Well it’s almost the weekend, and maybe more importantly it’s almost the regular season! The Oilers are in Oklahoma right now preparing for the NHL showcase game against the Dallas Stars, which is a game that will show us the closest thing to an NHL lineup we’ve seen all pre-season.
There’s a few interesting things going on with the Oilers right now, so we’ll dive into them quick hits style. Let’s begin shall we?
Jones Clears: Have to admit, I’m a little surprised by this. Ryan Jones cleared waivers this afternoon. Renaud Lavoie tweeted out last night that a few teams were considering claiming the energy forward, but clearly there were no teams willing to take the chance. Jones scored 18 goals during the 2011-12 season, but looked awful during the shortened season last year. He was recovering from an eye injury, so he deserved some slack.
Jones was expected to bounce back this season, but was a huge disappointment during training camp and was out performed by Ryan Hamilton. Jones will report to Oklahoma City and start the season with the Barons. Hopefully he can regain form down there and returns to help the lineup a few weeks down the road.
Oilers Updated Lines: Remember that article I did last night on the lines? Yeah, well Dallas Eakins read it and decided to screw with me by changing things up at practice today! The Smyth-Hall-Hemsky line, which has been one of the best during camp, stayed together and will play tomorrow night. Safe to say they will be starting the season together.
David Perron remains on the second line, but Boyd Gordon will now center the line, with Nail Yakupov on the right side. Yak and Perron are both dynamite offensive players, while Boyd Gordon is a terrific shut-down center. That said, Gordon had a pretty impressive camp and should be able to handle this line. They’ll skate together in the game tomorrow.
Jesse Joensuu joins Marc Arcobello and Jordan Eberle on line three. Hopefully Ebs and Arco can rekindle their awesome chemistry from last season, and Joensuu keeps on his hot pre-season. He’s looked really good so far, and helped make Jones expendable.
Line four is scary, I won’t lie. Will Acton won the job and centers the line. I’m not worried about him at all, it’s his wingers that scare me. Steve MacIntyre makes his pre-season debut on the left side, while Mike Brown will be on the right. That’s not a good hockey line, but they should be able to beat a few people up. I think we see Eager in Mac’s place come opening night.
Speaking of Eager, he skated with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Curtis Hamilton today. Hamilton has spent the entire camp on IR, and the Oilers haven’t said anything regarding him. The RNH front has been quiet lately, which leads me to believe he might be closer to returning than we think.
Defensively, Smid and Petry stick together, while Ference and Justin Schultz also stick together. Anton Belov has had a great camp, and will skate with Phil Larsen tomorrow night on the third pairing while Nick Schultz takes a turn in the press box. I wouldn’t read much into this, and I think it’s an audition to see who skates with the elder Schultz on Tuesday night.
Devan Dubnyk, no shock, will play the whole game on Friday night.
PP Combos: The Oilers power-play has been key for them the last few years. I think it’s primed to take a step back this year, while the five-on-five play improves. That said, the Oilers worked quite a bit on the PP today, and had some interesting combos.
Taylor Hall centered the first unit with Ryan Smyth (net front?) and Ales Hemsky on the wings, with Justin Schultz and Nail Yakupov (one-timers) on the blue line. That’s a decent unit, and should have some success.
The second unit has Arcobello centering Eberle and Joensuu (net-front?) with Belov and Perron on the back end.
No shock to see Eakins use Smyth and Joensuu as net-front guys on the PP, and use four forwards with one defender. Belov has a cannon, while Schultz has a deadly wrist shot. Yakupov will use his his cannon for the point shot on that unit.
The Oilers wrap up the pre-season against the Stars tomorrow night. It’ll be close to an NHL lineup and should be a good game to pay attention to. Legit hockey is right around the corner my friends. Things are about to get fun again.
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