As I sit and allow myself to be entertained by the ongoing twitter battle between Oiler pundits and Edmonton Media personalities Bob Stauffer and Dustin Nielsen with regards to the management of Edmonton Oilers prospect Kailer Yamamoto, I can’t help but wonder where the Edmonton Oilers go to find some help in their bottom 6. There are options, GM Ken Holland just has to decide which one not only helps the team now but continues to keep an eye to the future of the club.

Is Kailer Yamamoto the best course of action right now for the Oilers to look to in an attempt to add some pop to the bottom end of their line up? By all accounts (I have watched most of the Condors games) Yamamoto has been the Condors best forward and 4 and 2 for 6 points in 8 games is nothing to sneeze at. My preference is for the Oilers to default to the position that Dustin Nielsen was touting in the Nielsen vs Stauffer battle and leave Yamamoto in the AHL. Personally, I feel the longer they can leave him there the more confident and effective player he will be when he is brought up for good, and ultimately that should be the goal here.

Is there another option In Bakersfield that makes sense? Josh Currie and Joe Gambardella are viable options who we needn’t worry about long term development if they have to go back n forth between the NHL and AHL. Both provided sparks to the bottom 6 in limited action at times last year during call ups. Definitely an option if the current mix can’t turn it around soon. In my opinion Benson and Marody are both further away than Yamamoto and should be left in the AHL. Could a 3rd line of Benson-Marody-Yamamoto be in the cards as a 3rd line for the Oilers next year? Definitely conceivable. It is my opinion that the bottom 6 needs to be a mix of reliable, low event, PKers, veteran types and young, up and coming skilled players for a successful hockey team. The best chance to have that happen is to leave those players in the AHL and allow them to continue to build towards full time NHL duty in 2020-2021.

Is the best option to stay the course and continue to move the deck chairs and hope the players emerge from within the roster? Although new signings Markus Granlund, Josh Archibald, Tomas Jurco, Riley Sheahan and returning JJ Khaira are nearing the point of being proclaimed disasters I believe the best course of action, until at least when Larsson returns, is to stay the course. Haas, in my opinion, has shown more than players like Granlund, Khaira and Archibald and will get an opportunity tonight vs Detroit with elevated line mates and presumably minutes as he is scheduled to line up with Chiasson and Neal. I think of all the options for bottom 6 Centers he is the most likely to provide some offensive punch. The return of Nygard will help as well. He adds much needed speed and some surprising physicality prior to his rib injury, not too mention the only bottom 6 player with a goal to date even though he has been out for several games now.

Long term, the emergence of Ethan Bear on defence will provide Ken Holland with options when Larsson and Persson return from injury. On the right side the Oilers will have Larsson, Persson, Bear and Benning on the right side. That is a crowded deck, especially when you consider that the Left side of the D is even more crowded, with a couple options there who could play the Right side if absolutely needed, further giving Holland some flexibility. Can one of those players get moved to add some depth up front? Definitely plausible. Caleb jones has been dominant in the AHL and looks to be, as most of us thought, ready for full time NHL duty sooner than later. I believe it would be a shame to waste the Oilers good start, not too mention a bit of slap in the face of the Oilers top players to allow this season to go down the pipes due to lack of skill in the bottom 6.

For now we will watch the Oilers take on the lowly Detroit Red Wings this evening. Us die hard Oiler fans will be very interested to see if Tippett’s line juggling can ignite something in the bottom 6. They will role out a 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines of Chiasson-Haas-Neal, Khaira-RNH-Gagner, and Jurco-Sheahan-Russell. Let’s play close attention to which one of those players/lines can seize the opportunity because there are a few in that group, that if they do not, could see their days on the Oilers or even the league, numbered.

I am not going to do a review of every game during the regular season but I will do reviews of games that I believe are key and I believe last nights 6-5 victory qualifies as a key victory for the club.

One reason I think of it is an important win is simply because of the fun factor. It was exciting for the fans right from the start and the excitement continued to grow with every goal and defensive miscue as the game wore on.

Another very important result of this game was the involvement of some of the players in the bottom 6. Nygard and Haas teamed up on a very nifty play off an O zone face off for the 4th goal. Jurco with a dirty dangle and sweet set up to Nurse for the fifth goal. These players performance last night gives us hope at least, that the Oilers will be able to count on more support from the those outside of the big 3 up front. Nygard was good all night on wether he was on RNH’s wing or on with Haas. He uses his speed to get in on the forecheck where he is surprisingly physical and does not have a fear to “get in the guts of the game” as Stauffer puts it.

James Neal. What can we say? In just the 2nd game already 1/3 of the way to Lucia’s goal total from last year. Scored 2 last night including the Game Winner and was a real nice presence on the pp.

Another reason I think this to be an important win is the team showed a resilience in overcoming some horrible goaltending early. Previous incarnations of the team would have rolled over and played dead after some of those early goals Smith gave up. Not this one and I think it’s good for them to establish that resilience early on. Smith, to his credit, battled through that early poor play to make some big saves later in the game.

This game review is almost complete and we haven’t even spoke of Mcdavid’s 4 point night or another dominant performance from Draisaitl. It’s refreshing to talk of contributions from other players for once. Let’s hope for all of our sake that they can keep it going.

Ahhh one of my favourite teams of year. When the autumn air becomes crisp enough to light the first fire of the year to take the chill out of the air in the house. Aaaaaaaand when your a die hard Oiler fan the first taste of misery after just the first game of the year. When we learned yesterday that Adam Larsson was going to be out 6-8 weeks it seemed like a story that us Oiler fans have seen all too often over the last generation basically. One step forward with a nice win over division rival Canucks and 2 back with the loss of one of the few defenceman capable of playing top 4 minutes on the blue line.

