This is it! This is the beginning of the 2015-2016 season for the Edmonton Oilers. An off-season of change has paved the way for this moment and it is all centered around Connor McDavid.
The biggest change that affects the entire team is that addition of Todd McLellan as the coach, but this really is all about Connor today. We can all say that we watched Connor McDavid’s 1st ever NHL game and witnessed the kid grow over the next 15-20 years that follow.
Connor’s domination of the Ontario Hockey League has been well chronicled. As a 15 year old he was better than a point per game player. When he was 16 he had 99 points. When he was 17 he was averaging 2.55 points per game as an unstoppable force one could only hope to contain for a short time. Now he’s 18 and beginning his NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers.
It’s just one game but at the same time you can only ever play your first game once. Throughout all of preseason –from the Rookie tournament to the last game against the Canucks—he showed his brilliant speed and playmaking ability. He walks around experienced defenders, he makes passing plays through bodies as if they arent there, he processes the game on a level Edmonton hasn’t seen in a long time.
The franchise finally has the 1-2 punch down the middle it has been seeking since the Doug Weight era and even further back than that. This gives them options previously unavailable, like splitting up Hall from the likes of RNH or Eberle to create two scoring lines. There’s finally some semblance of depth down the middle in Edmonton. That will pay dividends down the line.
Connor McDavid is the next great Generational Talent to arrive in the NHL and he’s doing it in Oiler silks. Amazing.
The lottery ushered in changes to the roster, to the coaching staff, and to the structure of the Franchise. Tonight we start to see what all of those changes will sum up to.
I'm excited for this season. There's hope again in Edmonton. This time, real hope.
LINEUPS
Gazdic is in tonight for…reasons. Reinhart will make his Oiler debut too, but obviously the story is McDavid.
Hall McDavid Slepyshev Pouliot RNH Purcell Korpikoski Lander Yak Hendricks Letestu Gazdic
Sekera Fayne Klefbom Schultz Reinhart Gryba
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Welcome To The NHL Connor McDavid. The Blues are going to do everything in their power to shut Connor McDavid down. They will be in his face all night. What we’ve seen from him so far is that when the opposition keys on him physically he finds his open linemates or an open area to put the puck. Can he do it against a good NHL roster? Isnt that the question facing McDavid in every regard? Can he continue his dominance from Jr to the NHL?
2) The Nuge is Huge. Based on the verbal coming out of the morning media availabilities the Blues are going to make McDavid and Hall a priority. In theory that should mean that RNH should have a little more wiggle room on occasion. This is going to be RNH’s story all year, I believe. He had to be the guy all the time up until now. He should be able to use this change to his offensive advantage.
3) Can Cam Do It? Talbot is Edmonton’s starter this year. The job has been a rotating door since Devan Dubnyk tried to take over from Khabibulin. We’ve lived through Dubnyk, Bryzgalov, Scrivens, and Fasth plus a few extra for good measure. The team hopes it has finally found their starter. A good to solid performance for the entire season is going to mean the world to this team. Cam Talbot needs to prove that he is capable of taking the next step. Stepping out from behind Henrik Lundqvist is a tough ask. I hope he’s up to the challenge.
Puck drops tonight at 6:08 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet 360. Game On!
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy