On a team that won 25 games all year long, Martin Gerber won all three games he appeared in. His reward? Oklahoma City.
Gerber's save percentage (.958) ranks first overall among goalies who played more than 180 minutes in the show. His reward? Oklahoma City.
Martin Gerber 10-11
- Boxcars: 3gp, 1.30
- SP: .958
- WLT: 3-0-0
- SP behind starter: Gerber was 68 points clear of the veteran
- What do these numbers tell us? You're kidding, right? Put it this way: a drowning man was thrown a rope. The drowning man threw it back.
- How could these numbers be better? I don't know, MAYBE A FOURTH START!!?!?!?!?!?
- You're overreacting. Oh go to hell. Look, Gerber might have started his fourth game and allowed 5 goals and he STILL would have been a better option for the following game.
- So you're saying the Oilers could have finished 13th overall as opposed to 15th? I'll pass. That's not the point: if you find an option that is clearly the best one during the season, you owe it to your team to employ that option. NK worked 47 games and lost 32 of them. Why couldn't Gerber get 20 of those starts?
- Well there are AHL rules. To hell with the rules. Purchase his contract and play the man.
- Who would play in OKC? Khabibulin.
- What kind of message would that send to future UFA's? Oh, I don't know. Maybe "when you can't play NHL hockey we're going to pay you full wrench to play in a lower table." Something like that.
- Good luck signing another front line free agent. I'll take my chances.
- Gerber was only average in the AHL. His .911 AHL save percentage was 21 points clear of NK in the NHL. I don't see that there's a lot of evidence this guy didn't deserve 10 starts and then another 10 if he earned it.
- You predicted he'd played 10 games. He played three. Big deal. The big deal is his performance in these games. Martin Gerber signed a deal in good faith, and that usually means that at some point if you're better than the next man you'll get your chance.
- Do you or do you not want the first overall pick? Not this way. I understand the Oilers aren't very good and I also understand they're building toward a wonderful tomorrow. I don't understand how on God's earth the Oilers can defend the decision to play Martin Gerber in 3 freaking games. This was a very disappointing decision, right at the end of the roster. Hard to grow champions by holding back their best chance to win. There's no guarantee that he would have continued on that fast track, and in fact it's very likely his numbers would have evened out over the season. However, he could have sucked and blew but still ended up with a better record than Khabibulin. He deserved the opportunity, his teammates deserved the best available goaltending, and the fans deserved the best quality Edmonton could offer on the ice. Fin.
Prediction for 2010-11: 10gp, 3.60 .899
Actual 2010: 3gp, 1.30 .958
Wonder if he'll sign with Edmonton?
linger is my verification word. Martin Gerber did not linger in Edmonton very long.
ReplyDeleteTambo & Lowe wanted the first overall pick. that is the only explanation for the way the goalie's were used last year.
I wrote a long time ago that you will not win the cup if Hemmer is your best player. Now let's hope that Taylor Hall and the Nuge are better than Hemmer..
I'm with you on this one LT. Gerber deserved more starts and the Oilers, as a team, deserved to have him start more. Playing the jebus out of a bewildered Khabibulin did nothing for anyone, not even Khabibulin benefitted from it.
ReplyDeleteSabotaging a team isn't a good way to conduct business, even though I'm sure there are a lot of people who will tell me otherwise.
Khabi has a side deal with Oiler brass to suck eggs with impunity. This means he can't be assigned to the AHL. It's not the kind of side deal where it pays to renege. He might spill the beans, and boy, would that smell bad.
ReplyDeleteThe night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride playing footsie with you. Chuck pride. Pride only hurts. It never helps. You fight through that shit.
Bruce, is that you in there? Nah, I didn't think so. We got the guy Marsellus rehearsed on.
Is there any other explanation?
If you replace "trolling" with "purposely tanking" in this image , it nicely sums up my feelings toward Oilers management.
ReplyDeleteNoodles: HAhahaha. Never tought about it. Good one.
ReplyDeleteSeguin has looked fantastic in the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand you have a group of fans that says Claude Julion is an idiot for not playing him more in the regular season.
On the other hand on have a group of fans saying Claude Julion is a genius for not playing more in the regular season.
DD had the best season of his career. I'll leave it at that.
Since commenting about the lack of accountability with Khabibulin, I've had a chance to think more about it in light of the way both DD and Gerber played last season.