Instead of wallowing in the grim details of the day we will, in the wise words of Ken Holland “dig in”. So with that in mind let’s take a look at the Oilers options to pick up the slack left by the injury to Adam Larsson.

Yesterday the Oilers recalled Evan Bouchard and sent down Ethan Bear in conjunction with them putting Larsson on LTIR. Everything I’ve seen and read this is strictly a paper move designed to recapture as much cap space as possible when putting Larsson on LTIR. Although Bouchard is most likely the Oilers most talented Offensive dman I don’t view him as a likely replacement on the roster for Larsson. I think Holland and the Oilers Player Personnel department want Bouchard, as with all prospects, developing in the A not on an NHL roster.

With that in mind let’s have a look at who are viable options to step in and play and what impact they will have on the Oilers on ice success. The most likely scenario, out of the gate is to move Persson off of IR and on to the active roster as word came down yesterday that he is very close to being ready for s return to active duty. With him in the line up the pairings could look something like this: Klefbom w/Bear, Nurse w/ Benning and Russell w/Persson. Bear had a good start in the 1st game but with Larsson out they will have to take on more and tougher minutes. A little scary asking Benning to play more and tougher minutes as well. Was strong vs the Canucks but playing up in the line up is a proposition that makes many of us Oiler fans shudder.

Another scenario the club is mostly likely contemplating is moving Russell up to play with Nurse and then either putting Manning on the 3rd pairing with Benning or recalling Lagesson. This would allow the Nurse/Russell pairing to take on tougher minutes leaving the other pairings to play softer minutes. Russell definitely not a great option and is a downgrade from Larsson in that role but he’s done it before albeit with limited success but the Oilers may have little options at this point.

Whatever path the club decides to go down I will be watching curiously on Saturday night as the Oilers welcome the LA Kings to town. Despite the horrible news with Larsson the team has to “dig in” and put 2 points in the bank against a very venerable Kings team.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Thanks for joining me in my first attempt at the blogging game. Today also marks the Oilers season and home opener and my inaugural blog will serve as my rendition of the Pacific Division and Oilers preview and how I see them fitting into what I believe will be a closely contested division.

First off our Oilers. Where to begin? Quite frankly I have this version of the Oilers on the outside looking in on the playoff picture in the Pacific Division. Their recipe for success will look a lot like their first game and win of the season did tonight. Hope the big 3 dominates, the Goaltending is above average and the bottom 6 limits their mistakes so as to not lose the game on the rest of the team’s behalf. The bold strategy led to a victory tonight, however, I believe the lack of depth up front and the goal tending will not be strong enough to get this team into the playoffs. I have the Oilers finishing 4th in the division and narrowly missing out on a Wildcard spot.

As for the rest of the Pacific Region here is how I see it shaping up:

1st-Vegas Golden Knights. For my $$ the deepest team in the division, if not the conference. Despite the loss of key contributor’s like Colin Miller and Erik Haula they remain a deep and motivated team after their untimely exit from the playoffs. Throw in the best Goaltender in the division and you have a recipe for success.

2. Calgary Flames-Although the Flames did little to improve their team this offseason (one could argue they took a step back) they should still have enough talent up front to supplement what is a very good D. Ultimately it will come down to, as it so often does, if Rittich can keep enough pucks out of the net.

3. Arizona Coyotes-I might be going off the board a bit here but I think the Yotes are finally poised to take a run at a playoff spot. They’ve got a good nucleus of young forwards and a D anchored by all world Dman OEL. Chychrun is at the point in his career where he’s ready to take a big step forward. An underrated goaltending tandem is another factor that could very well lead to a resurgent Coyotes team this season.

4.Edmonton Oilers-as discussed above. The Central Division should be very strong again and will most likely produce 5 playoff teams.

5.San Jose Sharks-Although the Sharks have what is arguably the best top 3 dmen in the league they are poised to take a step back this year and miss the playoffs for only the 2nd time in the last 5 years. The loss of Joe Pavelski leaves not only a giant hole in their roster but in the dressing room as well. Always assumed he’d play out his career in San Jose but they elected to let him walk to the benefit of the Dallas Stars.

6.Vancouver Canucks-Vancouver is definitely a team on the rise led by a talented group of forwards led by Bo Horvat and the uber talented Elias Pettersson. I’m a huge fan of Quinn Hughes and firmly believe the Canucks have a young star on their hands in this player. Solid net presence in Markstrom and a very good coach, combined with the talents mentioned above will be enough for them to give some very good teams fits on many nights but going to need more experience and maturity before I can call them a playoff team.

7. Anaheim Ducks-Our old friend Dallas Eakins wades back into the NHL coaching game followed by another successful tenure in the AHL. Did he learn enough from the disaster in Edmonton? Time will tell. Anaheim is headed definitely for a retool if not a complete rebuild. Although they still have a nice Defence their Forwards need to be rebuilt which will keep them from contending for a Playoff spot for a few seasons.

8.Los Angeles Kings-A team headed for a rebuild. They have some very good prospects coming, the best of which is Alex Turcotte who they will most likely see on the roster next season. Will probably most likely finish low enough in the standings to be able to have their choice of number of franchise altering forward talent from the #2020nhldraft.

One thing is for certain there are many interesting story lines to keep an eye on for the 2019-2020 season. I am going to look forward in tracking the seasons results vs my October predictions.