Penner making Mac-T look good

Dustin Penner obviously didn’t like the way the message was delivered by coach Craig MacTavish, but it’s abundantly obvious the big Edmonton Oilers’ winger got the gist of it and has taken it to heart.

Called out in the newspapers and kicked upstairs to the press box for two games for what MacTavish considered substandard play and insufficient results, Penner has responded by playing his best stretch of hockey since arriving from the Anaheim Ducks at the start of last season. Penner’s goal just 49 seconds into Saturday’s 3-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks stood as the winner and gives him 10 points, including five goals, in the 10 games he’s played since taking a seat against Colorado Nov. 15 and Detroit two nights later.

“Obviously, there was a positive impact from the situation three weeks ago,” Penner said. “I got a chance to re-focus.”

Publicly flogging any player has its risks, and MacTavish was criticized in some corners for it — and for sitting Penner out for two games instead of just one — but there’s no getting around the results.

In my mind, it’s how MacTavish handled the situation after publicly showing up Penner that made it a masterfully calculated stroke. By putting Penner back on left wing alongside Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky on his first line, MacTavish put him in a position to succeed.

It worked. Penner, the line and the Oilers have, despite a couple of hiccups, been playing markedly better since.

Saturday’s win over the Canucks has the Oilers at 4-1-0 in their last five games and 14-12-2 overall as they begin a long stretch at home.

“We’ve recaptured, I think, the chemistry we had last year and we’re building on it,” Penner said.
 
BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS

The win over the Canucks improved the Oilers to 4-4-2 at Rexall Place and was the kind of effort MacTavish has been demanding for weeks. The Oilers were more intense and robust than they’ve been in a long time.

They won battles for the puck. They threw pucks at Curtis Sanford and mucked for rebounds and quality scoring chances. They forced the issue.

“That was pretty close to a perfect game,” said captain Ethan Moreau. “We initiated the physical play. They were responding with us, but we came out with an edge.”

Inserting wide-bodies Zack Stortini and Jason Strudwick up front on the fourth line in place of Liam Reddox and Rob Schremp had a lot to do with that.

– In a decade covering the Edmonton sports scene, Robin Brownlee has been the news-breaker and insightful voice for sports fans in Oil Country.