Game 17 preview – Shorthanded Oilers visit Colorado

First it was Souray who was knocked out of the lineup with a concussion. Then Horcoff went down with a shoulder injury. And now Hemsky is sidelined, also with a shoulder injury. Those are big holes in any lineup, when the team has dropped six of their last seven they’re huge holes in your lineup.

With the even growing list of injuries – you can add Jacques (back spasms), Stone (knee) and Pouliot (hernia) to the list of injured forwards – the Oilers have again placed a call to Springfield for help. This time help comes in the form of Potulny and Reddox who were recalled yesterday.

Neither one is exactly lighting the AHL on fire this season but they’re bodies, which at this point is really the only requirement to play in the Edmonton Falcons Oilers lineup. Yesterday The Copper and Blue looked at the transaction that saw Potulny and Reddox recalled, some pretty interesting stuff on how the Oilers bypassed the waiver system.

Both will likely be in the lineup tonight when the Oilers will kick of their longest road trip of the season so far, five games, in Colorado. The Avalanche continue to win games this year proving prognosticators league wide wrong on a nightly basis. They have a league best 26 point and their record is now 12-3-2. On top of that they are the only team left without a loss on home ice. Unfortunately for the Avs not many fans are seeing these wins; they rank 24th in attendance.

The last time the Oilers and Avalanche played was just about two weeks ago. That night the Avs blanked the Oilers by a score of 3-0. The Avs scored in the first minute and never looked back, hopefully tonights game goes just a little bit better. Considering the lineup that the Oilers will be icing though, I won’t be holding my breath.