The Oilers looked pretty snappy tonight, downing the Shames 3-0. Here are some points of interest from the game:
- Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Smyth, Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner did not play in this game, but the Oilers were still able to muster plenty of fire power. It's only the pre-season, but for the powerplay to click twice without all those regulars is encouraging, especially against 2 NHL-quality goaltenders.
- Speaking of goaltenders, Devan Dubnyk looked good picking up the shutout. The Flames didn't have all of their regulars in the lineup either, but 30 saves is still 30 saves.
- Corey Potter led all Oilers in ice time with 24:19 and did not look out of place. If he keeps it up he will be in a good position to get called up when injuries strike, and may not actually be much of a step down from an injured regular. At 27, he's a veteran of 5 AHL seasons. He's still young enough to be part of the Oilers' plans, but he probably won't stick around if he doesn't have a realistic shot of making the NHL. He'll be a UFA at the end of this season.
- Taylor Fedun was third in ice time with 20:41. He too played well, and he's under contract for this season and next. At 23 he's still got plenty of time to grow into an NHL regular, and he'll only be a Restricted Free Agent in 2013.
- Jordan Eberle will score 30 goals this season. Prediction in writing. Hopefully if he doesn't no one will remember...
- Jay Bouwmeester played 27:23 in this game, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Why overwork him in the pre-season when he'll be logging loads of ice time during the year? Aside from that, the outcome of this game does not matter, so why not give those minutes to a young up-and-comer? Oh, right, Calgary doesn't have any.
Looking forward to Tuesday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment