On Ryan Smyth Bobblehead Night Who Else Would Lead The Way?

The article sounds soooo negative. Like the Oilers are not going to get another win this month… Take some positives out of this game and the situation…

- Many of the best players ever and first overall picks play in their draft season. many go on to great careers and not all end up flaming out.
- Horc may not be able to play up to his big salary, but he’s trying his best and is earning his “C”.
- The highlight reel was pretty fun. Oilers’ hockey is Run-and-Gun and is exciting. Hopefully Whitney will have a healthy season, and the Oil will be reasonably competitive.

I know that the Copper and Blue consensus is for another 30th overall finish, but I really think that the last 2 seasons have made all the writers jaded. With their young talents, I think that both the Islanders and the Avs will be competitive this year (playoff bubble), and the Oil won’t be last overall, and you can call me foolish, but they won’t even be in the lottery (same position as the Leafs).

On the other hand, the Sens, Preds, Jackets, Flames and the Jets will need to start trading for picks by the deadline.

I disagree about the need to return RNH. Although the data set is limited, he has shown his scoring ability translates well onto the NHL stage. His major deficiency to this date has been his faceoff proficiency.

This year Edmonton has two premiere faceoff men in town with Belanger and Horcoff. The pre-game video has already shown Horcoff tutoring RNH on F/O techniques.

How does sending him down to the WHL improve a skill that he in his own words, he thought to be a strength? To indirectly quote him, he thought he was good at F/Os in the W, so how does sending him down improve him in that arena?

He has shown chemistry with Hall and Eberle. He has won the hearts of an Edmonton FanBase that will be asked to support a team which will undoubtedly struggle this season.

Why send him down?

Best game of the year… so far. And with efforts like that, I expect it will be surpassed many times over. Like the Penguins game, and the Canucks pretty much as well, they played as a competitive NHL team. Except in this game, they played the part of the superior team.

Yahoo box scores don’t show time spent in each end zone but I swear the Oilers spent at least a period’s worth of 5 on 5 controlling the play in the Preds end. The shots certainly indicate that they doubled up the Preds in offense generated and I know more Oilers shots were blocked adding to that advantage.

A couple goals change everything though. Before Hall finally tallied, had they not been able to beat the Rinne Wall, my impression would be a very sound game, and quite the shutdown effort defensively. Again, offensive zone domination, but it just didn’t seem like they were making the kind of plays that were difficult for Rinne. Very little of making him move side to side, and almost no screened point shots. Not to say that there weren’t a handful of quality chances. But they finally break through with a sweet feed from RNH to Hall, and then another precision pass from Horcoff to Smyth who showed great veteran presence to use the time and space given to him and leave Rinne in his dust.

Which brings me to my feelings for adding Smyth to this team. I’ll be the first to admit that when I first heard about Smyth wanting to return but that Calgary might be in the picture as an alternate Alberta destination, I was hoping it’d be them. Doing the math, I figured that would put Teemu H. back in OKC, and I’d really like to see him on the major circuit based on his brief tour late last season not to mention all the hype (dude has a ‘Cult’). But all the intangibles, and evidently last night even the tangibles, that Smyth could possibly bring to the team, have all been on display early this season. It was two parts, one that the organization has a ton of forwards and forward prospects, and grouped with the other forward acquisitions it seemed little attention had been paid to the one area that needed the most improvement which is on defence. However, Smyth more than fits it, he makes the offense and the whole team more credible and something to be weary of.

Gotta say they’re going to need the Swedes to start finding the net, but loving the entertainment I’m getting so far.

Couple final notes for me. I join in with the chorus of people negative on the negative toned post-game report. This was a well deserved win. And there’s no indication of Bulin being on the outside. By my count he’s played half the games so far albeit not the opener. A shout out to the big save he made on the 3 on 2 with 1:40 left in the game. And finally, Petry had a marvellous game. Peckham, is a defender and will certainly need tons of experience to live up to his potential, but I gotta say, especially with Petry’s solid performance, that the D group looked much better with that lineup switch. For the sake of winning I definitely prefer Petry as he just played over anything Peckham has done this year so far.

1st star. Ryan Smyth. Smitty heard the loud chants in the 3rd after his highlight winning goal.

2nd star. Ryan Nugent Hopkins. The kid’s bringing it. Oh that’s my other gripe with the post-game report. What the heck good would it do him to play with juniors? He has proven that growing alongside his peers, namely Eberle and Hall, is the best course for his development.

3rd star. Jeff Petry. Gotta give it to him. Where he showed nerves in his first game, he showed composure this time around. I’ll be a bull and expect the latest up-trend to continue.

Derek, not sure if this as you say ‘sooo negative’ but it has that tone and isn’t even accurate.

“The team played well enough compared to the Preds but there wasn’t any impression of control at any point, they just seemed a little better.

The second period was more of the same…" Sorry, by this point, Oilers had generate significant zone control and had the Preds on their heels.

and this one. “It might not have been the best game Oiler fans have ever seen but it was a win, and in Edmonton we don’t ever turn away a win.”

you can spin this any way you want, it’s not the closing statement any of the rest of us would make, and yes it is negative, it might not have been is a negative statement. So you can see how the rest of us reading this report were unappreciative after watching a solid game from the Oil. Turn a way a win? They deserved it.

Done.

I read that Eager failed his fitness test but due to injuries was inserted into the lineup anyway. Might have something to do with his 3 minutes of icetime.

“That was one of the worst losses I’ve ever been part of,” said Predators defenceman Shea Weber. from TSN’s post-game report.

The Oilers were “OK” last night even without drafting Adam Larsson…(I’ve been craving to say this for a long time, so you have it:) ). If our defense and the rest of the team continues playing like this at their own end, with our offense heating up we can not possibly do worse thjs year than the fLames did last year. That’s a benchmark of sorts. If they can do better – I wouldn’t object. Gilbert and Smid, Potter and Petry, our “Cs”: beautiful or what? Barker was a bit overshadowed, but was solid nonetheless. I do hope that we keep this “D” configuration for tonight’s game and let Peckham watch how things should be done properly before sending him to play. Overall, it was nice to see a quality NHL team wearing the Oilers’ jerseys last night.

Ryan, just a question. At what point do you look at changing your opinion on sending RNH back to Red Deer. I think the team is better with him on it and contract management can’t be the only thing you look at. It surprises me that you can rationally ignore the fact that he is capable of competing (if not thriving, although right now he is) in the NHL.