The start of training camp is just days away and you can already feel the excitement.
There is nothing more captivating than the edge-of-your-seat action that comes from rosters comprised of a minimum eight NHL players going three-quarter speed against some guys from the AHL and Junior.
“Wow, did you see Zach Hyman blow past that 19-year-old from the Rockford IceHogs? This is going to be a great year!”
So hang on to your hats because the time is here. The short summer is over. The tears of late June have been replaced by the dreams of late September; the smoke in the air replaced by the cool, sweet taste of anticipation.
This year’s pre-season is eight games, which everyone knows is ridiculous, but they still go ahead with it because people are willing to watch and home games are worth a couple million a pop. Thus, the formula continues: home teams ice their good players, road team send their scrubs, home teams mop the floor with the visitors and everyone remarks about how sharp the home team looks.
Here are a few things to keep your eye on during this roller coaster of emotion:
Darnell Nurse
It’s a little ironic, don’t you think, that one of the main people to watch in training camp is somebody who isn’t there? But Darnell Nurse’s progress and recovery from a lingering playoff injury — three months is a very long linger — is a burning issue.
The Oilers say it’s nothing, not a big deal that he won’t be there for the start of camp, but when you’re talking about a player who eats up big minutes on a team that just lost three defencemen, it’s OK to be a little worried. Fans need to see him back before the end of camp so they can breathe a big sigh of relief and start bitching about his contract again.
Defence battle
The biggest area of concern on the team is defence. Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard are as good a top pairing as you’ll find, Nurse is a good No.3 and Kulak is a good No.5. That’s a very solid start. But they have to fill the void left by Vincent Desharnais (who’s getting $4 million over two years to wave white flags and listen to ‘Let’s go Petey’ chants in Vancouver), Cody Ceci (who got pushed down the elevator shaft to 32nd-place San Jose in order to free up cap space that they didn’t use to sign Philip Broberg or Dylan Holloway), and Broberg (who hit the offer sheet lottery).
The leading candidates to fill two spots in the opening night lineup are Ty Emberson, Troy Stecher, Josh Brown, and PTO Travis Dermott. Who knows if this is going to work or if the Oilers will have to fix things on the fly when the season starts. Here is your first chance to decide whether or not to worry.
Rookie Battle
Surprise! Another element to watch is something that isn’t going to be there. The Oldest team in the NHL isn’t quite set, but job openings for young players are none to be had. Gone are the days when the draft lottery was the highlight of Edmonton’s season and training camp featured an assembly line of first overall picks bursting into the spotlight. Who can forget Nail Yakupov? I mean, sure, you can forget him how, he’s cashing cheques from the Kunlun Red Star, but the fall of 2012 was a special time that will live forever.
Instead of everyone crying about how the Oilers are rushing young players into the fire, we can get more crying about how they’re stunting their development by not playing them.
New guys
It’s only pre-season and veterans know enough not to go full speed in late September, but Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner are new guys trying to impress a new team, so we should get a good look at what they’re going to provide. It’s also a chance to Get a sneak peak at the second line chemistry with Leon Draisaitl.
Again, it’s hard to judge a player going up against opposing teams made up veterans going three-quarter speed and young training camp fodder who’ll be back in Junior or the AHL once they finished getting torched up here, but it will be interesting to watch nonetheless.
The other Connor
Brown had comeback for the ages last season after starting out as a snake-bitten, hands of stone forward who couldn’t score if you stripped the opposing goalie of all his pads and put him in a soccer net. By the end of the playoffs, his knee injury fading in the rear view mirror, he was turning into the Connor Brown everyone expected to see last October. Now he’s back to normal and part of one of the best third lines in the NHL with Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark. If he picks up where he left off, Brown could be a difference maker this year.
Vasily Podkolzin
Sometimes Reclamation projects can turn into massive steals, and sometimes they can turn into Jesse Puljujarvi. Here is where you get your first information on which way Podkolzin might be going. He fizzled out a little the last two seasons in Vancouver but he put up numbers as a rookie (14 goals) and has a strong pedigree with a lot of unrealized upside. He’s not playing with McDavid or Draisaitl, so his numbers aren’t going to spike like Hyman’s have, or Skinner’s and Arvidsson’s are expected to, but it’s a pretty good risk-reward investment for the Oilers.
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