ReplyDeleteKhabibulin had some good games early on under OTC before he broke down the 1st time on his Oiler contract. I'm guessing everyone (mngmnt + coaches) thought he could get that back - and playing a vet behind a lot of kids would steady the ship. Logical if he stayed healthy.
But that completely fell on its face as 2010-11 wore on. Khabibulin played too much too soon and broke down again. That's the only reason DD played as much - and Gerber made an appearance.
To your point LT, if they really felt they needed a vet in net after Khabi's injury they could have kept Gerber in Edmonton and played him. Ship Khabi to OKC (as you suggest) to regain form (if it could be done).
But no, that's not the way mngmnt or for that matter Renney (when it comes to goalies) does it. They're very stubborn.
Those who can't learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them.
When you have management intentionally drilling holes in the boat you have no idea how seaworthy Team Oilers really is.
ReplyDeleteIf you send Bhullin down to the minors then you are effectively paying 2 players $8.2 million dollars not to play for your team. Oh yeah, add in another $400,000 for Nilsson next year too.
Stortini was paid $800,000 to play in the minors.
It’s all adding up to the range of $10 Million dollars, or 20% of the team’s total salary.
To pay players not to play on your team…..
Now sure, it might not count against the cap, but Joe Fan is still paying for those salaries.
Plus they could use the money to actually pay players to play on your team. Ten Million dollars would sure help to get a few warm bodies that could help the team.
The problem is worsened when you look at the holes that weren’t filled.
I think the team has some sort of obligation to at least try to be competitive.
There are lots of folks around here that are extremely happy to finish dead last year after year and stockpile the #1 picks, but I can’t imagine the situation lasting indefinitely like this.
Players are losing lots of money if only by losing out on performance incentives. They finished dead last or bottom 3 in pretty much every measurable statistic. Athletes are competitive and won’t want to stick around a team that finishes as the doormat every year.
As our younger guys burn through their entry level contracts and start approaching RFA status other teams are going to pick us clean or force us to match outrageous offers. Two more years and Brian Burke can start offering outrageous sums to Hall and Eberle and Paajarvi. You can bet Buffalo and Anaheim will be looking for a little revenge too.
Subtract the guys who aren’t even playing for the big team and the guys who are overpaid and the guys who are hurt all the time, and what do you have left?
Rickibear should repost his stuff on guys with 30% goals to points ratio.
ReplyDeletePretty much put the last nail in the coffin for RNH in my head. Not even top 5.
That's not the point: if you find an option that is clearly the best one during the season, you owe it to your team to employ that option.
ReplyDeleteThe Oilers do not feel they owe anyone anything.
Public calls by Horcoff, Eberle, Gagner and Hall for more quality vets to help win games will also fall on deaf ears.
The Oilers are not currently about winning.
They are about accumulating high draft picks, giving kids ice time over their head, and filling out the roster with dregs.
Apparently two 1st over alls, a 10th overall and a 22nd with a very large brain are not enough.
They are trying to trade one of four (maybe even 2 of 4) actual NHLers left on the roster to make it two lottery picks this year.
If they succeed and someone is sacrificed on the alter of the rebuild for another high pick, the team will be in lottery country again next spring.
Perhaps then, in the summer of 2012, they will try to win, but they will not try today.
Will Vish and v3.0 know how to win, and how to build a roster then? I don't know. It will be 6 years out of the playoffs and in the wilderness then. Who knows what these two actually know?
So LT, take your competent vet back up, and your wish for Actual NHL players and put those wishes on ice.
Just don't put it on Rexall ice.
@Rich: That wouldn't work. He'd still be playing the majority of the games in OKC and that wouldn't help him regain form because he's old and has a history of injury. He's a backup now at best.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to get worked up about Darth Gerber here. Would he have been better than Khabibulin? Maybe...maybe not. It doesn't really matter.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone should have got more starts it should have been Dubnyk.
Gerber was banking on a Khabibulin injury when he signed with the Oilers and it didn't work out for him. Poop happens. He might be smart to flip the coin again and sign on for next year.
Damn straight.
ReplyDeleteI'm most embarrassed about the Oilers bad faith in this contract. That WILL come back to bite us in the arse one day or another.
Man,
ReplyDeletethe team sucks, managment sucks, the draft is going to suck, the team is going to suck forever, my girl ran off with the neighbour and my dog died.
