Yesterday was
tough for me. The Tkachev news really put a damper on things in a way that really
doesn’t usually happen until November. The club released Tkachev from his tryout and he will be heading back to Moncton. What happens next is completely out of the team’s hands. Maybe refusing to spend even a 7th Rounder (preferring to go with Goalie Keven Bouchard who wasn’t even a Rookie Camp invite) on Tkachev in 2014 might cost the club a 2nd or 3rd Rounder in 2015 if they want to secure his services. But the show must go on and the team will play the Phoe…er…Arizona Coyotes in glorious pre-season action.
The club made a few more cuts yesterday (one league mandated) to bring themselves down to 39 bodies. It’s still a lot but I anticipate we will see more incremental cuts after the games tonight and tomorrow. That’s the line the club has to walk as they navigate this weird schedule. Including this one they have just 3 games left to prepare for the regular season and that means we should be getting a glimpse into the possible line combinations and pairings that will debut on opening night.
1+1+1
The struggle to find a place for Nail Yakupov on the right side of the ice has lead to some interesting options that I really didn’t think Eakins would consider. Notably, the Oilers practiced yesterday with Hall-RNH-Yakupov as a line. Now they’ve used the line here and there in the past, but it never really seemed as though the Oilers wanted to break up Hall and Eberle for very long. Because of that I actually didn’t anticipate them putting all three 1st Overall picks together.
At the end of the day it really is natural to assume they should fit together. After all, the Oilers chose thrice in a row at the top of the Draft and took a LW, a C, and a RW. You don’t need to be a rocket surgeon to figure out that the pieces go together. The real question for that line would be “how can they co-exist with only 1 puck on the ice?” In a perfect world the answer is RNH moves the puck to Hall, Hall carries the puck through the Neutral zone, Yak touches the puck for about 0.0016 seconds as his one-timer blasts a hole through the glove hand of the goalie. That’s a perfect world scenario for the line. Luckily, it’s also a likely outcome too.
I sure hope this line clicks if it really does get the opportunity to play together. Jordan Eberle has had a very uneventful camp and the Oilers need Yak to reach his potential. I think the team knows what they have in Eberle, but not so much for Nail. Plus if Eberle can find chemistry on Line 2 then we’re talking about real potential for continued scoring through the lineup. The Oilers were 25th in Goals For last season and need the boost, badly.
LINEUPS
Barring unforeseen injury or the NHL deciding it will negate his contract, we should see Scrivens get the full start tonight against the Yotes. We wont get a chance to see the 1st Overall line tonight as they get the night off, but we will see the potential 2nd line of the Oilers that would be the result of pairing those three together. The Arcobello line should be a direct message to Arco that this is how he’s playing. He’s on the cusp of losing a spot in this lineup that he should have had wrapped up.
Perron Draisaitl Eberle
Pouliot Gordon Purcell
Hendricks Khaira Pitlick
Joensuu Arco Pinizzotto
Klefbom Schultz
Nurse Hunt
Marincin Aulie
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Message Sent? Gordon is playing where Arcobello probably fits best and Khaira is playing in Gordon’s spot. Meanwhile the trio of Joensuu, Arco, and Pinizzotto have been sewn together like Frankenstein’s monster. Any “ideal” combination would re-order the Centers Draisaitl>Arco>Gordon>Khaira so I’m getting the distinct impression that this is a message to Arcobello. I don’t believe he’s taken his spot for granted, but I also don’t believe he’s accomplished everything an undersized AHL Center needs to do to obtain an NHL job either.
2) Playing Heavy. The Oilers have always wanted to associate themselves with speed and quick strike offense, but those days are changing. They have moved toward players who both play and ACTUALLY ARE heavy. The Oilers’ 3rd line has size and grit in a combination that should make opponents feel uncomfortable. The 2nd line features Pouliot who was brought in, in part, due to his relentless forechecking ability. And the 1st line features Draisaitl whose ability to protect the puck and fend off the defense made him worthy of taking 3rd Overall. We’re seeing the identity of the club change.
3) Welcome Home? It’s a real possibility that the Oilers see Gagner, Dubnyk, and one time prospect Rieder play against them tonight. We wrote about Rieder not that long ago
here so there isn’t much sense in rambling about it for too long. Suffice to say that the Oilers made a mistake. A big one. As for Gagner and Dubnyk, I’m sure Dubnyk would be motivated to prove the club that they were wrong about him (they weren’t) and I imagine Gagner would love to establish himself as a reliable top 6 forward this year. I was always a Gagner fan, even to the bitter end, so it would be tough to watch him light it up elsewhere. However, I really do hope that last year’s struggles were a product of his face being caved in and the subsequent facial reconstruction that needed to happen to resolve that (as if it wasn’t).
EDIT: Sounds like Gagner will not play tonight. No massive surprise, maybe he would prefer his 1st game back be a meaningful one
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on the Oilers’ Website. Game On!
EDIT: Peter Mueller is on Waivers. He was roughly a point per game in the Swiss League, is only 26, is 6'2" and 204lbs, and has a history of decent possession and OK production. Would you put a claim on him and get him trying out for 3C of the Oilers? I would.
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