EDMONTON - How much is too much for Edmonton Oilers defenceman Ryan Whitney(notes)?
Whitney is playing almost half the game and doing everything but driving the Zamboni around the rink between periods after singing The Star Spangled Banner as one of the few Americans on the NHL club.
He's not auditioning for the Oilers' new cheer team, as far as we know. But that's because it's females only.
The man is versatile, maybe a little taxed for time, too. But Whitney, who is playing 26:02 a night and leading the team in points, with six, and winger Ales Hemsky(notes), who hasn't had a bad game yet, have been the best Oilers in the first 2-1/2 weeks.
While the Oilers are riding a four-game losing streak entering tonight's game against the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Whitney has no apologies to make. He's playing five-on-five against the other team's top guns, and is also on the first power-play unit, and often on the first defensive pairing out to kill a penalty.
Whitney is carrying his weight, not to mention the "A" on his jersey, which is better than some other veterans who've had in-and-out games. The problem is: how much work can he truthfully handle? Also, can coach Tom Renney find other people on the back end to kill penalties?
It might help if Renney could get a true shutdown pair like Chris Phillips(notes) and the departed Anton Volchenkov(notes) (New Jersey Devils) used to be in Ottawa, too.
The Oilers haven't had an overtime game yet, so Whitney playing more than 26 minutes a game is heady stuff. He's playing more minutes than Nicklas Lidstrom(notes) in Detroit, Dan Boyle(notes) in San Jose, and Shea Weber(notes) in Nashville.
The Oilers have been short-handed 27 times in six games, and there's a lot of chasing involved because Edmonton is winning only 43.2 per cent of their faceoffs.
"You could overwork him, but his physical condition is exemplary, which helps," said Renney. "He's been a dominant player for us … at times, he's been exposed, but generally speaking, he's been very good."
Whitney averaged 25:22 through his 19 games with the Oilers last year, too, after they got him from the Anaheim Ducks for Lubomir Visnovsky(notes).
But, any time a player goes over 26 minutes a night, he's in rarefied NHL air. Only four players—defencemen Duncan Keith(notes), Joni Pitkanen(notes), Sergei Gonchar(notes) and Tobias Enstrom(notes)—in the entire league are over the boards and on the ice more than Whitney, who is averaging almost 31 shifts a game. He'll likely see the same workload against the Flames.
"If you're getting 29 or 30 minutes a night, then that's a lot," said Whitney, "but it depends on how the game goes.
"Like if we only have two penalties a game to kill and I'm out for a minute and a half or two minutes out of four, and we get 10 power plays and I'm playing 14 out of the 20 there, that's such a different game than the other way around, including even-strength. You're moving across the blue-line on the power play.
"When you're killing penalties, you're stopping and starting and you're up and down the ice," Whitney said.
In Pittsburgh, Whitney was on the Penguins' first power-play unit with Sergei Gonchar but, in Anaheim, the Ducks had Scott Niedermayer(notes) and centre Ryan Getzlaf(notes) on the point. They also got defenceman James Wisniewski(notes) to hammer away with shots from the blue-line.
Whitney has killed lots of penalties on every team he's been on, but this is the first time he has been the best defenceman on a team.
He does watch other big-minute defencemen to see how they conserve energy. Chris Pronger(notes) makes the 60-foot pass out of his end better than anybody in the game, then follows the play up at a fairly leisurely pace. Lidstrom is the game's premier first-pass defenceman, but he gets up ice quicker than Pronger. Keith is a tremendous skater who supposedly has the lung capacity of Lance Armstrong. Scott Niedermayer skated effortlessly, no wasted motion. It's the same with Pitkanen.
Whitney looks like he could skate forever, too, although he's had surgeries on both feet.
"I do look at other guys. Niedermayer could skate so well. Lidstrom jumps into the play when he can, but he never forces it. That's what I've tried to do more this year. I used to jump up to make it a three-on-three rush, but now I'm thinking, 'Let's just wait.' You have to know who's out there, what the score is," he said.
Playing against Jarome Iginla(notes) or Joe Thornton(notes) is a pat on the back as much as a stern test.
"I look at it as a challenge each night … makes you get more mentally prepared," said Whitney, who has played with Tom Gilbert(notes) for large chunks, but is now with Kurtis Foster(notes) as the theoretical top defence pair.
"If it's the top guys, you don't get that rest, but you know what … you play against the third lines, they'll put the puck in and forecheck even harder. The first-liners try to make plays and, if you break them up, you don't get hit as much. They might backcheck a little easier, too. There's positives and negatives."
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