden, Red Fisher, Emile Francis, Glenn Hall, Bobby Hull, Dick Irvin, Red Kelly, Ted Lindsay, Dickie Moore, Red Storey, Gump Worsley. Many of them make an appearance in the poems themselves. How many of those individuals did you have the opportunity to interview personally?

Randall Maggs: All of them. I talked to pretty much everyone I acknowledged in that list, either in person or on the phone. Hull was the only exception that I can think of. He and my brother were pretty good friends--that's why Darryl jumped to the WHA after an unforgettable year in Oakland with the Golden Seals. About a year or two they ran into one another in Vail and stood outside and talked for several hours. A few of the stories dealing with Hull came from that conversation as Darryl had mentioned the book to him and Bobby talked a lot about Sawchuk and especially that 67 series. As for my travels to conduct interviews, I was everywhere from Vancouver to Vail to Lewisport NL. Johnny Bower was a great help to me and I talked to him on several occasions. Ralph Backstrom helped me make contact with several people. Bill White is a good friend of my brother and very good to me as well. Dryden would give me practice passes to get into Maple Leaf Gardens and sent me to the National Research Centre where he had done his research for The Game. Dryden's favourite poem (I'm told by Leanne Ryan of CBC Gander) is "One of You." Red Storey was wonderful to me. None of the hockey people with the exception of Red Storey and maybe Bill White can tell stories like the Newfoundland guys I talked to however.

Copper & Blue: Any particularly memorable personal encounters during your research?

Randall Maggs: Lost it with Butch Bouchard, the big tough defenseman, captain of the Canadians in the early fifties who saw Sawchuk in his prime. I just became a fan. He was so impressive, so dignified and intelligent. I watched two periods of a game in the bowels of that dreadful new arena the Canadians play in now. Three stories down. The large painting of Richard with the burning eyes staring out at us from the wall was impressive though. Butch had brought a writer from La Presse along with him because he was insecure about his English. No need of it though. His English was fine. Told me among other things that Ted Lindsay once tried to get between him and the boards. "He only tried that one time," Butch said.

Talking to Glenn Hall out your way was also pretty impressive.

Copper & Blue: Your work speaks in many voices and several different poetic styles. How tricky was it to weave the many threads together into a coherent whole?

Randall Maggs: The different voices came naturally to the works as much of what wrote was based on stories and interviews. So I was hearing those voices in my head as I thought about the subject. And I thought and wrote about Terry’s story over a period of ten years so those different voices got pretty familiar. Often as in Red Storey’s case, I’d try to get behind their words so I was presenting what I thought that they were thinking as well as saying. Then the narrator plays a part in some of the poems as the circumstances of the interviews as with Bergman and Nesterenko for example seemed relevant to me. I didn’t worry too much about pulling this all together. I knew I wasn’t going to come up with any easy answer about why Terry was the way he was--there were so many factors, the game, his position, his nature, his family situation--his brother’s death, his mothers withdrawal for example--his growing up in a poor part of the city, being an immigrant in a not-very-tolerant period in this country’s history . . .

Given all these contributing factors I thought a linear and orderly structure wasn’t appropriate. Most of the poems were written as individual pieces, each dealing with a particular incident or story or idea. Sometimes one poem would open up into two or three etc. I had no structure firmly in mind, was not really troubling myself to think of this aspect of the book, as I was working when I could grab some time on the individual pieces. I was doing a lot of research as I was writing, reading and travelling and interviewing people as well as recalling my own experience and my brother's stories of his experiences. I first came up with the idea of focussing the attention on Terry's complex nature using the Red Storey pieces which centre on the question Terry once asked him and which he could understand and never forget. What I had was a mountain of information from many sources, and voices in my head that I'd been hearing over the years of my research. Getting closer to the end, I considered several different ways to organize this. Then Phil Pritchard, vice president of the Hockey Hall of Fame and my good friend after ten years of working at the Hall, gave me the police report and Terry's autopsy. The passage on the scars on his face, even more, the cold clinical language that conveyed that information, jumped out at me. I saw how I wanted to use that as a preface and then tell the human story behind that cold clinical report, but tell that story making use of all the different voices. I knew I would never have any definitive answer, didn't want one really, so I would create a kind of collage of information and let the readers take away what they would. I also began with a linear structure following the two Storey poems which make up the preface; but when I hit "A Clever Dog", the poem that looks at the upcoming meeting between Terry and Jack Adams, I break off that pattern intentionally. What appears from there on is perhaps less orderly in appearance, which reflects what happened in Terry's own life as a result of Jack Adams's handling of him. From then on there are sections more or less grouped together having little regard for any orderly historical unfolding of time.

Copper & Blue: Speaking of the Hockey Hall of Fame, what a thrill it must have been for you to launch your book in such an environment, with all the plaques and the Stanley Cup right there! It seems as though Night Work has been well-received from the beginning, and continues to be today judging by its most recent recognition earlier this month with the Kobzar Literary Award.

Randall Maggs: Thank you. Anne, my wife, and I had a great time at the Gala. For me, the experience was a kind of rediscovery of an important part of my western upbringing. I had played with and against so many Ukrainian kids, not that we thought much about that in those days. But my defence partner for several years was Paul Nedlec and the guy that always gave us fits was Peter Stemkowski, who went on to play with the Leafs and who appears as Sawchuk's one friend in his Toronto days. We had a pretty good team in Silver Heights (west end of Winnipeg), Provincial Champions one year, and always close. The president of the Shevchenko Foundation, which is based in Winnipeg, is Andrew Hladyshevsky, who is a lawyer practising in Edmonton. Great guy, still playing hockey himself. I'll be seeing him some time over my two days in the city.

The most moving thing at the Kobzar gala was the number of people who came to tell me they loved the poems most that went into Terry's mind and thoughts. That was pretty affirming considering that these were Ukrainian people telling me this. One always has doubts and fears about the validity of this kind of writing.

Copper & Blue: A key section of your book describes the Boston Bruins' tour of Newfoundland in 1956. As a native Newfoundlander I found a whole lot of value-added "down home" references in this segment and enjoyed it immensely. As a Newfoundland resident yourself, what sort of special joy did you take in researching and writing this segment?

Randall Maggs: That's the section that people seem to most enjoy right across the country. You can imagine the fun I had with it. The character who scored on Terry, "Gerald," I went looking for and found him up in the cottages in Lewisporte. That entire section is pretty historical, including Gerry Regan's participation (ex-premier of NS and scouted my brother in junior) and the Bay Roberts poem. I'm still looking for the photograph of Terry with the umbrella!

Copper & Blue: Another section of Night Work that I, childhood goalie, greatly enjoyed was the Goaltender Suite, featuring many of the game's zanier characters: Frank "Ulcers" McCool, who skated off the ice during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals for a drink of milk to settle his stomach and had to be convinced to return. Wilf Cude, who threw a gameday steak at his wife and retired in the heartbeat between it hitting the wall and the floor. Steve Buzinski "The Puck Goes Inski"; Plante and his mask, the gregarious "Gump" Worsley, Sawchuk himself. Do you agree with the old saw, "you don't have to be crazy to be a goalie, but it helps"?

Randall Maggs: Yep. I played goal one year of Pee Wee hockey. I loved the gear and I was a first baseman so I could catch the puck. But one year was enough. Goalies understand irony. What's more ironic than zero being the best you can do. What I found out, though, was that goalies (and to a lesser extent defenders generally) are more generally complex individuals than offensive players and hence more interesting as subjects for poetry (and probably art generally). Like catchers in baseball. Look at the epigraph (Torborg's line--brilliant) to the section you're referring to. ["There must be some reason we're the only ones facing the other way" -- Jeff Torborg, in Thomas Boswell's Why Time Begins on Opening Day]

Called Worsley and told him I was working on a book about goalies from his period, Sawchuk, Hall, himself, Bower and Plante. He said, "you're going to have a hell of a time talking to Plante."

Copper & Blue: When you first conceived this project, what one word first ran through your mind when you hear the name "Sawchuk"? Now that you've published the book, what word runs through your head when you hear the name?

Randall Maggs: Now I think "courage." Back then I guess I would have to say "conspiracy." I was wrong as it turns out.

Copper & Blue: I read early versions of several of the Sawchuk poems in the Spring 2005 edition of The New Quarterly: Canadian Writers & Writing, "Hockey Write in Canada" issue (Jamie Fitzpatrick, Editor). Each of the four poems changed a-little-to-a-lot over the three years before the publication of Night Work. Comparing the versions gave me a small sense of the enormous labour of love this work must have been. Noting your previous poetry work, Timely Departures, was published way back in 1994 leads me to ask how many years, how many hours, and how many rewrites went into Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems?

Randall Maggs: Labour of love, you've got that right. Enjoyed it from beginning to end. I could have gone on forever. I expect I was intending to. It was my friend and editor, Stan Dragland, who saved me. He reached a point as I was rewriting and rewriting and adding new material, wanting to fix the rhythm in this line or chop a stanza in that poem where he finally said "the book is done. Leave it alone." I guess I was getting pretty compulsive. What I was up to I'm not quite sure but there was a sense of obligation of some sort.

Copper & Blue: Of all the poems in Night Work, my personal favourite may well have been "Different Ways of Telling Time". Turned out that "last minute of play" from that suite was the poem that set the stage for not just the last section but the very last line of the whole book, an infinitely satisfying punch line that I will leave for the reader to discover. From a writer's perspective, I'm interested to know at what stage did you know you had captured the book's concluding thought, and that you were gradually working towards that specific "finish line"?

Randall Maggs: I often read "ice time" from this poem just to show how poetry can do something that fiction cannot in giving you a better concrete sense of a subject, and can generate more emotion in a reader. I often read it at the beginning of a reading if I'm feeling nervous as my own nervous energy transfers into the lines conveying Terry's own nervousness.

You did read this book carefully. I'm impressed. And a little humbled. I certainly wasn't working consciously toward that line. I was carrying the whole in my head though, all the voices and images. And that was one of the last poems I worked on. The story about the Newfoundlanders came from Darryl from his Indianapolis days (like that story about the move he put on Doug Harvey?) The line "Let the goalie go first," and the way to end the poem just came to me. I don't want to be overly mystical but it was just there. That's why I say humbled. I'm not being falsely modest here. It seems the best things in this book came to me from God knows where. That's the beauty of art maybe.

One of You

Catchers in baseball, closest to cousins
in your differentness, the safeguarding home, the healing bones,
the serious gear (which ought to indicate the possibilities),
and only one of you.
Denied the leap and dash up the ice,
what goalies know is side to side, an inwardness of monk
and cell. They scrape. They sweep. Their eyes are elsewhere
as they contemplate their narrow place. Like saints, they pray for nothing,
which brings grace. Off-days, what they want is space. They sit apart
in bars. They know the length of streets in twenty cities.
But it's their saving sense of irony that further
isolates them as it saves.

Percy H. LeSueur, for one, in a fitful sleep,
flinching at rising shots in a bad light, rubbers flung
out of the crowd, insults in two languages, finally got out of bed
in a moment of bleak insight, went down and burnt a motto
onto his stick, Haec est manus quae ictum deflecit -
"This is the hand that turns away the blow."

Or Lorne Chabot, in 1928, when someone asked
him why he always took the trouble to shave before a game,
angled out a leg to check a strap and answered in a quiet voice,
"I stitch better when my skin is smooth."

