More Wisdom From Pat Quinn

Ray Ferraro:  Ya come into camp and there's a whole bunch of guys to learn.  Has there been one player that maybe ya didn't know so well that has stood out for ya?

Pat Quinn:  Well you know there was a lot of guys knocking down on Penner, I've liked what I've seen out of him up to this point.  Jacques has been a pleasant surprise.  He's been considered a fourth sort of line guy, I think he's got a little bit more.  We're gonna see on him.  Our defense is supposed to be mobile but they're not shined up yet, but hopefully we'll have a guy, guys back there that advantage of good transition in a game and get the puck up quickly, you know, like Visnovsky.  I expect Gilbert to get a little bit better.  So we've got some guys that I think can make a good hockey team.  Let's face it, we're up against it, we haven't been a strong organization in the last little while so we've got some work to do.

--Pat Quinn, during a pregame interview on TSN.

In a thirty second soundbite, Pat Quinn touches on personnel, system, problems and the state of the franchise.  Penner has sold himself - let's hope he carries through.  He obviously likes Jacques, and Quinn clearly feels that Jacques is going to stick around.  Steve Tambellini one-upped Quinn during his intermission interview:

We've got young players, big players that have come in like J.F. Jacques who hasn't played a lot of NHL games but has shown that he was a presence in the Calgary games and played with Horcoff and Hemsky last night and did a great job.

Jean-Francois Jacques is going to be a top nine forward for the Oilers to start the season and I think it will be at Ethan Moreau's expense.

Quinn shreds the defense here, and rightfully so the defense has been a bit of a mess thus far, but to be fair, Quinn has been mixing and matching and playing Strudwick.  That's never good.  He also lightly touched on something in his statement -- 'transition' is a word that I've heard more than once during this preseason and I think that is going to be Quinn's game.

Let's face it, we're up against it, we haven't been a strong organization in the last little while so we've got some work to do.

I'm not sure if Quinn intentionally used "organization" instead of team, but either way, it's a masterstroke.  This isn't a strong team, and Quinn's right - it's because the Oilers are not a strong organization.