Oilers Reporter Pushing Panic Button on Oilers Preseason
Photo credit: Oilers Nation
Oilers reporter Marc Spector of Sportsnet seems to have pushed the panic button after the Oilers completed their preseason with a 4-1 loss against the Vancouver Canucks.
This preseason has not been ideal for the Oilers as the team had a losing record while the lineup had undergone major changes throughout the summer which has led to new faces including Ty Emberson, Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson. With all the changes that have happened, it's safe to say that head coach Kris Knoblauch along with assistant coach Paul Coffey will need to work a little harder in the early goings of this season to find the matches that make sense in that click.
These preseason games have also shown that the Oilers among all the rest of the NHL are trying to get through these games without sustaining any major injuries to their stars. Over the past couple of weeks several prominent players in the NHL have gone down to injuries and in some cases will be out for numerous months.
This has caused the debate amongst players, management and NHL pundits that the league may consider changing the number of preseason games down to four and potentially adding two seasonal games to make the season 84.
This record clearly does not reflect what the Oilers will be doing this year as several games were losses due to the lack of star power and the evaluation that was going on between their young players and the coaches. Preseason is purely irrelevant when it comes down to it as many of the stars are disengaged and will be ready for opening night next week.
This team had gone through its share of challenges last year as they were 31st out of 32nd at the end of November and played to game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.
This take is premature, and I doubt it will take long for the Oilers to flip a switch and become the team they were in the second-half of last year and in the playoffs.
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