Penner keeps Plugging While Oilers Players Recovering
With just three wins in their past ten games, the Edmonton Oilers continue to struggle through the first half of the 2009-10 NHL season. Once again, the team has been forced to grapple with a ridiculous spate of injuries, the latest of which coming to starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin and winger Ales Hemsky.
Khabibulin is currently day-to-day with a sore back, while Hemsky was plastered into the boards by Michal Handzus in the first period of the game against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. He is listed day-to-day with the ever vague “upper-body injury”. Incredibly, just as I predicted earlier this year, once again the Oilers have faced an avalanche of injuries that has seriously impacted their ability to field a consistently competitive team. There are currently nine players on the injured list, and the team has already lost 146 man-games to injury this season in 25 games. That puts them on pace to reach 479 games lost on the season.
One of the few players on the team not have spent time on the IR this year has been winger Dustin Penner. Despite the Oilers’ woes so far this year, Penner has been a particularly bright spot on a team full of cloudy days. He has finally lived up to the potential that was envisioned when GM Kevin Lowe signed him to an offer sheet as a restricted free agent from Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks in the summer of 2007.
It was looking less and less likely that Penner would blossom into the power forward that he looked as though he could be. In his first full season he had 29 goals with the Ducks, but since then he has yet to match that high. Since moving to the Oilers he hasn’t come anywhere close to that, managing just 23 goals in 2007-08, and a paltry 17 in 2008-09.
One of the problems was that Penner spent much of his time prior to this season in Craig MacTavish’s doghouse, occasionally as a healthy scratch. While he was heckled for his apparent lack of effort, the power of hindsight can show us that perhaps MacT’s coaching strategy of constantly berating the player didn’t help in this case.
Penner was unable to carve out a role on the team, lost ice time, and consequently lost his confidence. The change of scenery associated with the firing of MacTavish and the hiring of Pat Quinn and Tom Renney appears to have made a world of difference to Penner. He has regained his confidence and scoring touch, and has become the cornerstone of the Oilers’ offense. He’s on the first line and first power play unit, playing just over 20 minutes a night. This is up from 15 minutes a night last season under MacTavish
So far this season, not only has Penner become Edmonton’s most valuable player, but he among the league’s best in multiple categories. He currently sits 11th in league scoring, 10th in goals and 14th in plus minus. In games he is a gamebreaker, and an immovable object from the front of the net. He’s currently on pace for over 40 goals and 80 points, and although he may slow down from his torrid pace so far he looks to easily eclipse his previous career highs. Whether this breakthrough performance helps propel the team to the post-season or is wasted on another 11th place finish, Oilers fans are hoping for the best.
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