14/15 Training Camp Notes Day 1

Today marked the opening day of on ice training for the Edmonton Oilers and once again it was open to the public. The public portion started at 10:00 this morning but the players didn’t hit the ice until closer to 11. As you know the players have been separated into three teams for the first few days of camp, Team Gretzky, Team Messier and Team Kurri. The doors opened today and when the players skated out on the ice it was team Messier vs Team Kurri.

Team Messier’s (in blue) line up looked like this;

Pouliot-Draisaitl-Perron

Hamilton-Acton-Pitlick

Roy-Yakimov-Chase

Moroz-Khaira-Baltisberger

Nurse-Petry

Marincin-Schultz

Craig-Betker

Bachman

Tuohimaa

Bunz

 

Team Kurri (wearing white) looked like this;

Yakupov-Arcobello-Purcell

Pakarinen-Lander-Pinizzotto

Winqvist-Williams-Tkachev

Hamilton-Platzer-Miller

Houck

Ference-Simpson

Musil-Rowley

Oesterle-Ludwig

Boland

Brossoit

Rimmer

Bouchard

 

Team Messier Notes

 

The Draisaitl – Perron – Pouliot line (now named the DPP line) had immediate chemistry. They were absolutely flying out there, responsible for two of three Team Messier goals. Draisaitl’s vision was much better than I expected. I like the idea of this line because these two veterans should insulate the rookie center pretty well.

Bogdan Yakimov is huge, but besides his size he skate very well. Centering a line with Greg Chase and Marco Roy he did very well in creating opportunities in the offensive zone. He makes room for everyone out there and for a player of his size he can be quite sneaky, at one point he ended up with the puck all alone in front of the net with nothing but time and just missed squeezing the puck between the tenders legs into the back of the net. I like this player, I wonder if he’ll get a real shot.

Pitlick had some good chances today as well, he skates well. I was sitting with Paul Almeida and he mentioned that if Pitlick can be one of the hardest working players out there he just might be the fourth line forward left when the final cuts are made.

Khaira and Moroz looked just ok. Khaira seemed to be fighting the puck a bit and had the play turned the other way when he lost possession more than once. Moroz was hitting and battling out there but he’s a very long shot to make the team. I do see the two as linemates in OKC this year though, and potential to be two thirds of the Oilers third line a few years from now.

Justin Schultz and Martin Marincin looked good out there today. Schultz joined the rush a few times and didn’t look any worse for wear, he created some high quality scoring chances and on defense didn’t seem to have any breakdowns that led to good chances against.

Marinicin was steady, making good passes, got the puck out of his own zone quickly, exactly what I expected from him. The extra weight he put on didn’t seem to affect his skating at all. He did try and make a cute pass at the blue line that caused a turn over though, its day one at camp so I’ll forgive it.

Darnell Nurse, man this kid wants to hit everything that moves. It was obvious that he held back on a few potential bone crushing checks, but he was still engages physically. He didn’t jump up in the rush as much as he was last year, I think it’s a sign of maturity on his part for sure. Defensively he was steady, I do worry a bit about his discipline though hopefully it is something he can reign in over time.

Nurse’s defense partner Jeff Petry was knocked out of the game early on a hit by Anton Lander, it was announced that Petry just tweaked something and is considered day to day.

 

Team Kurri Notes

The first line was made up of Arcobello – Yakupov – Purcell, they started pretty slow in fact I wasn’t impressed and heard some fans around me whispering their discontent. However after the first 30 minute session and and scrape of the ice this line came out on fire. They created quite a few chances and also managed to show some sustained pressure in the offensive zone. The effort culminated in Yakupov scoring a nice goal and a low blocker side wrister that the goalie didn’t have a chance at saving. If this is a line going forward it will take some getting used to.

Anton Lander played pretty well today, he was physical as well, he sent Jeff Petry to the locker room with a shoulder “tweak”. His play with and without the puck was steady and he earned himself a spot with Yakupov and Purcell during a brief power play later in the skating session. This is an important camp for Anton, time for him to take his spot of find another place to play.

Iiro Pakarinen was mostly unnoticeable at the start of the day, but like Lander, as the session went on he seemed to get more comfortable out there. He can be credited with the biggest hit of the day when he layed out an opposing player while driving in on the forecheck. This is the type of play we’ll need to see consistently from him if he stands a chance at winning the fourth line right wing spot.

Andrew Miller, I had to look at the roster hand out probably five or six times to see who number 58 was. He made quite a few good plays on the defensive side of the puck, played physical and didn’t look out of place when playing against some of the regular NHL’rs. It seems like he knows how hard he is going to have to work in order to get noticed enough by the coaches. Miller wins my Chop Wood, Carry Water award on the day.

Andrew Ference was paired with Dillon Simpson at the start, Simpson got his bell rung pretty good early into the skate and was unnoticeable after that. Ference was Ference, he’s the captain of the team and you could see him often giving advice and pointer to many of the other campers.

It would have been nice to see Team Gretzky on the ice but they skated before the doors were open to the public. I’m sure that people will be able to get a look at them tomorrow when the Rexall doors open to the public again at 10:00. There aren’t a lot of spots at camp but from what I saw today there are a few players that are going to try and make the coaches decision on who they send down to OKC and back to junior as difficult as possible. Should be an interesting few weeks.

 

Thanks for Reading.

 

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