2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Edmonton Oilers versus the Colorado Avalanche
The Northwest Division rivals will be facing each other in the first of six matches this Thursday. This is lone game of 25th November 2010 which will be featuring the Edmonton Oilers and the Colorado Avalanche.
If we look at the statistics then the Colorado Avalanche has played 21 games so far and won 13 games and sit in a good position with 25 points. On the other hand, the Edmonton Oilers have played 20 games but to their disappointment have won only 9 games
scoring 14 points.
The Colorado Avalanche was having goal keeping problems when the season began but things were getting smooth now. But just as the Colorado Avalanche thought they didn’t need to worry about this, their goal keeper Craig Anderson got injured one again.
Anderson returned after an injury but on Wednesday while playing against the Vancouver Canucks sustained an injury to the groin. The Colorado Avalanche suffered as a result and ended the four games winning streak. Anderson had missed 10 games due to the
injury previously and now things are going to get difficult for the Coach Joe Sacco.
Colorado Avalanche’s hopes of a win will be further hurt by the fact that their Captain Adam Foote also got injured in the encounter against the Vancouver Canucks this Wednesday. Foote is one of the experienced and very important defensemen in the Colorado
line up whose injury would surely hurt the Avalanche. The goal keeper was replaced by Peter Budaj when he got injured and made 9 saves.
Commenting on his performance the Coach said, "Peter (Budaj) came in and played fine," Sacco said. "I don't think there was any issue there.
"When you lose one defenseman, you're down to five so that changes the chemistry a little bit back there. But I'd say overall we just weren't good enough tonight."
However, the Edmonton Oilers was left stunned as the Phoenix Coyotes defeat the Oilers 5-0 in a thrashing performance this Tuesday. After the match, the Head Coach of the Oilers Tom Renney was very angry and couldn’t control the anger.
After the match he said, "Nobody said we were going to win the Stanley Cup this year," Renney said. "It is a work in progress, and the one thing I don't want to see happen here is people bail out on this, on our expectation of becoming a good team as the
season goes on.
"It's not going to happen overnight and we've shown some touches where we've been good, and we've shown some times when we haven't been very good, and I don't think that should come as a surprise to anybody."
The last time the two teams were up against each other, the Edmonton Oilers managed to get ahead with a slender lead winning the match 5-4.
The Avalanche hope will be boosted to learn the fact that their defenseman Michael Liles has scored 5 goals so far and is in good shape ahead of the match. Though the odd might be against the Oilers to win the match, anything is possible as we have seen
in the season so far. But one thing is for sure: this match will be a very tough and entertaining encounter.
Tags: