There's no time to rest, the Oiler prospects play again tonight against the Flames. Yesterday's game was a good starting point, and certainly better than last year's thrashing. Winning in what is surely the fakest sounding OT setup ever conceived, there was plenty to be happy about for the Oil.
The squad is much improved over what it had been just 12 months earlier. There had been ZERO 30 goal scorers the last time around, now they're at 6. The average size was also significantly smaller. Especially in terms of forward prospects, this team is night and day different from its last incarnation.
There's a lot to like about this group of players and maybe best of all, only 1 has a legitimate shot at winning an NHL job out of camp. The rest will all likely continue their development in the CHL or the AHL. Most of these players will get better before we ever see them play in an Oiler uniform during the regular season.
If you read Ryan's post (and you should) then you know Tkachev was dynamic against the Canucks. What was impressive was that you had to remind yourself how small he was out there, because he did not look overpowered at all, despite his 141 pound frame.
Tkachev is fast and shifty. In the offensive zone he won puck battles along the wall with darting speed and preservation skills developed from a lifetime of being the smallest player on the ice. He did not look like he was avoiding contact so much as he looked like he was using his diminutive size to whatever advantage he could.
His puck skills are self-evident. He comes to life with the disk on his stick. On the Gernat goal he looked like a 14 year old Ales Hemsky flying down the wing drawing all eyes towards him then dishing across the goal mouth to an unchecked teammate. Similarly so he drew in all kinds of pressure on the Yakimov goal before dishing it to the big man who made no mistake with the puck.
He was the main story of the game, but not the only one. The players who made the most progress in the system last year were Moroz and Chase, and both of them looked fantastic in game action. Chase was robbed by the official scorers of an assist on the 1st Moroz goal which was a result of a redirected shot by Kelly's nephew. He had 4 shots on net and all of them were of the dangerous kind.
Chase is labelled as a pest or an agitator but he might be more like a big Brad Marchand. A pest no doubt, but a damned fine hockey player too. He has the size and the skills to make a difference out there. If I had to make a bet as to who might unexpectedly push in main camp for a spot on the 4th line it would be him. He will most likely be returning to Jr, but his NHL debut could be closer than we think.
LINEUP
According to the Oiler website we should get to see the Ewanyk line today but the actual lineup is subject to some last minute decisions so I'm leaving up the whole roster. They may choose to rest Draisaitl after he suffered some painful leg cramps last night. Draisaitl looked good protecting the puck and making some high end passes but was clearly missing a step after the issues started.
NOTE: The lines have been released. No Draisaitl, Nurse, Gernat, or Khaira
Moroz Roy Chase Kessy Jones Jones Tkachev Yakimov Winquist Platzer Ewanyk Krushelnyski
Betker Musil Simpson Oesterle Craig Ludwig
Rimmer Tuohimma
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Finding Chemistry. I thought the Yakimov/Tkachev duo was fantastic out of the gate and the Draisaitl line was fine as well, but Khaira/Holmberg line was lacking. The defensive pairings all had their up and down moments, so hopefully with a game together under their belt they can take another step forward. Gernat had one sequence that didn't really look good on video, but there was a lot of chaos that might not happen with more experience playing together.
2) Play Heavy. Mitch Moroz has the right idea when it comes to using that size. He made an effort to crash the net and he was rewarded twice for it. There is a mismatch in size between the Oilers' and the Flames' best young players that is tailor made to be taken advantage of in favour of Edmonton. I think this is the first time I've been able to write a sentence like that (Let's just revel in it for a minute). The Oilers have big man-children like Yakimov, Chase, Moroz, Draisaitl, and Khaira. They need to use their physical gifts to their advantage.
3) The Flames have 2 prospects worth keeping an eye on at all times. First there's Sam Bennett (who can apparently now do 11 pull ups), the 4th Overall pick in the last Draft who scored 36-55-91 in 57 games last year with the Frontenacs. This kid by nature of his draft number will always be compared to Draisaitl. He is in tough to make the Flames this year but he's a real talent. The second prospect is Johnny Gaudreau, the only player on either team that doesn't look big next to Tkachev. Johnny Hockey is 150 pounds of highlight reel offensive potential.
UPDATE
Greg Chase just signed his entry level deal with the Oilers! Big day for him and the organization. He's a Beauty.
Puck drops tonight at 8:32PM Mountain Time. Game On!
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