Even with the typically low bar that you associate with pre-season games, Monday wasn’t great.
The Edmonton Oilers dressed their complete second and third lines and threw Connor McDavid into the mix for good measure Monday and still couldn’t separate themselves from the nondescript training campers Vancouver brought to Rogers Place.
The Oilers trailed 1-0 through 40 disjointed minutes before Corey Perry and Ben Gleason scored third in the period and Leon Draisaitl and Viktor Arvidsson potted the deciding goals in a 3-2 shootout win.
“Obviously not the most NHL-experienced lineup over there but I thought they battled hard,” McDavid said of the no-name Canucks. “We’re just trying to get some bumps and win some battles. There are still some things we can iron out as a group and I think everybody has another level to get to. Hopefully, we’ll get there this week.”
Edmonton won’t see the Oilers in person again until the regular season opener Oct. 9 against the Winnipeg Jets. They close out the pre-season on the road with games in Seattle on Wednesday and Vancouver on Friday.
Podkolzin plays the wild card
Former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin is a wild card in Edmonton’s plans this year. The Canucks gave up on him after three years and now the former first-round pick (10th Overall in 2019) is trying to re-ignite his career with the Oilers.
He has some offensive skill, scoring 14 goals in his rookie season, but he spun his wheels the next two years and fell out of favour. The Oilers like what they see so far because he’s been skating on a line with Corey Perry all camp and he got a high-profile spot Monday, playing on a line with McDavid and Perry against the Canucks.
The offensive outburst never came (Podkolzin’s best chance was when he couldn’t handle a five-star set-up from McDavid in the Vancouver slot), but that’s not how he’s going to fit in here, anyway. With the top three lines already set, he needs to get his foot in the door as a hard-working fourth-line player who kills penalties and kicks in the odd goal. So far so good on those fronts.
“He’s a hell of a worker,” said Perry. “He works hard, he’s hard on the puck. He’s got good habits. We’ve been together since Day One and it’s fun playing with him.”
Oilers second line set
The second line is set with Leon Draisaitl centering off-season acquisitions Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson and they were all out there together Monday as they try and forge some chemistry before the regular season.
Draisaitl is Draisaitl and Arvidsson has a well-earned reputation for being hard to play against, so that should be a nice blend. The question is whether, Skinner who has heavier feet than the other two, will be able to weave his style into the formula.
The trio didn’t generate much, but it’s still very early in the process.
“They made some good plays,” said McDavid. “It’s tough, especially when you’re supposed to make it work right away and there are supposed to be fireworks right away. You feel that pressure. It just takes a little bit of time but they are three such good players that they’ll get it going.”
Defence auditions
Troy Stecher, Troy Emberson, Travis Dermott and Josh Brown all played Monday as the Oilers try and sort out their blue line. Stecher looks like a guy who played 494 games. He retrieves and moves the puck well. At six-foot-five and 220 pounds Brown likes the physicality and has no problem engaging the other team. Dermott has veteran poise and Emberson is steady in his own end.
But, overall, the Oilers spent a little too much time in their own zone and didn’t break out especially well against a team that sat most of its top players and iced six guys who didn’t play in the NHL last year.
The biggest, and maybe only, concern about the Oilers this year is whether or not their blue line can hold up. Now, it’ll make a big difference having Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard or Darnell Nurse out there but Monday night was just OK.
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