Wonderful news hails from the plugged in Darren Dreger today as he announced that Sam Gagner is expected to return to Edmonton’s injury riddled and depleted lineup. This is a well needed boost for the team that has already lost 72 man games to injury on a season that isn’t yet a month old. The Oilers have been walking wounded and get back their 2nd leading scorer from the past season and a 6 year NHL veteran.
The return of young Sam will be cause for some difficult decisions and likely some more experimentation. The Oilers are getting relatively good performances down the middle, all things considered. RNH is a witch, Arcobello is winning faceoffs and picking up assists, Gordon is winning draws as a defensive mule, and Acton is…well he’s doing as expected. That said, it’s not as if the team is rolling along and the coach needs to careful balance the lineup so as to not ruin things. The Oilers are losing consistently and the club could use a shakeup.
If it were me (and thank goodness it isn’t) I would have Gagner plugged into Arcobello’s spot in the lineup. Arco and Gordon would shuffle down leaving Acton to sit or shuffle over to the wing. I happen to like Acton and the idea of having more than 4 potential faceoff-men on the squad so I would have him on the wing with Eager sitting in the press box. Gordon deserves more than 4th line minutes but we’ve seen that Eakins is unafraid to adjust lines in the middle of games, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he will find Gordon spots to play.
Unfortunately for someone there just isn’t enough room for all the bodies that are currently occupying space in the Oilers’ dressing room, and that someone just happens to be Anton Lander. Lander has been reassigned to the Barons as of this morning. I thought he played reasonably well, all things considered, but he can continue to play double the minutes in OKC in a bigger role.
All three Oiler goalies took the ice in practice but there are doubts that Dubnyk is healthy enough to return. I suggested yesterday that
Bachman should get another shot. I think he deserves to play based on his last performance. There is one thing that has been bothering me since the team announced that Dubnyk was hurt, though. Nobody has been able to say exactly when he actually sustained the injury. I wonder if it wasn’t during that 2-3 minute stint in the Phoenix game. We assumed he came out because Eakins liked the fire that LaBarbera was showing (or some such nonsense) but I wonder if that wasn’t when Dubnyk got hurt.
LINEUPS
Well that’s the big question, isn’t it? What will the Oilers ultimately do with Gagner back in the lineup? Well based on the morning skate these are the lines we will see tonight against the Leafs. The Oilers keep saying that Smyth isn’t quite ready but he took the optional morning skate in place of Hemsky. If he can go then I imagine we will see him take the place of Jones. The Oilers are indeed going with Bachman in net. He earned the right to prove he belongs here after the Kings game, let’s see if that performance was a one-off.
Eberle Gagner Yak
Perron RNH Arcobello
Jones Gordon Hemsky (Smyth)
Eager Acton Gazdic
Belov J. Schultz
Smid Petry
Ference N. Schultz
Bachman
The Leafs are perched atop the Eastern conference with an 8-4 record surprising many prognosticators. The team is consistently out-shot and despite what their fanbase will tell you there is good reason to suspect that eventually getting peppered every night will catch up with them. Will it happen tonight? Who’s to say? The Leafs have injuries to several key players in their lineup so the Oilers can sympathize but that’s one of the things they need to capitalize on if they want to win tonight. Reimer is apparently in. Must be just to let the Oilers know what they cant get for a 1st overall pick.
Van Riemsdyk Kadri Kessel
Raymond Bolland Clarkson
Ashton McClement Orr
McLaren Smith Bodie
Gunnarsson Phaneuf
Rielly Franson
Ranger Gardiner
Reimer
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) 89 is back! Mr. Eight Points In One Night is back for the Oilers and he will be excited to play with some talented wingers. Yakupov has yet to really find some good chemistry with either RNH or Arcobello, although he has looked much better the past 2 games. Here’s hoping Gagner finds instant chemistry with the young Russian.
2) Shot differentials. Count me among those who think getting outshot every game by 8 is a bad thing. That’s exactly what the Leafs are doing every game. The Oilers need to take advantage. I just don’t see Reimer or Bernier keeping their .930SV% throughout the season.
3) Move Your Feet. I noticed it a few games ago but the Oiler defense is particularly bad at moving up with the puck out of their own zone. They make what I think is too many pass attempts from deep in their own zone while not having any forward momentum at all. Let me know if you see it too. It seems as though the forwards are consistently too far ahead because the defense is immobile.
MOVEMBER REMINDER
I am gearing up for Movember right now. I already have the facial hair but that all gets cut down on Halloween night. Check out my Movember page here at
Mobro.co/MattHendersonHB to donate to charity or leave me a message. It doesn’t officially begin until November but that doesn’t mean we can’t get this going early.
Puck drops tonight as the Oilers take on the Leafs at 7:00PM Mountain time on Sportsnet. Game On!
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy 
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