Game 43 preview – Injury news, good and bad as always

At the start of the season you had told me that tonights Oilers/Coyotes game would feature the 6^th and 29^th place teams in the league I would have laughed in your face because there is no way the Oilers would be sitting with the NHLs elite teams this late in the season. As it turns out I would have been right, the Oilers wouldn’t be in that position but somehow the Coyotes are.

At the mid way point of the season the Coyotes have got to be the story of the year. This was a team caught in the middle of an ugly ownership/relocation fight that dragged through the court system all summer long. Most of the prognosticators felt that the Coyotes would be in the bottom three in the Western Conference and should have a good shot at a lottery pick in the 2010 NHL Draft.

But instead it’s the Oilers that find themselves in the basement on the Western Conference. With a 1-9-0 record over their last 10 games – the one win was against the Leafs by the way – it’s somewhat surprising that the Oilers are still holding onto that number 29 spot and haven’t firmly setup residence in the NHL cellar.

Tonight the Oilers will once again have the services of Pisani at their disposal. Pisani has missed the last 23 games while battling ulcerative colitis. This is the same disease that caused him to miss the start of the 2007/08 season. With Pisani’s recent illness I thought that his career was likely over, I’m glad I was wrong. Even though Pisani won’t cure all the ills that this team has but it is, without a doubt, good to see him healthy again.

Of course when it comes to injuries and the Oilers there must also be bad news to go with any good news. In this case the bad news can be found between the pipes.

It looks as though Khabibulin, who hasn’t played November 21, continues to get closer and closer to requiring surgery to repair his back. If it turns out that surgery is the answer Khabibulin’s season will obviously be over but the questions about giving a 36 year old goalie with a history of back problems a four year deal will just be starting.

With Dubnyk reassigned to Springfield, Deslauriers will once again start for the Oilers tonight. The will be start number 20 for Deslauriers in the Oilers last 21 games. What benefit does running Deslauriers out there night after night have exactly? This team isn’t making the playoffs this year so why not give him a night off.

Last season in a desperate, and ultimately futile, attempt to make the playoffs the Oilers rode Roloson every night From December through March. As a result when Roloson’s contract was up at seasons end the team had no idea what type of player they had in Deslauriers and had to go outside the organization to find a starting goalie, one that they gave a four year deal to.

Now Khabibulin is out and rather than learn from the mistakes of the past the Oilers are repeating them by playing Deslauriers every night. Since Khabibulin’s back went out Dubnyk has started one game for the Oilers and three for the Springfield Flacons. That’s it, four games in six weeks.

I don’t think the Oilers would be in a much better spot had they played Dubnyk more – they might be worse off which could be seen by some as better as it would improve their chances at a top pick – but this season isn’t about results anymore it’s about evaluating talent. But to evaluate talent the player has to actually be on the ice. All we’ve learned about Dubnyk is that he can sit on the bench, which is the same thing we learned about Deslauriers last season. It was a stupid mistake last year and repeating it this season is even stupider.

Bryzgalov will stand on his head tonight and the Coyotes will win 4-1. But nobody will know because we’ll all be watching the Canada/USA game instead.