After a year which saw the Edmonton Oilers fall off the cliff in a memorable collapse, fans and so called experts are not giving a lot of hope for the team.  Many see the team, largely unchanged, pretty similar to the team that ended the season last year.

The truth is the team is still small.  JF Jacques is now on the first line, and is now in goal playing the role of near a career goalie.

The Oilers themselves are after years of raising expectations they are playing for time.  They do not want fans getting to hyped up.  They are, one suspects, trying to under promise and over deliver.

Oilers head coach told the Canadian Press Friday “It depends on your personnel and how they apply the assets they have.  We won’t know who we are yet. We know we’re a team that didn’t make the playoffs the last three years.”

So with all of the Oilers fans being told to lower their expectations it is not surprising that there is a lot of people waiting to see what the team can do.

If the preseason is any sign then there are some bright things to look forward to, Patrick O’Sullivan and Mike Comrie to name two players.   These two had some great chemistry that could help take pressure off of the first line.

If the first and second lines can score and the role lines can do what is needed then the team has a chance to surprise a few of their competitors.

Calgary comes into Edmonton Saturday night on CBC and that will be the first big test for the team.  Of course the team got off to a good jumped in the last two years only to see the wheels come off early.

To beat a tough physical team like Calgary the Oilers will have to jump on them like they did last season in the first game where tough guy Steve Macintyre made a big impact.  Unfortunately Calgary is the antithesis of the Oilers who have played butter soft a lot last season.

It will take at least twenty games to make a judgement on this team.   This first test against the big rival from down south it will make for an interesting game as long as it does not get out of control early.

****

Ice chips:

The Flames won their first game of the season on Thursday putting three of their five goals past Roberto Luongo in the first period.

Oilers leading scorer last season was Ales Hemsky with 23 goals the first time Hemsky has led the team in goals.

The Oilers and Flames split their pre-season games with Calgary winning the last game.

All time the Oilers vs the Flames:

W        L        T       OTL
84      87      19       2

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 12:29 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.