Or dapper Charlie Rayner, who stopped a bullet
with his chin, another couple of teeth and some hasty
work to close an ugly cut. Back the next night, he takes another,
full in the face. A second night in a row, he's down, spitting
bits of tooth on the ice. "It's a wonder," he mutters,
"why somebody doesn't get hurt in this game."

Edmonton - Detroit Post-Game: Moreau-nic

2010-03-20T05:00:15Z

More photos » John Ulan - AP

1 day ago: Edmonton Oilers' Gilbert Brule, congratulates teammate Andrew Cogliano on his goal against the Detroit Red Wings during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton on Friday, March 19, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,John Ulan)

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So, Devan Dubnyk has a win and a deserved one at that. Congratulations to Devan and his family. Even Patrick Roy had just one win at some point in his career, although admittedly he didn't play ten games before getting it, and if this had been Patrick Roy's era it would have been a tie.

It's a proud moment for a good guy and a decent prospect and will receive some well-deserved attention from the media. A shame, for it will overshadow perhaps the more important sub-plot of tonight's melée against the Red Wings: the immense, almost shameful capitulation of the Oilers in the third period, the reaming they endured which was worse than you expect even from a thirtieth-place team against a determined opponent. It beggared belief. The shots in the third period were 17-3 Detroit, and that significantly flatters Edmonton, who spent 19:30 of those twenty minutes pinned back in their own end without respite. Save Dubnyk, every Oiler was at least bad. Only Marc Pouliot and Tom Gilbert could even aspire to be mediocre.

It is a sure contender for the worst period the Oilers have played all season, and if not for Dubnyk proving once again that he is at his best when his team is at its worst it would have brought shades of Jeff Deslauriers's fateful first in Vancouver, seemingly so long ago, when he allowed something like eleven goals on four shots or whatever the hell it was. The team was so dreadful in every category it seems almost cruel to pick out one particularly fetid turd from the sewage system of the Edmonton Oilers.

Cruel and yet deserved. For Ethan Moreau, a man who has done so little for us in the last three years, turned in the worst period I have seen any Edmonton non-goaltender play since...

...ever?

It was not merely that he couldn't complete a six-foot pass, though he couldn't. He didn't muster so much as a shot on goal, although hell, that's not news. He even managed to stay out of the penalty box primarily because Greg Kimmerly and Dan Marouelli shoved their whistles into their jocks (a total of six penalty minutes were dished out all game). But for the first time, an NHL millionaire played the game worse than I would have.

It's like he thought he was Larry Robinson, about to lug the puck out of the zone to start a big rush, except if Larry Robinson was a complete idiot. Mere minutes into the third he got on the short list for most hysterical gaffe of the season when he got the puck behind his own goal line, turned on a time, and putting on what few jets he has left drilled Tom Gilbert from behind into the goalpost while still carrying the puck, turning it over and leading to a superb Red Wings chance. Or trying to dance the puck out of the zone, turning it over at the blue line and leading to an entire shift of Red Wings bombardment. He had skaters to pass to and could have just cleared it out himself with the sort of chip shot that comes so naturally on a hockey rink players don't even have to be taught how to do it. Instead, he went one-on-two with a Detroit forward and the boards, and because he's awful he did not win.

Then there was his singlehanded culpability on the tying goal with a fraction of a second left. Cruising in the slot, idiotically, like he thought the Red Wings would be courteous enough to serve up a soft pass right onto his stick blade so he could be the big damned hero. Covering Henrik Zetterberg, or rather not covering Henrik Zetterberg, since one of the NHL's premier forwards had so much room to maneouvre they could have run a Formula 1 race through the gap. Standing about, letting Zetterberg go cross-ice to Pavol Datsyuk. Not moving to cover the stupidly wide open Brian Rafalski setting up shop on Dubnyk's doorstep and who is, technically, Moreau's man. Then giving Zetterberg a big ol' Ethan Moreau crosscheck to the back of the head. "See, coach? I'm doing something!"

I'm not by nature a cynical man, but that period truly convinced me that Ethan Moreau is deliberately costing us hockey games. Nobody who was ever good enough to play in the NHL could ever do that badly on a hockey rink by accident.

How can I be so downcast after a win, after a guy I liked picked up the W that will hopefully turn his confidence around? Seeing Dubnyk rejoice after he stopped Valtteri Filppula in the shootout ought to have been a moment of pure joy. The kind of thing we all want to see in sports and hardly ever do, the unambiguously happy athlete who isn't worried about how the media perceives him or his next contract or his shoe endorsement but that, finally, he was weighed in the balances and not found wanting in the slightest.

But I was still choked over Ethan Moreau, and that's really not fair to Dubnyk. He was tremendous. Thirty-one saves on thirty-three shots. The first goal by Patrick Eaves he perhaps should have had but nobody could really blame him for it, and the last goal by Rafalski would have beaten Hasek in his prime. It is only the second time in his career he has started a game and posted a save percentage above .900, which is one of the most horrifying stats on a team full of them. But aside from that one tremendous period last week against the Toronto Maple Leafs, this was Dubnyk's best NHL performance yet.

That's the thing that gets me about Devan Dubnyk, and to a lesser extent his comrade in futility Taylor Chorney. Intellectually, I acknowledge the value of a statistical approach to hockey. Looking at things from a purely rational standpoint, I appreciate how important the numbers are to sort out human biases and help determine what really wins hockey games. But from the moment I first saw him as a member of the Stockton Thunder three years ago, Devan Dubnyk has looked like ought to be a serious hockey player. It's not just the size and the build, but the poise and the puck sense that's obvious even on television. There are plenty of awfulgames on Dubnyk's log, but he has not yet had one of those Jeff Deslauriers implosions, where his mind is reeling and he's completely rattled and pucks dance merrily through his five-hole. He seems capable of addressing each shot with the same poise that he addressed the previous, which on one hand is a shame because he's a lousy goaltender but on the other hand is encouraging for his long-term prospects.

It was also gratifying to see Andrew Cogliano strike again. I am a Cogliano pessimist and would have sold high on him last summer given half an opportunity. Even now, fans around the league seem to rate Cogliano well and he comes up in lots of trade hypotheticals. But a goal, an assist, a winning faceoff record, a decent game for a team not full of them, and Cogliano's strung together a few pretty nice nights in a row. I'm not saying I'm excited, but I certainly am pleased.

Something else that would be pleasing would be to see Sam Gagner a little more. One of the Oilers' only bright spots all year, Gagner spent too many shifts with the likes of Zack Stortini and Chris Minard and too many others being juggled around. He finished even in 14:42 and probably deserves the Nobel Prize for that.

Of course, tonight helped the Calgary Flames in their playoff push. And it was bad for our Fall for Hall aspirations. And it was an ugly brutal win that led to my accusing our captain of match fixing. But isn't it nice to have two more points to celebrate, if only for a little while?

The Copper & Blue Reverse Three Stars:

18th Star: C Shawn Horcoff. One-Armed Shawn is fast becoming an honoured member of the Over the Hill Gang. On previous reprehensible Oiler teams, Horcoff got credit from the knowledgeable fan for keeping his head above water in spite of the awfulness of his comrades. This year, Horcoff is still facing the toughest opposition but he is being humiliated. Tonight was no exception: a losing faceoff record, particularly in the third period. -1 and it easily could have been worse. Two pretty awful penalty minutes. He was stuck playing a tonne of own-zone defense with Ethan Moreau and Fernando Pisani - if that line were milk, you'd read the date on the carton and throw it out. But part of the reason they were in the own zone so much was that Horcoff could not, to save his life, clear that zone.

Some of us pencil Horcoff as the first-line centre of a hypothetical rejuvenated Oilers lineup that might make a playoff charge next year. Some of us put him as Gagner's deputy but acknowledge his value. But at what point does Horcoff take another step back, become a third minutes guy who takes on the enemy second lines and kills penalties and provides veteran leadership? The role that Ethan Moreau would fill, if Ethan Moreau weren't useless.

19th Star: D Aaron Johnson. Welcome to the Reverse Three Stars, Aaron, and may this be your last visit. I'm an outspoken fan of your work since being traded, and even tonight I think you were better than Steve Staios would have been. But you went out on a pairing with Theo Peckham, you were both -2, and Theo Peckham looked an awful lot better than you did. Peckham was still bad but he was keeping it simple, standing guys up at the blue line, and at worst making himself a slow-moving bollard that it at least took some effort to avoid. You did very little of that and got in the way a bit too often.

Again, Aaron, I'm a big fan, but I don't want to see you back on this list, 'kay?

20th Star: L Ethan Moreau. Yeah, aggressively and perhaps maliciously sending the team you captain into the shitter will get you that.

Oilers v. Red Wings - Ezekiel 25:15-17

2010-03-20T00:20:14Z

This is what Yahweh, the sovereign God of Edmonton has to say: "Because the Red Wings play with ennui in the regular season, splattering one team after another like mosquitoes and because they would dare seek revenge against my people by convincing Marian Hossa that Edmonton isn't the place to play I will speak. I have stretched out my hand against the Red Wings and - despite the fact that they were the superior team - I caused them to lose to the Penguins in the Cup final, and I am now considering whether or not to cut them off from the playoffs altogether. I know that I am filled with vengeance and that I deeply desire to let loose my wrath but... perhaps I will let them survive for a while longer to continue to punish the Flames whose evil knows no end. That way both teams will have felt my wrath and know that I am God. And if the Red Wings persist in stealing free agents from my team and should their fans continue to be unappreciative of their success, then I will redouble my efforts to punish them again next season. Then they will know that you must appreciate Yahweh's favour and not treat his most prized possession badly when free agency dawns."

Detroit Red Wings (34-23-12) @ Edmonton Oilers (21-42-7)

Rexall Place, 7:30 P.M. MDT
Television: TSN

More analysis after the jump...

Visiting Team Scouting Report:

For those of us who like the predictive value of Corsi, the Detroit Red Wings still look like a good team. They've generally out-Corsied their opponents significantly which usually implies a pretty good team. Although the gap narrows somewhat if you look only at situations when the score is close, they're still solidly outshooting the teams they face. Considering the fact that the Red Wings have outscored teams 58-40 on special teams, it certainly seems like this should be a club that's in the top half of the Western Conference. So what's holding them back? Percentages. The Red Wings have a PDO of 98.6 (.919 SV% and 6.7 SH%) and it's costing them goals. Now, some people might point out that this isn't the first time the Red Wings have had good shooting totals but poor percentages. In 2008-09 the Red Wings had a PDO of 99.3 and in 2007-08 it was 99.9. It's not as bad as this year, but the team has been on the wrong side of 100 pretty consistently. Furthermore, the Wings have been awfully lucky to get 51 games of .924 goaltending from Jimmy Howard who had never been better than .916 in four AHL seasons. I recently noticed that Howard's PK save percentage is among the league leaders at .906. Had Howard put up an average performance on the PK, it would cost his team 10 goals. So it's at least possible that although the EV numbers are a somewhat lower than they should be, the ST numbers are probably somewhat on the high side.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (21-42-7):

Moreau - Horcoff - Pisani
Pouliot - Gagner - Nilsson
Penner - Cogliano - Brule
Minard - Potulny - Stortini

Gilbert - Whitney
Strudwick - Chorney
Johnson - Peckham

Dubnyk

Detroit Red Wings (34-23-12)

Franzen - Datsyuk - Holmstrom
Filppula - Zetterberg - Cleary
Bertuzzi - Miller - Williams
Draper - Helm - Eaves

Lidstrom - Rafalski
Kronwall - Stuart
Lilja - Ericsson

Howard

Behind the Numbers:

In games decided by more than one goal the Detroit Red Wings have a record of 18-17. That doesn't compare well with Detroit's possible first-round opponents. Chicago is 24-10, San Jose is 27-12 and Vancouver is 29-17.
With Patrick O'Sullivan out for at least another week that -32 looks more and more like it could stand as a new Oiler single-season record. And for those scoring at home it was Lupul (-29) traded for Pitkanen traded for Cole traded for O'Sullivan (-32). How would you rank these players from best to worst?
Tom Gilbert is now only 1 point away from 100 on his career. 72 defenders have collected 100 points or more since the lockout. Six of the top forty accumulated some of those points as an Oiler. Can you name them without checking?
The guy at the very top of the list above? Nicklas Lidstrom. He probably won't win the Norris trophy this year (Mike Green has 70 points in 66 games which is pretty incredible) but he's been, once again, pretty phenomenal at both ends of the ice. He's been one of the league's best penalty killers (his GAON/60 is tops among defenders who play 2 minutes per game or more on the PK at -3.45/60), is a force on the power play (his GFON/60 is fifteenth among defenders who play 2minutes per game or more on the PP at +7.82/60) and his goal differential at EV is a sterling +0.66/60 despite taking on the toughest minutes and getting the most difficult starting positions on his team. He's a beauty player and would probably still get my vote as the best defender in the NHL.

Sledge Hockey Live!

2010-03-19T15:07:35Z

VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 18: Takayuki Endo #10 of Japan collides with Greg Westlake #12 of Canada during the second period of the Ice Sledge Hockey Play-off Seminfinal Game on day seven of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games at UBC Thunderbird Arena on March 18, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Hannah Johnston/Getty Images) via cdn.picapp.com

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Until yesterday, I knew very little about sledge hockey. When my girlfriend and I picked up tickets for both semi-final games of the Paralympic hockey tournament I knew that it was basically a seated version of hockey. And that's it. And so it was that yesterday she and I ventured off to UBC to put those tickets to use. The game provided good entertainment (except for the paid cheerleaders who tried to start a wave while the game was going on) even though Canada managed to lose 3-1. To Japan. Good God Almighty. More on my day of discovery and the "Greg Norman at the Masters" performance by the Canadians after the jump.

On Sledge Hockey

As I said above I walked in this afternoon having very little in the way of understanding. It was like bringing your Calgarian uncle to a hockey game. He's seen about five minutes of hockey on television so he kind of knows what's going on but for the most part he hasn't got a clue and he certainly doesn't get the nuances of the game even though he's supposedly a fan. That was me. For that reason, pretty much the whole game was spent trying to figure out what was going on.

The first thing I noticed was the physicality. I wasn't sure if body-checking would be allowed, but that was cleared up early and often. Both teams were banging bodies which gave the game a very "men's hockey" feel. But even without the hitting, the game itself takes ridiculous upper body strength. You propel yourself with your arms, you use your arms to shoot and you're also slamming into the players on the other team. It's a pretty intense workout. And did you know that hitting with the front of your sled is apparently called "teeing" and it's a penalty! (now I know what it was like to follow the Ducks during their run to the Cup!).

Despite all of the effort exerted, I'm pretty convinced that I could skate faster than these guys (and not in the "I could skate faster than Strudwick" way either, I think I could actually move quicker). That's not a condemnation; the two activities are completely different. It was just that the game was just a touch or two slower than I was expecting. It was especially difficult to skate with the puck since you needed to both stickhandle and use your sticks to propel forward. As such, passing was often the order of the day. Further, because it took more time to get to the bench both teams tended to take longer shifts, just over a minute on average from what I could tell. They also only used ten skaters for the most part - two groups of five - which I imagine led to guys conserving energy at times even if the periods were only fifteen minutes instead of twenty.

The in-game strategy was sometimes frustrating. There were times when both teams would try to dive on the puck or rag it against the boards and it would remain frozen there for ten to fifteen seconds. Once in a while it would be the impressive Laraque-style one-man-cycle but more often it was just one player diving on top of the puck and having the ref wait until someone could jam it loose. Perhaps there's already a penalty for this and it wasn't being called (the Canadians did get a delay-of-game minor for shooting the puck over the glass), but if not, there really should be because it definitely tood away from the action.

On The Game

The Canadians badly outshot the Japanese but the flow of play was pretty close for the first two periods. The Japanese weren't afraid to be physical and didn't seem outclassed with regard to skating. Their passing and ability to protect the puck wasn't quite as good by eye in this one but the game was definitely competitive which is really what I was hoping for coming in, as well as a Canadian win.

All three Japanese goals were gifts to some degree. The first one was a terrible break-out pass into the high slot that a Japanese forward intercepted and promptly put into the goal to tie the score 1-1 after two. At the end of the third period - completely dominated by Canada - the Canadians got nervous or cocky or something and started recklessly pressing for the winner. Predictably, they got caught pinching which left a 3-on-1 coming the other way. Imagine trying to defend a 3-on-1 with less than two minutes left. AND you can't skate backwards. AND you've got two short sticks instead of a long one. Hopeless. To Japan's credit they made a series of clean passes to get a guy in completely alone and he made a beautiful shot to give the Japanese a 2-1 lead. The crowd had been really into the game which made you feel the let-down in the building. My girlfriend, meanwhile, looked about as downcast as you can look. She didn't have any idea how sledge hockey was played either but saw the words "Canada," "Japan" and "Hockey" and just assumed that we had this one in the bank. I think that reaction was pretty typical.

On the other hand, the small Japanese contingent was in the section beside us and they were going bonkers for these guys. When a Canadian pass missed its target and found its way into the empty net their joy had been made complete. It was over. Canada had lost to Japan. Both goalkeepers had tears in their eyes which made it impossible to be bitter against Japan's squad (Finland sucks!) and legitimately sad that the Canadians didn't pull it out of the fire. When your keeper is turning 50, you know it's his last chance at glory. The teams shook hands and saluted the crowd together which was a pretty awesome display of sportsmanship. And hey, I'm not going to sugarcoat things and say that we should all be satisfied with the result but I will say that both teams did their sport proud. They were all out effort all game and they put on a great show.

On My New Profession

After the game my girlfriend and I went out for lunch (good) and she promptly got a headache or had homework or something (bad) and decided to go home which left me with two tickets to the second semi-final and only one body. As someone who complained rather vociferously during the Olympics about "sold-out" hockey games having a tonne of empty seats, I wasn't about to become one of those folks who sits on two tickets and stays home so I sent her away and waited until game-time.

As much as I wasn't willing to not use the tickets I also wasn't too thrilled about watching the game alone. This gave me an excellent opportunity to "scalp" at least one and maybe two tickets. I'd either make a friend to watch the game with or make a bit of money before heading home. For me "scalping" had always entailed walking up to the guy in the LRT station yelling "Tickets! Anybody need tickets!" and selling him any extras at a discount and then walking into the game. Nice and easy. Last night, however, there was no LRT staion and no one visibly identifying himself (sexism!) as Mr. Scalper Guy. Instead there were about five poor saps like myself by the box office trying to sell tickets and not having much luck. Ten minutes to gametime.

So I put on my LRT station voice and started walking back toward the crowd trying to catch someone who might need a seat. "Tickets! Anybody need tickets!" I had been trained well, my friends. After a minute or two a couple of guys stopped and we had the following conversation:

Them - "Yeah, we're looking for two tickets"

Me - "Well, I've only got one option for you..." followed by a description of where the seats are. I'm feeling pretty confident right now, sounding like I've done it before. Oh yeah.

Them - "So what are you looking for, $30 for each one?" $30 was face value and I was surprised they even mentioned it. So...

Me - "Well, it doesn't need to be 30." God damn, am I ever dumb sometimes.

Them - "So what then? $20? $15?" Things have clearly gone off the rails quickly. I started off so well!

Me - "Twenty sounds good."

Guy 1 - "You can give him twenty, I'll give him fifteen." Jesus.

Guy 2 - "Come on, man." Thank God. Guy 1 hands me $20.

Guy 2 - "I only have fifteen." Of course.

Me - "That's fine." God damn, am I ever dumb sometimes.

Guy 2 - "Thanks." Guy 2 hands me $15, at which point Guy 1 nabs $5 out of my hand and you had better believe I deserved it for my performance.

So I ended up with $30 for my two tickets which I wasn't unhappy with. But, uh, not well-played. As I saw money slip away five and ten dollars at a time and realized how dumb I really am, I feel like it helped me to connect with that Canadian hockey team. "God damn, am I ever dumb sometimes" was probably not an uncommon thought in that dressing room. But chin up boys, you play for bronze today (8:00 p.m. MDT) and just like me, I'll bet you end up with something to show for your efforts. Go Canada!

Oklahoma City Tornadoes?

2010-03-18T22:00:22Z

View of the 'rope' or decay stage of tornado seen during 'Sound Chase,' a joint project of NSSL and Mississippi State University in Cordell, Oklahoma May 22, 1981. (Photo by NOAA Photo Library/Getty Images) Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved. via cdn.picapp.com

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Prodigal Hockey, LLC has left the Oil-related genre and has jumped into two non-sensical nicknames. Pumpjacks still gets no love.

Oilfield Hockey reports that Prodigal has reserved two more domain names in their quest to name their new AHL club. Prodigal is up to ten domains and ten possible team names now that they have registered Tornadoes and Bison with the always-present "okc" prefix, of course.

http://www.okctornadoes.com/

http://www.okcbison.com/

The Buffalo Bison are an AAA baseball club in Buffalo, NY, and the Tornadoes name for a midwestern team seems...short-sighted.

Dustin Penner - 9th Most Valuable Skater In The League

2010-03-18T18:15:17Z

SAN JOSE, CA - JANUARY 16: Dustin Penner #27 of the Edmonton Oilers stands on the ice during their game against the San Jose Sharks at HP Pavilion on January 16, 2010 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved. via cdn.picapp.com

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Dirk Hoag at On The Forecheck has been crunching numbers to figure out who the most valuable players in the NHL are this year. The results are not exactly shocking for this correspondent - Dustin Penner is the 9th-most valuable skater in the league.

Dirk's methodology is here:

The idea here is to leverage the Rating statistics from Behind the Net, which sums up the net influence on Goals For & Against per 60 minutes of play, and convert those into counting stats based on the cumulative ice time and games played for each individual. For instance, Alex Ovechkin's presence in 5-on-5 action has resulted in a net of +35.7 goals for Washington, compared to how the Capitals fare when he is on the bench. His influence on the power play is almost as large (+31), and he is a pretty average PK man.

The Penalty +/- Impact reflects the influence on Goals For & Against from a player drawing or committing penalties, and thus creating PP or PK situations for his team. Using a previous estimate by Alan Ryder, each power play is worth 0.153 goals, reflecting the increased likelihood that your team is going to score (with a PK costing the same amount).

