Follow @SMaloughney Heute morgen beenden die Oilers Ihre ausstellungsspiele in Deutschland gegen Kolner Haie. Inzwischen in Nordamerika die NHL regulà¤re Saison offiziell beginnt.
It is a fresh season for the Oilers, the successes of two years ago don't mean a thing, nor do the failures of last season. As a writer I will do my best to avoid judging anyone on the Oilers roster from their past seasons. It is a blank slate for all.
I'd like to take a moment to thank my readers who took the time to read my blogs through the slow summer months. For those of you weirdos who do other things in the summer other than think about hockey, welcome.
Hopefully this Oilers season is an enjoyable one for all of our sakes. Trust me, it is infinitely more fun to write about a team that is winning than discussing the issues. That being said the issues are important to discuss and like anything in this world they won't change if we continue to ignore it.
Let's get down to business.
The Oilers made a few roster shuffles over the past few days and some paper transactions to get the team down to the 23 man roster. Once the dust had settled Kris Russel was placed on IR and Andrej Sekera placed on the LTIR. The Oilers also gave 1 year, 650,000 dollar contracts to Jason Garrison and Alex Chiasson.
Neither of these players will be difference makers on most nights but they provide depth. Zack Kassian has to be looking over his shoulder because if Chiasson is able to bring what he can at less than half the cost he might be in trouble. Meanwhile Jason Garrison is a veteran 7th D man who can fill in on a third pairing when the need arises.
Looking at roster when everyone is healthy looks something like this:
RNH-McDavid-Rattie Lucic-Draisaitl-Rieder Yamamoto-Strome-Puljujarvi Khaira-Brodziak-Kassian Chiasson, Caggiula
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Benning Russel-Bouchard Garrison-Bear
Talbot Koskinen
Your middle six might vary but some form of this will be the opening night roster on Saturday against the Devils. Even though pre-season and training camp are at an end there are still a few battles going on for spots in the lineup.
Evan Bouchard will get his 9 game stretch with the Oilers and the chatter I am getting from the organization sounds like barring a complete collapse of confidence he will play this season with the Oilers. Bouchard has demonstrated great skill so far but has shown maturity in his game not usually seen in young defensemen. Should Bouchard be sent down Ethan Bear will likely take his place.
The success of Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, and Rattie makes it difficult to predict the middle 6. Drake Caggiula is in the most trouble here which is not something you want to hear from a player who was just paid 3 million dollars for the next two seasons.
If the defence struggles early on I think we will see Chiarelli pull the trigger on a bigger trade to bring in another defender, Justin Faulk is still the name that keeps popping up. PREDICTING OCTOBER
At the beginning of every month I'm going to predict the scores for every game that month.
Oilers @ Devils - WIN - 5-3 Oilers @ Bruins - WIN - 2-1 OT Oilers @ Rangers - WIN - 2-0 Oilers @ Jets - LOSS - 4-2 Bruins @ Oilers - WIN - 3-1 Preds @ Oilers - LOSS - 5-2 Penguins @ Oilers - WIN 3-2 Caps @ Oilers - LOSS - 3-1 Oilers @ Predators - LOSS - 4-3 OT Oilers @ Blackhawks - WIN - 6-3 Wild @ Oilers - WIN - 1-0
Oilers go 7-3-1 in October