Just some early season fantasy notes from the game last night.
Forwards
Ales Hemsky: Hemmer looked disinterested and was always the first of the Oilers first liners off the ice when they changed on the fly. He also seemed happy to settle for the shot from the outside rather than driving the net, which is when he makes defenders look foolish. For a guy whose number one knock has been consistency, this is not a good start to the season.
Dustin Penner: Penner parked himself in front of the net on the first powerplay unit and was a key part of an effective third line w
ith Cogliano and Brule. He logged 16 minutes of ice and scored a goal and an assist. A couple of lazy offsides are worrisome.
Olli Jokinen and Jarome Iginla: It was a quiet game for the two fantasy stalwarts as they combined for an assist and two shots on goal. No need to worry here, just an off night.
JF Jacques: I know no one in their right mind would ever own Jacques, but he is the Oilers first line left winger so I figured I should comment. He threw a couple of big hits, but blew several excellent scoring opportunities with the stone hands that have allowed him to score one point in sixty career games.
Defencemen
Lubomir Visnovsky: Visnovsky only played 17 minutes, good for 5th among Oilers defenceman. He did, however, record an assist, was +2 and looked good. No need to worry as the Oilers are just breaking him in slow after last season’s shoulder injury.
Jay Bouwmester: Jay Bo was pretty quiet and not very noticeable, but that can be very misleading. He recorded two powerplay assists while more or less playing the traditional 30 minutes of solid defensive Jay Bouwmeester hockey.
Goaltenders
Nikolai Khabibulin: The stats don’t look good, but two of the goals were powerplay deflections on which he had no chance. Khabibulin played 59 excellent minutes of hockey before misplaying a dump in that allowed David Moss to score the game winner with 49 seconds left.
Miikka Kiprusoff: Despite making 31 saves, Kipper did not look good. The Oilers were targeting his five hole, scoring two goals this way. He was giving out plenty of rebounds, and if he only plays 60-65 games like coach Brent Sutter has suggested, he loses a lot of value.