Sum up the 5-on-5, PP, PK and Penalty +/- columns, and you get a Total Impact that each player has had on Goals For & Against over the course of the season. Most MVP discussions focus solely on offensive contributions, and ignore the defensive side of the game.

Remember - these measures reflect the influence of a given player on the performance of his team. They are not meant to be used a direct comparison of players on different teams to say "who is better". It is, rather, "who is more valuable to his team". Yes, this analysis does leave goaltenders out of the equation, but we can argue over the Vezina another day.

It's something that not even Oilers fans know - Penner is one of only four Oiler players in the black in scoring chances, only one of three Oilers in the black in Corsi, the leader on the team in shots, he's dragging almost-NHL-like performance out of his teammates, and he's fifth in the league in relative Corsi among forwards.

Dirk flipped it around and found the least valuable players in the league, and once again, it's not a surprise to Oiler fans - Steve Staios has been the 6th-least valuable skater in the league this season. That must be extremely disheartening for Flames fans to read and I feel badly for them. Surprising to most Oiler fans, however, would be the fact that Ethan Moreau didn't make the list as well.

Penalty Kill Save Percentage Comparison

2010-03-18T14:40:18Z

Back in December, I looked at which goalies were benefiting from a high penalty kill save percentage. By the time December rolls around people begin to look at overall save percentage statistics and see some weight in them because the sample size is getting larger. This is very true when it comes to save percentages at even strength for starting goaltenders (though there will of course still be quite a bit of variation) but penalty kill save percentage is still often based on very few shots. Thanks to some recent work by Gabriel Desjardins, we can see just how much penalty kill save percentage, even over an entire season (or two seasons!) tends to regress toward league average. Thus, a very high save percentage on the PK is an indication that a goaltender's overall save percentage has a good chance of declining as the season goes on and a very low save percentage on the PK is an indication that a goaltender's overall save percentage has a very good chance of increasing as the season goes on. Already by January 9th we had begun to see this regression take place. After the jump we'll take another look at what our leaders have done since December 8th and which goalies might look better than they are as we (well, some of "you" I suppose) head into the playoffs.

Just by way of reminder, the average save percentage on the penalty kill is something close to .866 (thanks to Tyler Dellow for that). So all of the "goals saved above average" numbers have used .866 as average. Here are the results for the guys who were on top in December, both from the start to December 8th and then from December 9th until today:

So as we can see the leaders on December 8th have been varying degrees of worse since then and some of them have taken big falls. Some of the teams they play for have also taken a corresponding big fall. The Thrashers, Bruins, Oilers and Islanders all haven't fared as well since December and the amount of pucks going in on the PK is one of the (often many) reasons why. Pavelec's performance is the biggest turnaround. There's an 11-goal difference between his performance on the PK in the first half and his performance in the second half. That's an awful lot of ground to make up for anyone and the Thrashers aren't exactly long on talent.

Over an entire season, the sample gets a little bit larger and we can put a little bit more confidence in the numbers, especially as the extreme outliers tend to come back to the mean. It's like the difference between a goalie's overall save percentage after five or six games (not all that meaningful) compared to that same stat over ten or fifteen games (still not great, but it's going to be better). So let's look at which potential playoff goalies have the highest PK save percentage and who might be over-rated heading into the playoffs:

Avalanche fans will be pleased to see that I'm not calling on them to be one of the team's most likely to be hit by a regression... although Anderson is next on the list. At any rate, these are the teams for whom goaltending has been a strength but may not be quite as good as it's looked. The teams that should probably be the most worried about this are Ottawa, Detroit and Philadelphia because they're all relying on goalies who don't have a particularly strong track record in the NHL.

And for Oiler fans, we can be secure in knowing that our goalies are not worse than they appear, at least because of this. Jeff Deslauriers now sits right around league average at .870, Nikolai Khabibulin was a somewhat below average .846 before his injury and Devan Dubnyk is a worse-than-Vesa-Toskala .784. So, uh, yay?

Two Sawchuk poems

2010-03-18T00:30:21Z

Randall Maggs has hockey in his blood and poetry in his heart. The two combine in stunning fashion in his splendid book Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.

An Alberta native with roots in Edmonton and Vermilion, Maggs grew up in Terry Sawchuk's Winnipeg and now makes his living teaching Canadian Literature and Creative Writing at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in my own home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. His work, a decade in the writing, involved interviewing dozens of the most famous hockey people from Sawchuk's time, weaving in insider insights from his brother Darryl Maggs, who played over 500 major league games in the 1970s with and against many players with firsthand accounts of that era. When it was finally complete and published by Brick Books in 2008, Night Work was launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame before well-known members of both the arts and hockey communities. A fitting setting for one of the truly great hockey books it has been my joy to read.

I came across Night Work serendipitously last December when researching this Copper & Blue article on Terry Sawchuk, one of the most fascinating characters in the game's long, often dark history. Looking for a digital version of a famous image I googled "Sawchuk stitches", and was startled to find my first hit at the website of Poetry Foundation, along with a glowing review of Maggs' book which closes with said picture. Before I knew it I had a poem as well as a photo to accompany my article, soon followed by a note of thanks from the publisher which led to a splendid correspondence with the man himself.

On Tuesday March 23, Randall Maggs comes to Edmonton to give a reading (Audrey's Books, 7:30 p.m.), in a western Canadian book tour that includes Yellowknife (March 25 and 27), Whitehorse (March 29 and 30) and Vancouver (April 1). To mark the occasion Randy has graciously agreed to an exclusive (and extensive!) Copper & Blue interview, while Brick Books has donated a signed copy of his book for a giveaway contest. Watch C&B for both of these in the coming days.

A work that has already been "covered" in film and in song, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems was honoured earlier this month with its latest recognition. The Kobzar Literary Award, a biennial $25,000 award given by the Shevchenko Foundation, recognizes "outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts through an author’s presentation of a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit". Maggs' sensitive treatment of the immigrant experience that was central to Sawchuk's life, is certain to strike a responsive chord with this area's sizeable Ukrainian population.

I could wax prosaic about how Night Work reaches beyond the game on the ice and inside the very motivations of the men who play/ed it. Instead, read on after the jump for two complete Sawchuk poems and let the author reach you with his own words.

The first pertains to tales of mayhem attributed to Sawchuk's long time Detroit Red Wings teammate Pete Goegan, as related years later to Darryl Maggs on the California Golden Seals team bus. The character is from a specific time, but the mayhem itself is timeless, central to the game, as much a throwforward as a throwback.

Guys like Pete Goegan

        We still went under the system, then, that praise
      to the face was open disgrace

                    - Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Guys like Pete Goegan, sent out by Adams
to settle a score or get something going, throwbacks
to Jack's own day when, bleeding, you'd swing by the bench
for a swipe with a sponge, the clouding bucket an emblem of pride
in a simpler time, players with slicked-down hair
hurrying back and forth along the boards.

Pete Goegan. His name would come up
years later, mentioned by Walt McKechnie on the bus,
the Golden Seals on a terrible slide, another collapse at the end,
the seats in the dark slowly filling, guys bandaged and beat
and deflated, but shifting over to share a seat, careful
not to mention the good move or save or giving up the body for the team.
The voices down in the back are subdued, the talk
of a nose rearranged, a glove flapped in the face of a disliked
opponent. You hear the quiet approving laughter, the talk
down the old road, old debts erased, the scraps and skirmishes,
pastings of mythological proportion, toughest of the tough -
the blood in the bucket still at the game's true heart.
The smaller guys, the skill guys and skaters
like Gilbertson, who took a bad whack in the corner
tonight, listen mainly, knowing their place
at the edge of things.

McKechnie, the veteran, stretches back
like an old scarred cat. You sense a hit of weariness
in a world so familiar, the gloom of a mid-season slump,
his place on the bus and its heat on his ancient legs,
a loosened tooth he tests with the tip of his tongue,
the last word left for him. "No contest," he says,
the meanest son of a bitch he’s ever seen
was Pete Goegan. "He’d put your eye out as soon
as shake your hand. He’d pitchfork his mother."

Nodding, we stare out the windows, watching stragglers
leaving the Stadium. One points out the idling, darkened bus
with a shout and hurls himself against the chain-link fence.
Half watching, some of the older guys mull over
how you end up in the life you do.
The younger ones, which side of the ice
Goegan played and how they might measure up.
And maybe where was the guy or two
they knew who'd lost an eye.

And then, intruding into the silence,
an unexpected voice – Gilbertson, his words
as soft and perfectly timed as one of his passes,

"Put out your eye," he says.
"The son of a bitch. You know he’d only do that
to me twice."

The second is a remarkable suite loosely covering a Stanley Cup winning day in the mid-1950s from Sawchuk's perspective. Along the way it deals with our very perception of time, a referee's control over it, the panic before the moment, the celebration after it, and the fleeting nature of time's passage before the next great thing (Glenn Hall of the Edmonton Flyers) would supplant him. With that most timeless of human activities, sex, for dessert.

Different ways of telling time

        (i)     last minute of play

Four-faced, the clock sees everywhere.
Dead centre over the ice, it hangs from chains.

The players glance up, exchange a word, a sideward
look - less than a minute to go. They know time's rough

and tumble. Space and time, that's where they live,

arcs and angles, a quick move to open ice.

Their flashy physics.

Spectacles shift and glitter behind the glass.

Maybe someone they know but they never look

at the crowd. They're at the bench to hear the plan -

"Boys, you get a bounce here, things can happen fast."

Left out on the ice - they might as well be

on the moon - both goalies eye the clock,

one's for zero, the other likes infinity,

but things can change.

Get going clock.

Slow down slow down.

No one in the building likes time's pace.

        (ii)    you could drift out here forever

Jesus, here we go.

Seventh game, and seconds left to overtime.

Talk's over at the glass, the captains

waved away. The referee holds four fingers up

and folds his arms, four seconds he wants put back

on the clock. Son of a bitch, an old defender

sags against the boards. Still, imagine the power,

to kick time's arse like that.

        (iii)     sudden death

The light begins to fade. The cat wants out.

The hours to game-time leak away.

A hint of green pushes into the woods on the long par five

behind the house. I watch the cat sharpen up on a favourite stump.

She yawns and stretches out to twice her length, then leisurely,

she makes her way toward the trees.

Driving into the city, the traffic's heavy,

creeping along in a cloud of exhaust. Stop and go.

The radio low. Country songs, warning about the snow

coming down from Canada. Clutch in clutch out and drift in dreams

of accidents and overtime. Blink and you're done, a dead man

or worse, a radio joke until four in the morning.

        (iv)     ice time

The guys arrive as if at random intervals,

lay out their gear, lucky shirt, same skate first,

same old jokes about my liniment, Jesus,
Ukey, lose that shit why don't you?

Roll their eyes and tiptoe by.

Check the clock and tape my own stick,

thank you, heel to toe, no wrinkles, tape the ankles.

Time to go out and get loose, guys in twos and threes

at home on ice, tucking pucks lazily under the crossbar.

Same old talk, someone you got to slow down,

a glance where he's talking it up

with his own guys.

Here's the house where I live, I can't say no.

Howe and Lindsay's eyes on me. Pronovost, tough

as a bag of batteries, slaps my pads. I see myself as I pass

in the glass, pick up that look from the other side, a nice pair

of knees that edge apart as I go by. I get a whiff of ice

and something in me starts alive. I take

a few shots, catch and flick, feeling

quick, clank behind me,

lucky too.

