CHICAGO — Remember 2007?
The day of the NHL trade deadline when the Edmonton Oilers dealt Ryan Smyth and proceeded to go on the worst slide in team history, losing 18 of their last 20 games. Remember how they were so decimated by injuries on the blue-line, they had to call up a junior player on emergency relief just to fill out the lineup?
Well, there is a certain similarity between then and now as the Oilers went into Wednesday’s contest against the Chicago Blackhawks with four minor-league defencemen, two who had been called up that day, and one who showed up a period into the game.
Yet to everyone’s surprise, the Oilers did put up some resistance in a 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks. They even held the lead at one point.
“I thought we did pretty good early on, we were checking pretty well, but then we started playing the turnover game, which put pressure on our young defence,” said Oilers head coach Pat Quinn. “They have two terrific lines and it showed a little later on. We weren’t checking as well and they were good with the puck. We can learn some lessons from them.”
In a span of three days, the Oilers traded away their most experienced blue-liners as they shipped off Lubomir Visnovsky and Steve Staios Wednesday, prior to the trade deadline, and Denis Grebeshkov on Monday.
They called up Johan Motin and Dean Arsene to fill in the holes left behind by the two veteran blue-liners. Motin was playing in his first NHL game, while Arsene, who has two NHL games under his belt, arrived after the first period.
The day before, Taylor Chorney and Theo Peckham had been recalled to take Grebeshkov’s and Ladislav Smid’s spot in the lineup. Smid did not make the trip with an old, nagging neck injury, which may require season-ending surgery.
“They had a lot of pressure on us, pretty much the whole game,” said Tom Gilbert, suddenly the second-most senior member on the blue-line. “Devan Dubnyk played great. We had our chances and it was a tie game going into the third.”
Despite the inexperience on the blue-line, the Oilers were able to hold off the Blackhawks onslaught through the first two periods, mainly due to the play of Dubnyk, himself a callup, having spent the Olympic break in the AHL. The Blackhawks had outshot the Oilers 33-11 through 40 minutes, yet went into the second intermission tied 2-2.
Marian Hossa opened the scoring in the second period, snapping a shot over the shoulder of Dubnyk.
The Oilers surprisingly tied the game against the flow of play as Sam Gagner’s centring pass got tied up in Cristobal Huet’s pad, allowing Robert Nilsson to poke it home. Shawn Horcoff then gave the Oilers the lead, as Gilbert Brule took the puck off Niklas Hjalmarsson deep in the Blackhawks zone and fed the puck out to the centre in the slot.
The lead didn’t last long as Hossa set up Bolland at the side of the net for the tying goal less than a minute later.
Then 20 seconds into the third, the Blackhawks went ahead as Hajlmarsson’s point shot found it’s way past Dubnyk.
Dustin Byfuglien added a fourth midway through the frame and Jonathan Toews rounded out the scoring.
“I’m not going to blame the kids, but I think the game shifted after the first period,” Quinn said. “We stopped putting things at the net and we stopped skating.”
Notes: Sheldon Souray may be done for the season as he’s developed an infection in his hand after undergoing surgery.
derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca
