As always, it is really difficult to predict line combinations for the Edmonton Oilers. Going into the preseason it seems pretty safe to bet that the first line will be Horcoff with Hemsky and Cole. But from there it gets trickier.
The second line could see Nilsson centering Penner and Pisani. Of course you could see Gagner in place of Nilsson, and maybe Penner dropping down to a third line. Rumor has it that Penner is slightly lighter than last season and in much better condition, so this could be the true breakout year everyone has been expecting from the big guy!
My third line would be something like Brodziak with Gagner and Moreau. I am not sure how these three players would perform together and I might not be inclined to show a great deal of patience when it comes to waiting for them to gel.
The checking line would be Cogliano, Brule, and Stortini. Cogliano probably deserves a better fate than fourth line this season, but unless you put him on the third line and move Moreau to the fourth line, I am not sure how you can justify having Cogs any higher in the pecking order. Brule may be much better than fourth line talent, but I think he has to prove himself before he gets that shot with the Oil, because he has not done much in the NHL to date. And Stortini is barely effective in any role, but he gets the nod just because of his willingness to play any role coach MacT asks him to!
The blue lines are pretty well set in stone. Any rookie trying to break in with the Oilers has a tough road ahead. The top pairing is really NOT set in stone. I think Visnovsky and Smid could be the top pairing, and I think they would likely work well together. Visnovsky is a guy I have not seem play very much. Let’s face it, if you play for any length of time in LA, people will not know very much about you beyond what the stats page can show. What the stats page tells us is that this guy puts up serious numbers every year. There are still a lot of people in Edmonton that do not think that Smid is a legitimate top six defenseman. I really can’t figure out what they are seeing because this guy has been top four for the last two years for sure. A boat load of talent and a healthy dose of physical play make Smid among my favorite Oilers.
The second pairing should be Souray and Gilbert. We did not see much of Souray last season, and what I saw left me completely underwhelmed. I hope we will see better from the big man this year. Gilbert looks like he has the tools to become either an allstar puck moving defenseman, or a shut down guy. He could go either way. Look for a big career from Gilbert.
The third pairing is Staios and Grebishkov. Stevie Staios seemed to lose a step last season. He is still a leader and a warrior, but the speed and skill that make him such a great player for the Oilers seemed to fail him to some extend. The other big thing I noticed about Staios is that he seemed to be getting pushed around a lot more last season. Not that he would back down from anybody, but he seems to have lost an edge when it comes to intimidating anybody. As for Grebishkov, I kind of determined in about January that Grebishkov must mean “give away” in Russian. Grebby is hard to watch at times, but he made drastic improvements through the season last year and deserves to stay on as a top six D-man.
In goal there really isn’t even a choice. Garon gets the number one spot because he is that good. Roloson gets the back up spot because the Oilers are paying him too much money to ship him off to another team that might give him more ice time.
The big question mark is Robbie Schremp. Could this finally be Rob’s year? I really don’t know. All I can say is that if he wants to stick, he had better show something drastically better than what we saw in his limited opportunities last season.
So those are my preseason predictions. Keep an eye on this blog in the next few weeks as I offer my thoughts on some of the Oilers talent. Cheers!
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews | Tags: all new atom, dc comics, gail simone, rick reminder, wonder woman
This is going to be a short one today, but it needs to be done.
Ironically, in my last comic review I mention that as long as Gail Simone keeps writing the All New Atom, I will keep reading it. Well you know what happens when you make a statement like that! The very next issue I read was written by somebody else!
Now before I continue I want to make sure I mention that I have read the next four or five issues written by Rick Reminder and they are good. Not great, but really interesting. I would not drop this title due to the writing change. The problem I am having is finding the issues now. I cannot seem to locate the issues I need, and I am about 99% certain that the series has been cancelled. It seems pretty tough to nail down any decent info on DC comics in general.
Now, getting back to Gail Simone, it looks to me like she is now writing Wonder Woman. This makes sense in light of Wonder Woman’s guest appearance in Gail’s last Atom storyline. I have to say that I do consider myself to be a Simone fan at this point, and I do intend to check out her work on Wonder Woman. There should be many reviews to follow!