Then back inside and bedlam now. Adams
flapping but I don’t hear. Holy Mary, don’t let me
fall on my face tonight. I try to loosen a pad, my shaking
hand so bad Jesus Jesus. Tommy Ivan shoves in beside me,
knowing he needs to settle me down. New cufflinks on.
Knocks my stick for luck I’m nodding but Mother of Christ
I’m dying inside, can’t keep still now everybody wants to go,
the clatter, the chatter, rockers, talkers. "Gotta have this one.
Gotta have it guys." This was where we’d bellow out
some raunchy song when we were young, scare
the bejesus out of everyone. "Nice neighbourhood like this,"
they’d say. "Who let the bloody DPs in?" Tommy drums
a rhythm on my leg – I watch his moving hand
distracted by the veins and lines that make the hand
a miracle, an acrobat, a thief. Gotta have it, guys.
I brace for the roar at the end of the tunnel.
"Give me a hand here, Tommy, tuck that in, that – look,
that bloody strap." Then bang the door and Jesus here we go,
someone shouts those words I love and dread, I hear
them all my life – Let the goalie go first.

        (v)     carpe diem

They yammer at the press in towels

and the present tense - "So I see Goldie sneaking in

and what I think, I think . . . "

I flick the water from a blade. The living

moment's where they ply their trade, you get your chance

you make it count. They like where time gets in your face

and open ice where you can really fly, or close-in battle

when the sticks get high, the action hot and heavy

as a leg draws up the sheet and slowly

opens out, my living Christ. They swing behind the net,

glancing up to find a gap, an open man, they like the crowd

up on their feet, the bodies piling on, the heft

and taste of women overhead.

"So I see Goldie sneaking in, I'm thinking, man,

if I can just draw Lumley to that post then slip it back

to him, but holy jumpin' don't let this one get away.

You get your chance, you better make it count.

I guess I just get lucky, Fred."

I wipe the other blade and smile.

Seems a neighbourhood I know from long ago.

        (vi)     big river

Stirring in the dark from ache to ache, crabbing

after scraps of sleep. Outside, the muffled quiet says the snow

has come. I love the city softly locked.

Let it snow forever.

I watch her shoulder's gentle rise and fall,

like she's floating on the water.

Her back's a miracle, so long and smooth

and brown, and there the jut of hip in envied sleep.

I trace a nail along her spine. Where has she been to get

so brown? What was she saying as I fell asleep? - The smell

of smoke from open fires, barking dogs and swimming out

into the harbour in the dark. Drifting off, I'd felt her

fingers trace their path from scar to scar. This was Watson,

this one here, Henri Richard, and here's the night Pit Martin

cracked your mask and blackened both your eyes, this one

you can hardly see, your brother on the rink

behind your house . . .

How good was that tonight. The guys

were bouncing off the walls. Jack was grabbing

everyone - he knew we had it in us all the time. His buddies

from the press were happy too, no trouble getting anyone

to talk tonight. You hear the racket in the shower,

"What a smack, that little head fake shit . . . "

"Just a sucker punch, hey everybody

knows the guy . . . "

I don't need her clock to know the time.

I shift the arm again, but can't shake something

someone said last night - "Hey, that kid out there

in Edmonton, that gaping hole between his legs,

but man he's got the corners covered.

Ukey Ukey watch your ass."

I crab a little closer to her back.

God, how bad I need this heat.

If you enjoyed these, you'll love Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.

Edmonton - Minnesota post-game: The song that never ends

2010-03-17T06:15:50Z

More photos » Jim Mone - AP

Jeff Deslauriers appears to be slightly out of position on this goal by Minnesota's Andrew Ebbett that opened the scoring Tuesday night. Yes, that's the same Andrew Ebbett who Minny claimed on waivers after the Oil passed on him. He ended the night with a goal, an assist, and first star honours.

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This is the song that never ends,

It just goes on and on, my friends.

Some people started singing without knowing what it was,

And they'll keep singing it forever just because

This is the song that never ends,

It just goes on and on, my friends.

Some people started singing without knowing what it was,

And they'll keep singing it forever just because

This is the song that never ends ...

Boy, nothing like another game at the Xcel Energy Centre to inject some spark into a sorry season. Energy Sink is more like it.

Fresh off of losses to worst-in-the-East Toronto and second-worst-in-the-West Columbus, the Oilers had little chance tonight when facing a real NHL team. Not that Minnesota Wild are any flaming hell, ranked 10th in the West and 8 points out of a playoff berth entering tonight's game. But on their ice, they are much, much, much better than the Edmonton Oilers, and have a 13-game home winning streak over the Oil to prove it. From an Oiler perspective, 0-11-2; 16 GF, 47 GA. Any questions?

The last time the Oil escaped St. Paul with 2 points was in 2007 January, when Derek Boogaard ran over Ales Hemsky 20 feet from the puck, concussing the Oilers' star and putting him on the shelf for 10 games. But the Oil scored the winner on the subsequent (two-minute) powerplay and emerged with a 2-1 victory. A painful win, but a win nonetheless. Since then, nothing but pain.

The stats say the Oilers outshot the Wild 36-28 tonight. That doesn't speak to the quality of those shots. According to Dennis King, who tracks scoring chances over at MC79hockey, the Wild outchanced the Oilers 25-15, including 22-9 at even strength. In other words, the vast majority of Minny's shots were excellent scoring opportunities, while the Oil's shots tended to come from the fringes.

The Oilers veterans didn't fare well by this metric, with the trio of Moreau-Horcoff-Pisani generating just a single scoring chance while being on for 6-8 against. It wasn't like they were lined up in a particularly unfavourable match-up; Quinn seemed to be rolling the lines for the most part. Moreau for example played between 2.3 and 4.9 minutes against all 12 Wild forwards. He and his mates were sheltered in terms of zone start - 12 offensive zone faceoffs vs. just 5 in the D-zone - but they still got worked.

Jeff Deslauriers had another tough night, allowing 4 goals on those 28 shots. This was a tough road trip for the young Oiler goalies, who over 4 games turned 13 goals of support into just a single standings point. I wouldn't conclude that tonight's game was decided between the pipes, but it certainly wasn't stolen there either. The Oilers lost this one on merit at all positions.

Not much else to say. This game is better off forgotten as soon as possible. Except ... is it over yet, Lamb Chop?

Oilers v. Wild - 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

2010-03-16T21:59:51Z

I appeal to you, my fellow Oilogospherians, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - whose name is spoken with ferocity game in and game out around the league - to support one another, being perfectly united in your tolerance for differences. I have been informed that there have been some recent quarrels among you. What I mean is that I hear that some are saying, "Those who hope for wins are fools!" and yet others say, "Those who hope for losses are traitors!" and still others cry out, "Those who go to the games facilitate this garbage!" and finally, "Those who've given up are band-wagon jumpers! What are we, fans of the Canucks!?"

And so it is that everyone is in the right and everyone in the wrong. For isn't it true that God has given us the precious gift of the first overall pick? Yet it is also true that God meant for us to cheer his one true chosen team to victory. And of course it's true that while we cannot tolerate the thieves on top of this once-great team that we need to show God that we are faithful, no matter the circumstances. So let us remember that we are still one body sent to hope in God's chosen team, not for their intellect or power but by the faith that rises out of the grace of God. So let us support one another in these difficult times and help one another to find God's grace in what suits him best so that we can return united with a common purpose when autumn returns.

Edmonton Oilers (21-41-7) @ Minnesota Wild (33-29-6)

XCel Energy Center, 6:00 P.M. MDT
Television: Sportsnet West

More analysis after the jump...

Visiting Team Scouting Report:

They just haven't been all that good. After a horrendous start and a tremendous resurgence the Wild have been pretty mediocre. On December 17th the Wild sat at 17-14-3 after 34 games. In the 34 games since then the Wild have compiled a record of 16-15-3. And that's not going to get it done. They haven't been particularly unlucky at EV in these last 34 games and if anything it's been the reverse. The team's PDO number over the last 34 games is 101.5 and they've actually been out-shot 813-732. I really thought that this team was a good one at the start of the year but it turns out that the talent on the roster just isn't as good as I had thought. Injuries have hurt but it seems to me that the Wild will need to add one or two players at the top of the roster in order to get the requisite trickle-down effect throughout the roster and get a push toward the top. Fortunately for them, they have the cap space to make such an acquisition. Now it's just a matter of finding the right player(s).

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (21-41-7):

Moreau - Horcoff - Pisani
Pouliot - Gagner - Nilsson
Penner - Cogliano - Brule
Minard - Potulny - Stortini

Gilbert - Whitney
Strudwick - Chorney
Johnson - Peckham

Deslauriers

Minnesota Wild (33-29-6)

Brunette - Koivu - Miettinen
Latendresse - Ebbett - Havlat
Earl - Brodziak - Clutterbuck
Boogaard - Sheppard - Kobasew

Barker - Zidlicky
Zanon - Schultz
Scott - Sifers

Harding

Behind the Numbers:

Owen Nolan has seen a sharp decrease in power play time this season. In 2008-09 he spent 3:08 per game on the Minnesota power play. This season he's down to 2:24 per game. For the Oilers, the biggest drop in power play time belongs to Shawn Horcoff who went from 3:44 per game in 2008-09 to 2:40 per game so far this season.
Zack Stortini has taken the most minor penalties so far this year with 23. Shawn Horcoff is second with 21 and Ethan Moreau is third with 19. The Minnesota Wild have seven regular forwards who average 0.5 penalties or less per 60 minutes of ice time at EV (including old friend Kyle Brodziak). The Oilers have three such players (Potulny, Nilsson, Cogliano).
With his goal last night Dustin Penner now has 99 for his career and will be looking for number 100 tonight. If he makes it he'll become the 80th player to score 100 goals since the lockout. Three of the other 79 also spent at least part of their time since the lockout playing with the Oilers. Can you name them without checking?
The Minnesota Wild are the sixth best team in the league in terms of shot prevention (28.8 shots against per game). They're one of only two teams in the top ten not currently in playoff position. The other is the Calgary Flames. They're also the only two teams in the top ten that have a negative shot differential overall.
In his last eight games Theo Peckham has been out-Corsied 109-71 at EV. And this is his good call-up. The very nice PDO of 102.1 has kept him at "even" in the +/- column but I won't be a happy camper if this team has Peckham in the top six to start next season.

Anton Lander Interviews With The Copper & Blue

2010-03-16T16:30:17Z

MONTREAL, QC - JUNE 27: Anton Lander of the Edmonton Oilers puts on a team jersey after being drafted by Head Scout Stu MacGregor of the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved. via cdn.picapp.com

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Anton Lander seems to suffer from some kind of disorder that forces him to be huge in big games. He's had a tough time after the World Junior Championships but scores big goals in the last two games of regular season. I've followed him for many years now and have seen this time after time, both with the junior national team and in Timra. It's no coincidence that Lander scored the game-winning goal in this game, that's for sure!

When we played 4 on 5 late in the game with the one goal lead we got a 50/50 chance to get a 2 on 2 break for a shorthanded goal but the 18 year old who newly-scored the goal of his life was cool enough to go and get a line change that helped us live through that crucial short-handed situation and win the game.

--Jimmy Hamrin, Timra Blogger.

