The head man needed no prodding when the conversation shifted to the overworked Nikolai Khabibulin, who was noticeable in his absence at the Edmonton Oilers practice session on Friday.

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Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin holds his helmet after giving up a goal to the New York Islanders on Nov. 2.

Photograph by : Edmonton Journal

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"We've only played 16 (games), but he's played 25," said Pat Quinn. "Time to let him stay home."

The Oilers netminder has now been blitzed with 478 shots through 14 games, and to his credit, has stopped 433 of them. Only Craig Anderson of the Colorado Avalanche has seen more, but he has also played more games.

"A goalie is supposed to give you confidence. He's given us plenty," said Oilers defenceman Tom Gilbert. "We're giving up too much. Our defensive zone play isn't good enough. They just pass the puck around and shoot from everywhere."

The presumption then is that the Oilers are not only frittering away valuable points in the standings in this slide that stretched to 1-6 with a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, they are squandering some good goaltending efforts along the way.

Khabibulin has still managed to maintain a. 907 save percentage--a mirror image of the Calgary Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff.

Khabibulin's relief man, Jeff Deslauriers, was peppered with 70 shots in the two games he has played this season.

Only once have the Oilers managed to outshoot their opponent, and that was in the season opener. Compounding their misery is the fact they're not scoring nearly enough at the other end.

"We're just not giving him the goals," said Andrew Cogliano. "He's seeing 40-plus shots and we're not scoring. You get two or three a game, you'll probably win with him in net.

"This is a down part of the season for us. We have to find a way out."

And now the Oilers head out for a five-game road trip that starts in Denver on Sunday and wraps up Nov. 16 in Columbus. They are 1-5 on the road and in their last three losses they have been outscored 9-3. In short, they're not blocking shots at one end and not generating enough at the other.

"We have to find a way to get our shots down.(Khabibulin) has played great. He's given us a chance to win," said captain Ethan Moreau. "We just have to find a way to give him some easy nights.

"We have some shortcomings in our game we need to fix in a hurry," Moreau continued. "We have to find a way to reduce the shots we're giving up, and that's a lot of things. It's backchecking hard. It's blocking shots, having good sticks, battling in front of the net.

"At the other end of the rink, we need to get more shots. We haven't shot enough. We don't drive the net as well as we should."

"We're not sustaining our efforts," said Quinn. "We don't go to the areas you have to go to to win hockey games. We have to find ways to get them done."

reland@thejournal.canwest.com