We are just at the end of the first week of Oiler's training camp. We've seen a few surprises from some younger players, had a holdout end and had very poor showing by the new backup goalie. It's been an interesting week and I'm getting the feeling that the Oiler's are going to start whittling down the roster quickly before they head to Europe at the end of the preseason. Coach McLellan said he wants to be down to his final 23 man roster plus one extra goalie for the trip.
The roster cuts have been fairly uneventful so far. All the players cut are a longs ways off of seeing NHL time and are a mix of CHL, ECHL and AHL players. Most of the players got to see some action through the rookie camp and the first preseason game. Most of the players should be back next season with the aim of sticking around a little bit longer.
So far the Oiler's are 2-0 in the preseason after defeating the Calgary Flames on Monday and the Vancouver Canucks last night. The Monday game was pretty much the same team that had been together during rookie camp, a few of the new players on the Oiler's roster also dressed for the game. Calgary still has the majority of their roster in China for the two games preseason series against the Bruins. The game looked to be going the Flames way early on after some very poor goaltending by the Oiler's newest goalie Mikko Koskinen. The Oiler's fought back largely led by a trio of rookies, Kailer Yamamoto, Tyler Benson and Ryan McLeod. The trio seems to be building some chemistry which could be a great thing for the Oiler's in a few years. I had Ryan McLeod as a long shot to stick around at training camp but so far he has earned some extra time with the big club. In the end the Oiler's were victorious by a score of 7-4.
Last night saw the Oiler's and Canucks faceoff in Vancouver. The Canucks were playing a much more formidable roster than what the Flames put out on Monday. The Oiler's had an almost entire new lineup from the Monday game as the majority of those players got the night off. Yamamoto, McLeod & Benson did make the trip to play in there second game in two nights. The game looked much closer to a real NHL contest and in my opinion was the first real test for many of the players hopeful to crack the roster this season. Oiler's starter Cam Talbot played the first two periods and looked very solid in his first outing of the year. Talbot even had a highlight reel save that could be a candidate for save of the year. Lots of strong play from the entire forward group leaves lots of positives moving forward in the camp. The defense was a bit suspect at certain points in the game but good goaltending by Talbot and Montoya helped secure the victory for Edmonton.
Tomorrow night the Oiler's are off to Winnipeg for their third preseason game. I'm guessing tomorrow will be our first look at Connor McDavid this preseason. He's always exciting to watch and seems very hungry this year. I think he is in line for his third straight Art Ross and Ted Linsay awards. Darnel Nurse is also likely to play tomorrow night after his brief four day holdout at the beginning of training camp. There will be a lot of scrutiny on him this year as the Oiler's will be expecting improved play from him after only giving him a two year extension.
I wouldn't be surprised to see another round of cuts come after tomorrows game so things will start getting more intense as more players continue to go home. There are quite a few question marks on the roster this year and I would think the Oiler's would want to give those players in question every opportunity to prove they deserve a roster spot this season. I'm looking forward to the coming week and am happy to finally be watching hockey again.