As Ben would say, on a scale from one to ten Eberles, Anton Lander is a perfect ten. Lander's late season heroics dragged Timrå into the Swedish Elite League playoffs and his third period in the final game against Lulea will be the stuff of legend for years to come. On the back of Timrå's huge win and dramatic qualification for the playoffs, Anton was gracious enough to agree (in English) to an interview with a guy that asked for the interview using Google translate. To eliminate any language barrier and to bring a level of personality to an interview that a cell phone conversation cannot provide, our good friend Jimmy Hamrin, the intrepid Swedish blogger that follows Timrå, rain or shine, agreed to meet with Anton in Timrå to conduct the interview for The Copper & Blue. I cannot thank Jimmy enough for translating my questions into Swedish and translating Anton's answers back into English - C&B is forever indebted to Jimmy for his work. After the jump is our conversation, through Jimmy, with Anton Lander.

C&B: The World Junior Championships were a disappointment for Sweden...

Anton Lander: I'll have to agree. We had a great team and were pretty cocky before the tournament so a bronze is definitely a failure. But it's also mixed feelings since a medal is always a medal.

C&B: ...but you personally had an excellent tournament

Lander: I'm satisfied. Our line (with Silfverberg and Rodin) had a defensive role and were told to check hard and create powerplay for the top lines. With that in mind I have to say that we did a good tournament.

C&B: You were revealed as the true leader of the team and this season, you've been an assistant captain for Timra. Does that sort of leadership come naturally to you, or do you work on that aspect of your game and personality?

Lander: Naturally I guess. It's not something I've strived for. Maybe it's because I have a younger brother who I've been taking care of this comes natural for me. I'm comfortable in that role too.

C&B: Did you know Kent Nilsson prior to being drafted by the Oilers?

Lander: No, I didn't know him personally but I knew who he was as a player of course.

C&B: Did he give you any hints that the Oilers might have been interested in you?

Lander: Well, Magnus (Pääjärvi) hinted that they would probably take me in the second round if I was still available.

C&B: Are you a vocal teammate, or do you tend to lead by example?

Lander: I'm not the kind of guy who yells in the locker room. I want to lead with spirit on the ice instead.

C&B: Which player(s) do you look up to?

Lander: Without a doubt, Henrik Zetterberg! I love his way of playing and I've looked at him a lot. I want to be the type of player he is. He's great at both ends of the ice and he get's to play in every situation for his team.

C&B: You're almost always mentioned in the same breath as Paajarvi in the Edmonton media, what sort of relationship do you have with him?

Lander: We've played a lot together in Timra and with the junior national teams so we know each other well. We're good friends and can talk about almost everything. But we don't spend that much time together off the ice when we're home.

C&B: Are you willing to come to North America and play in Oklahoma City in the AHL, or are you intent on moving from the SEL to the NHL?

Lander: That's a tough question. It depends what Edmonton wants to do. Most importantly I want to feel ready before I'll go, IF I'll go. People in North America sometimes seems to take for granted that you want to go at all costs.

C&B: Do you have any concerns in transitioning to the North American game?

Lander: I like the smaller rinks and I would want to se them change the rinks in Europe to the North American size. The higher tempo and the more intensive game is more fun to play. I also think that the WJC is proof of me handling that kind of hockey.

C&B: How much weight would Paajarvi's decision have in influencing your decision on where to play?

Lander: We're two different persons and we have different type of playing. I'll go when I'm ready and he should go when he's ready.

C&B: Which part of your game needs the most work and how are you improving?

Lander: The skating is my biggest weakness and something I really need to improve and you can improve that area in so many ways. Strength, elasticity, endurance, technique, quickness etc etc. Here in Sweden we've more team-coordinated training than in North America so I don't have like a individual program or something to follow during the season.

C&B: Have the Oilers’ organization been in contact with you and do they provide any insight on how they feel about your progress?

Lander: I met Tambellini during the WJC and he said that they were happy with my progress so far. But during the season I haven't had any direct contact with them. My focus is with Timra.

C&B: Are you able to follow the Oilers?

Lander: They don't show that many Oiler-games on Swedish TV since there's no big Swedish stars on the team and the time-differential is huge. But I follow scores and highlights on nhl.com.

C&B: Are you strong in the faceoff circle?

Lander: I'm okay. I'm learning more and more. It's a huge difference to faceoff in the SEL against grown men than at how it was at the WJC. I believe that the strength is very important.

C&B: Why do you wear #51?

Lander: I grew up on the same street as a guy named Mikael Nyberg who's five years older than me. He wore that number in the junior team in Timra. He was the biggest star on our street. When I made the U18-team in Timra the number was a available so I took it.

C&B: Do you have a nickname?

Lander: Lampan (The lamp) or Landy.

C&B: What's your opinion on your season, so far?

Lander: I started okay. I got a lot of confidence from the coaches. The WJC was big for me but also a total letdown and I slumped after that tournament. But the Olympic break was good for me and I have been getting better and better after that. Totally maybe my offensive game haven't been as I've hoped and I don't think it's acceptable to have a minus in the plus-minus column.

For more from Anton Lander on his time with Timrå, please visit Jimmy's blog.

Some additional bits from Jimmy's interview:

Jimmy: First, I must just say that there is much talk of Anton's leadership skills and maturity for his age. His juniors teammates called him "our Joe Sakic" for example.

Jimmy: He sat down and shook my hand and asked what I had and went and bought it. He showed a genuine appreciation towards me and acted genuinely interested in me as a person. It was almost like it was his pleasure to meet me and not vice versa. It is difficult to accept but it feels like he has the ability to make others feel important around him.

Jimmy: Are you a bad loser?

Lander: Yes, in everything. Even when I play video games with my brother or whatever. I must win!

And, as Jimmy did, I leave you with Anton's favorite song:

Edmonton - Columbus Post-Game: Losing to Losers is What We Do

2010-03-16T03:40:26Z

More photos » Jay LaPrete - AP

5 days ago: Columbus Blue Jackets' Steve Mason, left, makes a save against Edmonton Oilers' Marc Pouliot during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 15, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

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Worryingly, the Oilers are getting awfully good at being awfully bad.

As a two-goal loss to a fellow cellar-dweller goes, that was almost - dare I say - painless. We got in, we got beat, we got out. Very efficient. That was losing for champions. That was the sort of loss a team contending for the Reverse Stanley Cup gets. There was no real drama for those sixty minutes. We allowed an early goal, put up a fight, got into a fight, but lost in good order. Even allowed an empty-net goal on an asinine early own-zone goaltender pull. A few members of the Mediocre Brigade acquitted themselves admirably, but the team itself was impotent.

May I be cynical? I may? Thank you. It seems to me that this team has the Fall for Hall down. Sit the Complainer Captain Ethan Moreau and start getting results? Sit the heart of the team Fernando Pisani instead! Play Jeff Deslauriers against Toronto, a team motivated to get results against the superior goaltender. Play Devan Dubnyk against Columbus, a team that may be diving for five as hard as us and that might need a little help slamming pucks in. A bunch of illogical line combinations, few of which were any good, with only the weird unit of Sam Gagner, Marc Pouliot, and Whatever Other Loser They Happen to Be With Right Now showing some improbable and unexpected chemistry.

Did we chuck Aaron Johnson and Chris Minard on the power play? You bet we did. Taylor Chorney on the penalty kill? Sure did. We pulled out all the stops and got the loss.

Say what you will about Pat Quinn, but the man coached the Canucks and the Maple Leafs. If he can do nothing else, he can tank.

It gets harder and harder to review a team that doesn't appear to be putting in its full effort. I'm not just talking about Dustin Penner, who of course has been mailing it in so aggressively he wrote to the Edmonton Sun complaining about the price of postage. He scored tonight, of course, but it was more from sheer ability and athleticism than effort, in the same fashion that if Usain Bolt put on dress shoes and was wearing a jacket going out for a jog he could still beat me to the finish line. Tom Gilbert, for example, knows he's the Omega Man on Edmonton's blue line and playing with the same agonized despair you'd expect. Devan Dubnyk tried hard. Perhaps a bit too hard. He looks for all the world like a goaltender who just needs more reps except for the fact that the puck winds up behind him awfully frequently.

There's an old saw about the goaltender needing more work to stay sharp, and he'll allow the most goals when he faces five or six shots in a period. I wonder if it's true in Dubnyk's case. His first period, he was being bombarded and left for dead and was very nearly magnificent. The same story in the third period against Toronto, when he was completely abandoned against the guns of the Maple Leafs and was nigh-incorruptible. In the second and third, the Oilers started to turn up the pressure (i.e. apply any pressure) and all of a sudden Dubnyk was flailing and fighting and generally getting lit the hell up.

The other most credible effort came from the aforementioned Mr. Johnson, and unlike Dubnyk his effort was accompanied by effectiveness. Johnson is now on a two-game goal scoring streak, which may tie him for the season best among the Edmonton Oilers. And he is so much better, early on, than Steve Staios was for the last two seasons that it seems almost like gloating for us to get a third-round pick in the trade as well.

Here's the question. What would Aaron Johnson re-sign for? It's time we thought about this. Steve Tambellini may have channeled the spirit of his mentor for good instead of evil (for once) and pulled a fruit off the ragged bush that we now-mockingly call the Hejda Tree. How is that not the sort of player we'd want back? At the very least, surely he's better than Jason Strudwick, never mind Taylor Chorney or Theo Peckham. If Johnson would come back for, say, two years at, say, $750,000 a year, that would be definitely worthwhile.

These are the kinds of things I try to think about in the midst of a season like this.

The Copper & Blue Reverse Three Stars:

18th, 19th, and 20th Stars: Ryan Whitney, Tom Gilbert, and Mike Comrie.

Okay, this is going to look weird. But I've been deliberating over this for the last half hour and I can't separate these three in my mind. They were dreadful. Yes, worse than Devan Dubnyk! Each of them were -3, and (unlike how Bruce insists Zack Stortini's game was every time he finishes below even) they earned it. They earned the hell out of it.

This was Whitney's first appearance on the Reverse Three Stars and one of relatively few for either Gilbert or Comrie. None of these guys are regulars in the reverse standings. Whitney played a shade over twenty-six minutes, first on the Oilers. Gilbert played a shade over twenty-two, which was second (Quinn was rolling those lines like they were barrels today). Mike Comrie's 15:39 was around the top of the pops for the forwards tonight. So to an extent, they suffered just by playing a lot against a superior team. But they got shot so full of holes I think their numbers had exit wounds.

Did any of this troika have so much as a redeeming millisecond? Gilbert took a dopey interference penalty to negate a power play, while Whitney and Comrie negated the Oilers man advantages by being useless. At least Dubnyk made a save or two. These guys were just hideous.

It was a classic reverse three stars performance. I almost admired it.

Oilers v. Blue Jackets - Psalm 118:26-29

2010-03-15T22:02:11Z

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh,
and that one will be honoured in Yahweh's house next season.
Yahweh is our God
and his light will shine upon us in June.
Grown men will watch and cheer
the arrival of Yahweh's chosen one.
You are our God and we will give you thanks for your mercy!
You are our God and we will exalt you for giving us hope!
Yes, we will give thanks to Yahweh for he is good
and his favour - even in his punishments - will have no end!

Edmonton Oilers (21-40-7) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (27-31-11)

Nationwide Arena, 5:00 P.M. MDT
Television: Sportsnet West

More analysis after the jump...

