Oilers-Falmes pre-season BOA part deux

Both teams won in a shoot-out last night. Good for the Falmes, now they won't finish the pre-season without a win.
The Oilers line-up for tonight's game is available, but the Falmes line-up isn't. Not like any of their fans know who plays for their team besides Iginla and Kipper.

FORWARDS

27 Dustin Penner - 13 Andrew Cogliano – 83 Ales Hemsky
28 Patrick Thoresen – 10 Shawn Horcoff – 51 Kyle Brodziak
22 Jean-Francois Jacques – 48 Ben Simon – 46 Zack Stortini
42 Jonas Almtorp – 62 Tim Sestito – 43 Fredrik Johansson

DEFENCE

44 Sheldon Souray – 2 Matt Greene
25 Joni Pitkanen – 24 Steve Staios
26 Denis Grebeshkov – 23 Dick Tarnstrom

GOALTENDERS

1 Devan Dubnyk
35 Dwayne Roloson


Cogliano gets a turn in between Hemsky and Penner, or the Pensky line as they have been dubbed.
The defense is pretty much what we can expect for the regular season, with Smid in instead of Grebeshkov.
Based on not having a Falmes line-up available, I can't make an accurate score prediction, but since I am a bit baised towards my Oilers, I'm going to go with a 4-3 Oilers win.



Look at all the Oilers fans down in Phoenix. Awesome to see.

Egads!

Moreau is out with a severe bone bruise after taking a shot off the ankle in Calgary on Saturday.
At least it's not broken, but I don't know how long it takes to recover from that kind of injury. Sounds painful. Godspeed Ethan! With Pisani already down and out and possibly gone for the entire season, we don't need anymore injuries to the grind line.

Greene is apparently going to be paired with Souray. I wonder who gets to play the point on the powerplay then, because both those guys tend to take too many unnecessary penalties.
My money is on Pitkanen. And if Souray is going to be paired with Greene, are they the number 1 pairing or the number 2 pairing? And then what are the other 2 pairings? Statios and Pitkanen, Smid and Transtrom? Where do Gilbert and Gerbeshkov fit into this? This defense is actually making me nervous.

Most of the young forward prospects are making names for themselves. Cogliano is starting to emerge, showing some hands to go along with that speed of his; scoring three goals in the last two games, including the overtime winner against the Falmes on Saturday night. Thank God, I was hoping he had some finish. He's not listed as being in the Oilers line-up for tonight's game in Phoenix, so I'm going to assume that he is playing tomorrow night against the Falmes; a game which I will be attending. wooooooo!

Sam Gagner: the next great Oilers draft pick, or the next great 1st round flop?

After the draft, I've been doing some reading about Sam Gagner, the Oilers 1st 1st round draft pick from this past Friday. He sounds like a decent Canadian kid, hopefully turns out to be a great player, and he seems genuinely pleased to be picked by a Canadian team.
He seems like a bit of a momma's boy, but he's not 18 until mid-August, so maybe we'll cut him some slack in the that department. Maybe.
He's not half bad looking either, he's actually sorta cute (for a 17 yr old), so he won't hurt the Oilers' "hotness" factor.




He won't be NHL ready for at least 2-3, possibly 4 seasons; but by then Joffrey-can't-buy-a-goal-Lupul will be traded to the Islanders where he'll score 468 goals in one season and the be on his way to winning the Stanley Cup, so there will be a roster spot on the Oilers open for young Sammy.

His favorite NHL player is Peter Forsberg; he patterns his game after Forsberg because "he makes all the players around him better". The Oilers could use a Forsberg type player. Like RIGHT NOW. As it always is with the Oilers, they are building for 4-5 years down the road. Every year, they are aiming for 4-5 years to be great. EVERY YEAR. Well, that team in 4-5 years isn't ever coming, because I've been an Oilers fan for 10 years, and I'm still waiting for the kick-ass team that's 4-5 years away. But that's a rant for another day. Back to Sammy.

He gives away his shoot-out move. Not the smartest thing to reveal.
He's more of a passer than a scorer, so he won't be on Hemsky's line anytime soon. Given the coaching staff's track record, he would end up on Hemsky's line and they'll just pass it back and forth to each other 5 bazillion times without taking a shot. Maybe Hemsky will have learnt to shoot by then. Or Andrew Cogliano will centre them and score 469 goals, beating Lupul by one goal to win the Rocket Richard trophy.


Is it just me, or does he look like a fortune teller without his crystal ball in this photo?





One thing is for sure, that number has got to go. 89 holds to many bitter, angry memories in the minds of Oilers fans.