Oilers start season in Calgary

More than five months I have been waiting for Oilers hockey, five months. For any hockey at all it has been almost three months. Finally that ended last night as the Canucks and Isles played; tonight the Oil kick of their preseason schedule in Calgary. The game means absolutely nothing in the standings but its hockey and there is nothing wrong with that.

According to the Oilers twitter page, two of the line combinations that Quinn will go with tonight will be Jacques-Horcoff-Schremp and Comrie-Stone-O’Sullivan, the full lineup for tonight’s game can be found on the Oilers website. Even though it is just the first preseason game there will be a lot of pressure on Jacques and Schremp to play good games tonight as there are at most four spots open among the Oil forwards.

Jacques has a good shot at one of those spots because he can play a physical game. I see him on the fourth line and in case of injuries could play on the third. Schremp is a longer shot simply because his skill set is found everywhere else in the lineup. Schremp would have to have a hell of a camp to make it but he is talented enough to play in the NHL and with a new head coach I guess anything is possible. A big performance tonight from either of those player would certainly be a nice way to inprove their chances.

The Comrie-O’Sullivan combination is also interesting as both could be fixtures on the second line this season. O’Sullivan will most likely start the year as the 2R, Comrie could play on the first or second line depending what kind of chemistry he has with Hemsky, Gagner, Horcoff, etc. I’m of the opinion that Penner should be the 1L simply because he can provide some protection for Hemsky; the other options for that spot, Comrie and Nilsson, do not have that same facet to their games. If Comrie could find chemistry with O’Sullivan it would help make the 1L decision easier but would probably mean the end of Nilsson in an Oiler uniform or possibly a season in the AHL.

Preseason game one of eight and there are some many things to watch for. If you don’t live in Calgary and you just need to get your Oiler fix like I do, the game will be streamed live on edmontonoilers.com.