Visiting Team Scouting Report:

The Blue Jackets may not feel like they're in much of a race right now but they're actually in tight competition with several other teams for 28th overall in the league (I think the Oilers and Leafs have the bottom two spots locked up) and (likely) the third pick overall in this year's entry draft. Unlike the other contenders, the Blue Jackets play in the much tougher Western Conference - in 248 inter-Conference games this season, the Western Conference has won 110 in regulation, the Eastern Conference 80 and 58 have gone to overtime - so they're probably not the worst of this bunch but with Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius hurting, this is a team that could tank. So, here we are, a chart to display the strength of schedule for the teams who are (Bruce, avert your eyes) probably better off losing from here on out. At the very least, they're better off being somewhat extreme and either winning a lot or losing a lot. Here are the contenders:

So there you have it. These teams are awful. The thing to know with this chart is that lower numbers are always better which leads me to believe that the New York Islanders have the inside track here. Fewer games, plenty on the road and they don't need to play bad teams. On the other side of the coin we have the Florida Panthers who still have a lot of games, more at home than on the road and several against their fellow South-East mates. The one team that might go on a run and take an undeserved playoff spot in the East is the Lightning. They have the most points and a lot of games against crappy teams. If they can win those six and split the other eight down the middle they'll end the season with 88 points which might just be good enough in the pathetic Eastern Conference. The Blue Jackets? They have a real chance here. No big run is going to get them in so the players should already be properly dispirited which might help them in these next few games. A loss tonight would be pretty clutch.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (21-40-7):

Moreau - Horcoff - Comrie
Pouliot - Gagner - Nilsson
Penner - Cogliano - Brule
Minard - Potulny - Stortini

Gilbert - Whitney
Strudwick - Chorney
Johnson - Peckham

Dubnyk

Columbus Blue Jackets (27-31-11)

Huselius - Vermette - Mayorov
Umberger - Brassard - Voracek
Blunden - Pahlsson - Clark
Dorsett - Murray - Boll

Hejda - Methot
Tyutin - Stralman
Russell - Paetsch

Mason

Behind the Numbers:

After 48 career NHL games Scott Howson and the Columbus Blue Jackets gave Derrick Brassard a four year contract extension worth 3.2M per season on average. His plat-form year saw him score 25 points in only 31 games. At the end of the 2013-14 season Brassard will not be an unrestricted free agent but his qualifying offer will be 3.7M. The contract was signed last summer before Brassard had played a single game since separating his shoulder the previous year. He does look like he'll be a good player, but that was a pretty risky contract.
Gilbert Brule scored 22 points in his first 31 games this season. In his last 25 games he's scored 10.
Edmonton and Toronto are tied for last in the league with 231 goals against so far this season. Columbus is 27th 214.
Jeff Deslauriers has taken a lot more flack than Devan Dubnyk but, just so we're all aware, Dubnyk has been really bad. Among goalies with at least ten appearances Devan Dubnyk's .869 save percentage is the absolute worst. Remember that Vesa Toskala for Curtis McElhinney trade? Dubnyk's save percentage is worse than both of those guys.

Poll

Who will finish 28th in the league this season?

Columbus Blue Jackets, What Might Have Been In Oklahoma City

2010-03-15T19:01:12Z

via cdn.picapp.com

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In my interview with Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, he said something that's stuck with me:

C&B: With all of the work that you did in bringing basketball to Oklahoma City, including bringing the New Orleans team in to play during Katrina and the aftermath and bringing a franchise to the city permanently, can we assume that this was one of your initiatives as well?

Mayor Cornett: Well, in a sense. I want Oklahoma City to have the best brand of hockey that it can support. I feel like we're a really good hockey market, we've supported hockey in the past and I think our market has matured to the point where we deserve and can support a higher level of play. We almost got an NHL franchise in 1998. We came right on the edge of getting one, but I think Columbus got the franchise. We were in the final running for it but didn't get it. I think that was reflective of the growing market and the fact that we've supported hockey.

What would the the NHL look like today if Oklahoma City would have been awarded the expansion franchise rather than Columbus?

via www.sportslogos.net

SB Nation's Oilers vs Blue Jackets coverage

The Cannon

It's well-known that Columbus is struggling financially. Even with a large bump in attendance, they aren't going to find a profit without a new revenue stream. The NHL is a gate-driven business, so additional revenue streams aren't easy to come by. That stream isn't going to come from television - they are only drawing about 15,000 households per game and with their miserable performance this year, it's unlikely to rise as the season comes to a close.

Columbus is the 24th largest market in the NHL, with a metropolitan population of 1,773,120. With a small population, expected attendance numbers aren't going to compete with the hockey hotbeds or the enormous metropolitan areas like New York or Washington D.C, and they aren't close to competing. As with any new franchise, the Blue Jackets' attendance numbers were very strong early in their existence, but after the lockout and the lack of playoff hockey in Ohio for four years, attendance took a hit in 2005 and has been in bad shape ever since.

Columbus is in a tight spot. They can't turn a profit, and haven't been able to ice a winner. The NHL has a losing team with declining attendance and sagging television ratings. Scott Howson is trying to save the franchise by fixing the mess he inherited, but has had a tough go of it thus far, even with the Blue Jackets' playoff appearance last year.

What would have happened if the NHL decided to award an expansion franchise to Oklahoma City instead of Columbus? Firstly, the decision would have been panned, as Oklahoma City would be the 27th largest market in the league, with a metropolitan population of 1,206,152. Had Gary Bettman passed on markets like Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Columbus, Indianapolis and Houston for tiny Oklahoma City, the media, especially the Canadian media would have trashed Bettman for years - like they still do for the decision to award a franchise to Nashville, the 27th largest market in the NHL.

Rather than land a hockey team, Oklahoma City was the beneficiary of the Seattle Supersonics failed arena negotiations. The Oklahoma City Thunder took to the hardwood in 2008 in Oklahoma City after leaving Seattle for a better facility and arena deal. Like expansion hockey in Columbus, the new NBA franchise in Oklahoma City has drawn well. Unlike Columbus, the numbers aren't going to start to fall off in Oklahoma City. The big difference in the story of the Oklahoma City Thunder will be a playoff appearance. The Thunder are on pace to make the playoffs this year and are fighting to host the first round of the playoffs in Oklahoma City. Success brings fans through the turnstiles and Oklahoma City will likely continue to outdraw Columbus because of playoff successes.

The Blue Jackets didn't reach the playoffs until 2008-2009 and even then were bounced in the first round by the Detroit Red Wings. Essentially, the failures of the Blue Jackets on the ice, on television and at the gate boil down to one decision - JMAC Hockey, LLC hiring Doug MacLean as President and General Manager of the club in 1998.

MacLean's record should speak for itself, but MacLean refuses to allow that. He's too busy talking about how wonderful he is. How he comes to that conclusion is a mystery, but a quote from an interview earlier this year tells you all you need to know about Doug MacLean:

"I would like to say I've looked at all their acquisitions and I think the team has, with their fan base right now, less credibility than they've ever had in the history of the franchise. It is a disaster there right now. And Scott Howson has made -- I look at the contracts he's stuck with next year -- they've got to dig themselves out of a hole."

The hole is so deep because MacLean spent ten years digging it. MacLean's record as General Manager and President of the Columbus Blue Jackets over ten years and seven seasons: 165W - 263L - 33T - 31OTL, 394 points for an average of 69 points per year. Columbus failed to appear in the playoffs under MacLean's reign - the only expansion team of the same era to do so.

So would the NHL be better off with the Oklahoma City Blue Jackets rather than the Columbus Blue Jackets? Yes, of course. But not because of attendance, or television ratings. The league would be better off in Oklahoma City right now because there exists the chance that the ownership group in Oklahoma City would have hired someone other than Doug MacLean to run hockey operations.

Oilers Scoring Chances - Another Copper & Blue Trivia Contest

2010-03-15T17:00:58Z

We're back for another giveaway. This one requires little to no effort on your part, so like Steve Tambellini, you guys should be really good at this contest. If we have more than one correct answer, we will determine the winner by highest Fan Corsi. Actually, we'll draw names from a hat.

Thirty-one skaters have appeared for the Oilers this year. As of today, five of them have a net positive scoring chance differential. Name them.

The winner gets this lovely shirt:

A Pessimistic Look at Prospects, Part Two: Linus Omark

2010-03-14T17:30:15Z

Linus Omark may be the first prospect in Oilers history who has generated more hype than his actual body weight. A 5'9", 168-pound YouTube sensation, the ingredients are all there for Omark to create more buzz than actual NHL offense. Every other week or so there'll be a new highlight of Omark, the advertising patches on his jersey flapping in the breeze, making some sweet dangle or another and generally looking like Jari Kurri without all that irritating defense stuff. And we'll go "woo" and mentally start penciling him in with Gagner and Eberle on the line that will send us to the Stanley Cup once again.

What a shame that Craig MacTavish isn't still around, so we can't blame him for Omark's inevitable failure.

It's been popular to compare Omark to another great YouTube artist, Rob Schremp, but the comparison doesn't hold water. For one thing, Schremp is bigger. For another thing, at age twenty-three Schremp has recorded 25 points in 44 NHL games with the New York Islanders, while the only-a-few-months-younger Omark is currently on 36 points in 56 KHL games with the Moscow Dynamo.

So, Omark isn't quite as good as Rob Schremp. The guy who drove us all insane until we lost him on waivers. That guy.

This is the second part of a series with an indeterminate number of parts (the first part, Teemu Hartikainen, having come all the way back in December) saying why all those prospects we're hoping will pull our bacon out of the fire actually sort of stink. Omark stinks worse than most of them, and even though we recently ranked him number six on our Top 25 Under 25 I'm not taking that as an endorsement. We are, after all, the worst team in the NHL, so our top 25 under 25 aren't necessarily that good.

Any debunking of Omark's potential has to begin with his physique. The man is a hobbit. He's actually smaller than Martin St. Louis or Mike Cammalleri. Although being small does not inherently disqualify you from making the NHL, it is obviously a big disadvantage and you have to be that much more skilled to succeed in spite of it. Just ask former Oiler prospect Martin St. Pierre, who's averaged over a point per game in the American Hockey League three times and has a career NHL line of 41 games played and eight points. Or Tony Salmelainen, who once had 55 points in 53 games with HIFK Helsinki of the Finnish SM-liiga.

There's no evidence he has that level of skill. Right now he's a distant third in scoring with the Dynamo, behind a couple decent NHL veterans in Mathias Weinhandl and Jiri Hudler. This isn't bad, but it's nothing to write home about for a guy who turned twenty-three in February. By the time he turned 23, the aforementioned Hudler had already dominated the American Hockey League and was getting his NHL campaign then. Omark is instead facing inferior players in the KHL and not exactly dominating.

I know, I know, he went to the KHL for the paycheque. A two-way contract even at the NHL rookie maximum wouldn't pay Omark what the Russians can. But long-term, his earning potential in North America is multiples higher if he pans out. Does he not realize that, or does he just not think he's going to pan out? Anybody who'd retard their development so he can collect a medium-sized paycheque now instead of a modest paycheque now and a giant paycheque a few years down the road... is that a good sign in anyone's books?

