Sunday, October 2, 2011

Oilers Depth Chart: October 2011



Smyth-Horcoff-Hemsky
Hall-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Paajarvi-Belanger-Omark
Petrell-Lander-Jones
Hordichuk

Peckham-Gilbert
Sutton-Petry
Barker-Potter

Dubnyk
Khabibulin

Injured - Eager, Gagner, Whitney, Smid, Chorney, Fedun.

Likely to be the opening night roster for your 2011-2012 Edmonton Oilers. Not a lot of surprises going in, but as expected, long on skill and short on bullets. Eventually the Oilers will have to make a decision on either Hemsky or Omark short term. Perhaps others long term. The biggest obstacle the Oilers face at forward is...What does the future hold for Hemsky? Is he here for another contract or is he moving along? Hemsky's future affects Omark being here. I believe one of them will be gone before the end of the season and replaced with some braun that can chip in offensively....like you know...say Owen Nolan? The Oilers still lack a true checking line. Either one of Hemsky or Omark will be facing the elite and we all know how much Hemsky loves being a checker. The kids will likely be the least to worry about, unless we are worried about them getting pasted into the boards, amirite? Against lesser teams they will likely flourish. Against teams like Vancouver where defenceman love bashing the hell out of young impressionable forwards, they will likely be rendered ineffective in those games. Eager will likely play opening night, Gagner is a maybe at best.

On the defense...without Whitney its in a world of hurt. With Whitney, its still questionable. The Oilers are going to need Petry to put some decent numbers, otherwise it may not piss a drop collectively. The defense will be like a dam held together with 2x4s. It might hold for awhile but eventually it will give way, especially against teams that will forecheck the Jebus out of them, not the nimblest bunch back there. Considering how Potter played in the last preseason game, Fedun may have made the team. The Oilers really need some offensive minded mobility out there and that was something Fedun brought. Its a shame what happened to him. Either way, the Oilers need a defenceman and are likely on hot pursuit of one. Whitney is likely not ready for opening night, Chorney likely headed to OKC when healthy, Smid I've heard may be out for a month and Fedun is likely out for a very long time.

The goaltending is going to look much like the game yesterday in Vancouver. It'll likely start strong, but once the defense gives way, the goaltending will get worn down. The goaltending will only look as strong as the defense allows it to be.

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