Okay, So I Missed It...

Okay, so stop criticizing me.  What I meant was, I didn't post to commemorate the first game of the year.  I didn't talk about the excitement of a new season, or the hope that the Oilers Organization has been slipping into every mention of the team since the draft; I didn't talk about how Hall, Eberle, or Paajarvi were making their NHL debuts, or how I was looking forward to watching Hemsky in a regular season game again.

I'm sorry, I figured that much was obvious.

Regardless, it was a phenomenal game, and I can't help but feel that I don't really care how the rest of the season goes.  On Thursday I watched potential.  I watched what the Oilers could be. I watched what the Oilers will be in a few years.  I watched as Rexall Place exploded with ecstasy, with roars of appreciation, with euphoric relief.  Relief that we weren't going to be both the worst team in the league and the most boring to watch.  Relief that the kids were fitting in alright with an NHL pace.  Relief that Hemsky seemed his old self out there.  Relief that we shot the puck while on the powerplay.  Relief that the Oilers weren't going to suffer another series sweep at the hands of our neighbours to the south.  Relief that we scored more than one or two goals.

Relief that there really was light at the end of this tunnel.

That's right Oilers Faithful, after all these years of drastically less than repetitive mediocrity, we have something to look forward to.  It's been awfully dark in Edmonton these last few seasons, and to see the light of day coming on the horizon is a most welcome change.

The Oilers are at home once again tonight.  The Florida Panthers are in town.  Good luck boys, and I look forward to watching you in a couple hours.

Last Pre-Season Game of the 2010-2011 Season

It's the last game before the regular season starts, and the Oilers overall have been better than I expected.  Magnus Paajarvi and Jordan Eberle have performed at a level that I wasn't expecting them to reach.  Hall, while a little less impressive, is also the youngest of the three and has the least playing experience, so I think he'll come along with age.   Paajarvi has some nice size to him, and so does Hall, and that will work to their advantage.  Eberle, while smaller, has insane hockey sense, and some pretty decent chemistry with Horcoff.  I'm excited to see if Paajarvi can click with Hemsky the way that some people have suggested. 

Some of the smaller name guys have been rather impressive as well.  I like Ondrus, and Vande Velde; also Jones and Giroux have their moments.  On the back end things get a little murkier.  It's obvious that Whitney, Gilbert, Smid, and Foster will likely make up the top four.  The bottom two are a little less obvious. Peckham, while a favourite heading into camp, has not been all that impressive, and some guys that are lower on the depth chart, like Petiot and Belle, have out-performed him come game-time.  Vandermeer is also in the mix, though he has his moments of lackluster play to consider, and a penchant for taking penalties at terrible times, which Peckham has been guilty of as well.

The goaltending situation is something that needs to be dealt with.  To be honest I though Khabibulin looked terrible against Calgary on Friday.  Granted, his team didn't give him a whole lot of help, but he wasn't stealing

the show either, and some of those saves that a team needs a goaltender to make?  He missed them.  He looked good against Vancouver though, and anyone who bets money that he doesn't make the team is probably a fool.  The JDD-DD debate is one that a lot of people have weighed in on, and I don't know where I stand.  Personally I think that Dubnyk is a more composed goaltender, and I think he would be my choice over Deslauriers, though he has his share of upside as well.  I won't even pretend I know the answer, and I'll try to do my best to stand behind whatever management's decision is on the netminders.

I haven't been able to dedicate as much time as I would've liked to watching the Oilers this preseason (University is tough sometimes), but I thought they would be much worse than they are.  That said, most of their success came from games against lackluster lineups (with the exception of the first game vs. Vancouver), but we haven't iced a full NHL lineup yet either, and by the looks of tonight's lineup we're not planning on icing an NHL lineup until the season opener.

The Oilers are playing a half-NHL, half-Minors squad against what is pretty darn close to the Flames' starting lineup tonight.  I'm not expecting much out of them, but then again, I wasn't expecting much out of the squad in the first Vancouver game either.

Surprise me?

The team lineups are as follows:

Edmonton:

Dustin Penner (27) - Andrew Cogliano (13) - Jordan Eberle (14)
Alexandre Giroux (12) - Sam Gagner (89) - Gilbert Brule (67)
Linus Omark (23) - Colin Fraser (16) - Ryan Jones (28)
Steve MacIntyre (33) - Ryan O'Marra (42) - Ben Ondrus (25)


Ladislav Smid (5) - Theo Peckham (49)
Jason Strudwick (43) - Tom Gilbert (77)
Richard Petiot (37) - Shawn Belle (45)

Jeff Deslauriers (38)
Devan Dubnyk (40)

Calgary:

Tanguay - Jokinen - Iginla
Hagman - Backlund - Bourque
Glencross - Meyer - Jackman
Ivanans - Sutter - Conroy

Regehr - White
Bouwmeester - Giordano
Brodie - Pardy

Kiprusoff
Karlsson