Omark's reputation was built last year, when Lulea played the hell out of Omark and he responded by averaging more than a point per game. But that was a big jump over his scoring the previous year, and even considering the difference in skill between the KHL and the SEL he's still dipped this season getting first-line ice time in Moscow. There's just not that much there with Linus Omark. His offense is middling. Gushing Kevin Prendergast quotes aside, his defense is lacking. His commitment is questionable. He has some sweet dangles but so do lots of guys who get a rude awakening when they reach the NHL.

I don't think that, even if Omark comes to North America, he'll ever been as good as Rob Schremp is now, and that's a damning statement.

Edmonton - Toronto Post-Game: Number Thirty With a Bullet

2010-03-14T04:19:28Z

More photos » Chris Young - AP

7 days ago: Edmonton Oilers head coach Pat Quinn, top, applauds the singing of the national anthem ahead of his team's NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday, March 13, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Chris Young)

Browse more photos »

Remember back in the pre-lockout years, when we were all obsessed with "increasing scoring"? Waaah, there weren't enough goals in every game. We need to widen the nets and shrink the goalies and make every obstruction offense penalized with instant death. And then scoring will go up and poverty will vanish from the earth and the hockey gods will descend from Valhalla and frolic with the mortals in gay abandon as ten-goal games sprout from the ground like so many dandelions in your mother's prized flower garden?

Well, the Oilers and the Maple Leafs combined for ten goals and seventy-six shots. Yet the game was dreadful, and the only peep I heard from the hockey gods was a series of strangled sobs at hearing their name befouled with such rubbish.

All the boxes in "do you have a crappy team" were ticked off. A goalie change? Check. Dion Phaneuf cheapshot? Check. A goalie trying to get into a fight with a skater because he's just so damned frustrated? Check. Colton Orr was involved in the game? Check. Got shredded by something called a "Tyler Bozak"? Oh, double check. Puck slipping off the stick on a breakaway? A three-on-zero rush culminating in futility? You better believe those were checks. Heck, we even invented the category of "taking a too-many-men penalty shorthanded in your own zone". You could play that game to your atom team as an example of what not to do.

What else can we gripe about? Let me see. A combined save percentage of .871 is a good place to start - I said in both the Oilers and Leafs game-day threads that for the first time all season the Oilers may have had the advantage in goal, and while Jeff Deslauriers was of course awful Jonas Gustavsson was little better. There were a total of five powerplay goals, which makes sense since a total of twenty-three penalties were called by officials determined to keep the game from getting interesting or at all appealing. Deslauriers wants a piece of Frankenstein's monster? Better get in there, stripes! Any trace of truculence was snuffed out by exuberant officials determined to keep the game from being worth watching. It was awesome! Go Bettman's NHL!

I mean, even the Leafs fans must have been bored by that dog, right?

The Oilers have a seven point advantage in the Fall for Hall, so much to my relief and that of a dwindling number of loyalists, we can probably start trying to win again. You see, I bitch about the Oilers, but regardless of the draft pick I want them to win their games. I bitch about them dressing Ethan Moreau instead of Fernando Pisani and tilting the field against us from the start, or the fact that Taylor Chorney has continued NHL employment when I'm certain that Igor Ulanov is available and more than willing to step in, as is his wont. I'm not entirely sure why Chris Minard is even still alive, never mind playing on a line with Sam Gagner. It would be like Blair Macdonald playing with Wayne Gretzky, except of course Gagner isn't quite as good as Gretzky yet and Minard is so much worse than Blair Macdonald I've sent Bruce out to measure the gap with one of his telescopes.

I know the Springfield Falcons are awful, but seriously, why would we call up Chris Minard and not, say, Ryan O'Marra, or Vyacheslav Trukhno, or somebody with at least one chance in a thousand of being a decent NHL player someday?

There is a certain logic to this, though. Because how healthy can it be to be a young player playing with these Edmonton Oilers right now? If you're Theo Peckham and you're tussling with Colton Orr and trying to break in, that's all well and good. But if you're Theo Peckham and in addition to trying to break in you're killing 5-on-3s and taking on Eastern Conference superstars like Nikolai Kulemin in single combat? Peckham enjoyed a short night because of two ten-minute misconducts in the third period, but Taylor Chorney played 17:59 and finished with a probable career high of "even". That can't be an easy environment to grow up in.

Devan Dubnyk played twenty minutes and faced nineteen shots. He stopped eighteen of them. He looked terrific. Even the stickhandling looked good. But he was abandoned in his own zone for seemingly epochs at a time. He still has zero NHL wins, and he never had the most remote chance of picking up win number one in Toronto. We would have seen Ethan Moreau go twenty minutes without taking a dopey penalty before we saw Devan Dubnyk win that game.

(Side note: I know Devan Dubnyk's save percentage is, like, seven. But how is he not playing more right now? Deslauriers is looking more and more like passable backup material. Fine. Fantastic. But let's see what we've got with Dubnyk. What, are we going to miss the playoffs?)

So, hey, the Oilers got humiliated by the second-last team in the NHL, and a team that's probably the worst in the NHL thanks to the mediocrity of the Eastern Conference. It would be like the Oilers being beat by the Springfield Falcons, which feels like a possibility one of these days.

Sending Jordan Eberle to the Falcons instead of exposing him to the Dion Phaneufs and Matt Cookes as he plays with Sam Gagner and Robert Nilsson might be one of the only decisions Steve Tambellini will get right.

The Copper & Blue Reverse Three Stars:

18th Star: F Zack Stortini. He's back! Back on the reverse three stars! Did he take penalties? You bet! Did he play poorly? Hells yes he did! He was a young Ethan Moreau - not in the sense of how young Ethan Moreau actually played (he was pretty good), but in the sense that if you took 2010 Ethan Moreau and imagined what he would have been like in his mid-twenties, you'd wind up with Zack Stortini tonight.

Two penalty minutes, -2, 6:40 of ice time. A pretty grisly game from Stortini. There was absolutely nothing about him. He was even outdone by a rookie when it came to sticking up for his teammates. We'd have been better off playing Moir or Virtue in his spot.

19th Star: G Jeff Deslauriers. His game was very typical Jeff Deslauriers. A couple fantastic saves, not to mention five goals in forty minutes. He's reaching the point where he defies description, like the Mona Lisa's smile in reverser. I think more and more that I could live with him as a Jussi Markkanen or a Bob Essensa: a guy who should never have been a starting goalie, was for a forgettable and regrettable period, but was still a perfectly serviceable and even admirable backup.

20th Star: D Theo Peckham. When your goaltender allows five goals in forty minutes to the 29th-placed team in the National Hockey League and you dislodged him from the twentieth star, that's send-your-stick-to-the-Hockey-Hall-of-Fame stuff right there. Peckham got about eleven minutes of ice time because of his aforementioned penalties. In that eleven-odd minutes, he was -1 and never looked for a millisecond like he could play NHL defense, including getting thrashed by John Mitchell of all people for a scoring chance in the first period.

I hear your screams of derision. Peckham stood up for his teammates all night. When Jeff Deslauriers went off at Dion Phaneuf, it was Theo Peckham who stepped in as the stripes pulled Deslauriers back like the sissies they were. He tussled with Colton Orr and never took no for an answer. He was, as Brian Burke might say, truculent. But he wasn't a very good hockey player.

Peckham was a good teammate, except for the part where the team was worse with him in the lineup.

Oilers v. Maple Leafs - Isaiah 64:7-12

2010-03-13T23:42:39Z

We are almost embarrassed to call on your name
and to cry out for your help in this moment of need.
You have hidden your face from us all year long
and demonstrated that this team is terrible because of its many sins.

Yet, Yahweh, you are our God,
you are like a potter, and this team the clay.
May it be that even in your condemnation you mold something beautiful.

Do not be angry at your chosen team forever;
set aside the bad decisions of the past.
Think of us, the faithful fans,
for we are your people.

Your sacred city, Edmonton, is like a frozen desert;
there are no wins, there is little hope.
The glorious temple where our fathers gathered for endless praise
is now slandered day and night
as people cry out for a new more "impressive" place to gather.

We see our sin but after all this pain Yahweh...

Hold us back from victory!
Keep silent for just one more month!
For "saving" us now would only deepen our misery.
And haven't you punished us enough?

Edmonton Oilers (21-39-7) @ Toronto Maple Leafs (22-33-12)

Air Canada Centre, 5:00 P.M. MST
Television: CBC

More analysis after the jump...

Visiting Team Scouting Report:

You don't need me to tell you that the Toronto Maple Leafs aren't a good team. Even just looking at that group of forwards leaves you scratching your head. Of the twelve forwards listed below only Kessel, Lundmark, Primeau and Orr have played over 200 NHL games. The only guys joining them if we move the limit back to 100 are Kulemin, Mitchell and Grabovski. And there are only three names on that list that you'd be excited about having under contract. One of those three cost them their first round draft pick both this season and next. The defenders are alright but the best of the lot is on the last year of a discount contract next season and is already on the wrong side of thirty. Five of them make at least 3.5M per season and several aren't worth the money. They're paying an under-performing goalie 6M for next season so that's not a place to save money either. And on top of it all, they're out 1M in cap space for the next four seasons for buying out Darcy Tucker. I don't know Brian Burke's plan going forward but they're honestly in worse shape over the next few years than the Oilers. Hard times.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (21-39-7):

Moreau - Horcoff - Comrie
Penner - Cogliano - Brule
Pouliot - Gagner - Minard
Nilsson - Potulny - Stortini

Gilbert - Whitney
Strudwick - Chorney
Johnson - Peckham

Backsides

Toronto Maple Leafs (22-33-12)

Kulemin - Bozak - Kessel
Stalberg - Grabovski - Caputi
Mitchell - Hanson - Lundmark
Primeau - Wallin - Orr

Kaberle - Schenn
Beauchemin - Phaneuf
Gunnarson - Finger

Gustavsson

Behind the Numbers:

The Edmonton Oilers and Atlanta Thrashers are tied for the lowest points percentage in the league in one-goal games: .500. Weird system.
The Maple Leafs have yet to win a game this season when trailing after two periods. In 35 tries they've posted a record of 0-28-7. The team most likely to come back when down after two periods is the Vancouver Canucks with a record of 10-16-1.
Andrew Cogliano comes into tonight's game only one point away from 100 for his NHL career. Tom Gilbert only needs two points to join him at 100. When they get there, they'll join Shawn Horcoff, Ales Hemsky, Fernando Pisani, Brett Callighen and Sam Gagner as the only Oilers with 100 career points to never play a game for another NHL team. Only Callighen is retired and even he played for the New England Whalers in the old WHA.
The Maple Leafs' leading scorer is Tomas Kaberle with 46 points on the season. Six of the guys in the top ten have been traded to other teams (Ponikarovsky, Stagan, Hagman, Stempniak, Blake, White). The Oilers' leading scorer is Dustin Penner with 49 points on the season. The worst mark for a leading scorer in franchise history (excluding the 48-game lockout season) is Petr Klima's 48-point season in 1992-93.
Edmonton is currently 26th in the league in hits on the road (road only to minimize counting bias in any one arena). The teams below them are Phoenix, Nashville, Chicago and Buffalo. Other teams in the bottom ten include Washington and San Jose. I'm all for physical play when it helps you win but I'm not convinced that whatever gets counted in this "hits" column is the kind of physical play that does it.