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PS GAME 1: Baby Oilers vs Baby Flames + Nurse Signs |
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NURSE SIGNS!
Great to see that the Oilers top brass and Nurse's agent read my blog. Less than 24 hours after I posted the comparison to Josh Morrissey, the Oilers and Nurse come to a near identical deal. 2 years at 3.2 million is a perfect bridge deal for what Nurse brings to this organization. Considering there was talk that Nurse may only sign a one year deal, this makes it clear the intention is for Darnell to be an Oiler long term.
Put away your shorts and sunglasses. Replace time on the deck with the BBQ with a hoodie and blanket indoors. Eat as much as you want without worrying about your beach bod. Hockey is back!
Training camp is well underway for the Oilers with a few cuts already being made. Kirill Maksimov, Oliver Rodrigue, and Dmitri Samorukov have been sent back to their respective clubs. Nothing surprising about these moves, however I personally would have liked to get a longer look at Maksimov.
The Oilers roster now has 59 players; 6 goaltenders, 18 defencemen and 35 forwards. Still plenty of cuts to be made.
Pre-season is such a long stretch and overall it is extremely difficult to garner any fully accurate insight. Last season Yamamoto dominated throughout the pre-season earning himself a spot on the opening night roster. However after playing nine games and managing only three assists he was sent back down.
Speaking of Yamamoto he has not looked nearly as sharp so far. One hopes to see him add another gear now that the coaches eyes are on him.
As far as forwards go, Tyler Benson and Cooper Marody have impressed me the most. Benson has way better vision and passing ability than I expected and has been the Oilers best forward almost every game so far. Marody plays a simpler game but he is certainly making an argument for himself to be a 13th forward on this roster.
On defence Bouchard has shown glimpses of his elite skill but tonight will be his biggest test yet. Caleb Jones is another player who looks like he has put in some real work this summer. His skating is noticeably better and he should be one of the top defenders with the Condors.
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Now onto game talk. Typically the first pre-season game the Oilers play is a split squad game vs the Flames with one team playing in Edmonton while the other heads south to Calgary. The Flames game in Beijing put a wrench in that so only one squad will make their way to Calgary.
Here are the lineups for tonight's game.
OILERS
Benson-McLeod-Yamamoto,
Russell-Malone-Chiasson
Gambardella-Currie-Aberg
Polei-Vesel-Hebig
Esposito
Gravel-Bear
Stanton-Bouchard
Lagesson-Day
Koskinen
Starrett
FLAMES
Mangiapane-Quine-Foo
Rychel-Dube-Robinson
Pollock-Graovac-Phillips
Lomberg-Shaw-Sabourin
Kylington-Siemens
Valimaki-Falk
Svedberg-Sproul
Rittich
There is an NHL rule that during pre-season games at least 8 NHL veterans need to play on a team, however that rule has been waived due to the Flames icing a more NHL calibre roster in Beijing.
THINGS TO WATCH FOR
1) Future NHL Line? Drafting has been one of many areas the Oilers have struggled in over the past decade. While it is still too early to say for certain things seem to have improved in that regard. The Benson-McLeod-Yamamoto line could be a line for the Oilers three years from now. Benson and Yamamoto are a couple years older and have both shown their skill while newcomer McLeod has shown some NHL speed.
2) The Finnish Giant. Tonight Koskinen gets the start in net. If past pre-season games are any indicator we will likely see Koskinen for the first half of the game regardless of his performance and see Starrett in net for the rest. Those I have talked to who went to the practice over the weekend have all described Koskinen the same way. "He's really big." The 6'7 goaltender takes up a huge portion of the net. Chiarelli cleared banked on Koskinen impressing when he signed him to a 2.5 million dollar deal. Tonight the Flames are also dressing a lackluster lineup. Koskinen needs to look good.
3) Jobs on the Line. PTO invitee Alex Chiasson and signed player Pontus Aberg will both play tonight. On a PTO Chiasson will only get so many chances to prove he deserves a contract. Bet on him trying to make an early impact on the game. Aberg is signed for one more year but look around the interwebs and almost no one has him placed on any lineup combinations. Aberg looked sharp at times last year but his place in the lineup now shows that McLellan needs to see more out of him.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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