You guys ever get sick of whining?
Think I'll go over to a Thrashers board for some relative optimism...
Gerber signed a deal knowing he'd likely be in OKC. He got a couple of starts and no one came knocking at the door at the trade deadline. Not worth the angst, IMO.
ReplyDeleteWoodguy said...
ReplyDeleteThat's not the point: if you find an option that is clearly the best one during the season, you owe it to your team to employ that option.
The Oilers do not feel they owe anyone anything.
Best post in many a mile.
The Oilers are not currently about winning.
ReplyDeleteThey are about accumulating high draft picks, giving kids ice time over their head, and filling out the roster with dregs.
I thought they were about making sure they don't accidentally ice a competitive team until that fancy new arena gets built.
(but then, watch out!)
"The Vancouver Model"
ReplyDeleteLOL
I'm leaning toward Boston winning, but honestly would prefer another pair of finalists.
Canucks signing Malhotra, then Torres as a bottom sixer sealed the deal for me last summer - right there and then I knew they had a great shot at making the finals.
Re Oilers and their many goalies: I suppose they want to tank, are doing everything in their power to appear like they want to do something else, and we the fans can like it or lump it.
It's all been about the arena this season anyway. Katz and Co are focussed on icing the cup winning Oilers in the new arena - thus giving Katz's ego the kind of boost it requires these days.
I'm not sure I catch your reference to buying Gerber's contract, LT - he was already Oilers' property (unlike, say, Colin McDonald), which is how he played those three games in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI'm bothered by the Oilers' handling of Gerber in sort of the same way as I'm bothered by their handling of Stortini - it's not like they had something special and refused to acknowledge it. But they had something that was better than what they were using, even if it might not have been as good as what good teams were using.
I don't buy the "bad faith" thing, though - I think Ribs and Magister Rex have it right on that front. I don't think Gerber signed thinking that he had a realistic chance of stealing Khabibulin's job if the latter stayed healthy. I'm sure it was frustrating for him to see a clearly inferior goalie get so many more NHL starts than him, but I doubt the contract was pitched to him as "Hey, we think you might be a better geezer goalie than our current one, so we'll give you both some starts and see who we prefer." Remember, when he signed there was some expectation that he was fourth on the depth-chart, and not third (the Oilers broke camp with three goalies, none of whom were him).
Also, hello from Memphis, which I like better than Nashville, having experienced them both. How is this related to hockey or the Oilers, you ask? Well, um, Nashville, in contrast to Memphis and Edmonton, has an NHL team.
ReplyDeleteNikolai Khabibulin's save percentage after the first three games: .932
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying, I'm just saying. Those starts should have went to Dubnyk, not the guy who couldn't play for the Maple Leafs.
Winnipeg getting a team. Wow, didn't see that coming.
ReplyDeleteJust as long as they don't name them the Roughriders I'm fine with this.
Does this move teams around the conferences? Pretty exciting to have 7 Canadian based teams again, even if that franchise has some serious problems.
@ DangerMan
ReplyDeleteAs the illustrious Whitney Houston once sang, "It's not right, but it's okay."
I'm as frustrated as the next Oilers fan about the obvious sandbagging by Tambo.
On the other hand, it's the lesser of two evils. Would you guys/gals prefer that he flail around throwing offer sheets at the Phil Kessels, trading 2nd round picks for the Kotaliks and making the team capstrung by loading up on mediocre vets and finishing 20th? Wait, we've already been there. :p
Again, it's not right, but it's okay. Then again, I'm not a season ticket holder, so in the meantime, I'll just shut my big yap.
On to NHL Combine talk, anyone draft or Junior fans out there have a read on Matt Puempel? He seems to have been hampered by injuries which were repaired with surgery. If he's really 100% again, and managed to score 34G 35A in 55 games hobbled, would he be a good pick at 19th?
ReplyDeleteI think Puempel goes before 19th.
ReplyDeleteLT, this may be your most fired up post ever. Good work.
ReplyDeleteI think Puempel is the next Joffrey Lupul personally. I'd take Brendan Saad before him, but he has his own DP27 type issues as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the comments and I read the article. I have to admit the whole way we have handled this team is making me embarrassed to be an Oilers Fan. I'm not leaving but to be paying 10 million for sewage is a bit hard to swallow. This summer we had better start improving or heads better roll.
ReplyDelete