Edmonton @ St. Louis

The Oilers start their road-trip tonight in St. Louis, and this all starts off with some rather grave news.

Lubomir Visnovsky had an MRI and now he's not playing in tonight's game. This means that Jason Strudwick gets moved back on the defense... Okay, this is okay... This will be alright. Right? RIGHT?!

Calm it down... Calm it down...

Alright, well this means that there will be some shuffling on the back end, here's my suggestion:

Souray - Smid
Grebeshkov - Gilbert
Staois - Strudwick

I know. Smid on the first D pairing? Yes, I think that Souray is the kind of player that Ladislav could become within the next year or two; and if we want this to happen, which I clearly do, he needs to play with him and learn from him.

Penner apparently has been moved back up to the first line, which is completely fine with me. Nilsson is practically useless any way, and Penner at least makes some room for Hemsky when he's playing well; Nilsson is a turnover machine and he's weak on the back-check. Hemsky may turn over the puck a lot but his offensive upside far outweighs his defensive liability. Speaking of which I've seen a lot more defensive responsibility from Hemsky lately, and so long as it doesn't interfere with his offense I have no objections. Potulny is down on to the fourth line, which I personally think is kind of ridiculous because I think he plays with a lot of effort night in and night out, and this is something we could use. Reddox plays on the third line, which I suppose is okay; I want him to run around and check everything that moves. Everything.

I think the Oilers will win tonight. Provided they put in a full effort I think they come away with this one; we need to stay out of the penalty box, because their powerplay is not something we want to play with.