Oilers vs Hawks

 VS

Where: Rexal Place

When: 7PM

How to watch: Oilers website

Who to watch: -Oilers: Anton Lander Cam Barker Tyler Pitlick

                       - Wild:  * The Wild website has not put up the official roster as of yet.

This is one of two preseason games on today, Dangerman will be watching the game in Sask, click on the link to see his pre/post game blogs.

I think this is an interesting lineup. They are not playing the Nuge OR Smyth in the first home game of the year, but they are going to ice a pretty strong lineup against the Wild tonight and it should be an entertaining game to watch anyway.

Here is the lineup according to the Oiler website.

Taylor Hall - Eric Belanger - Ryan Jones

MPS - Anton Lander - Linus Omark

Ben Eager - Tyler Pitlick - Ryan Keller

Ryan Martindale - Tanner House - Phillippe Cornet

Cam Barker - Tom Gilbert

Martin Marincin - Kirill Tulupov

David Musil - Taylor Fedun

Nikoli Khabibulin

Olivier Roy

 

 I think that there are a couple guys to watch that are out of the norm. 

First is Anton Lander. The reason I say to watch him is because he is going to make a real push for a spot on this team and I expect he will have a great game while trying to make a name for himself. If he is going to make this team it is probably going to be at the expense of RNH and that will mean that he is going to have to show he has more rounded tools than his counterpart.

The second is Cam Barker. I think Barker is in a "make or break" situation this year and this will be his first opportunity to show what he has to offer. There is very little room on this team for power play specialists so Barker is going to have to show that he can be a contributor from day one. I think this guy could turn out to be either the steal of the off season OR the bust of the year. Its all in his hands now. 

The third guy to watch is Tyler Pitlick. Pitlick probably wont make the team this year but he is really going to be gunning to make an impression at center and hopefully earn a job in the future as a shooting center that can check his hat and win faceoffs. I expect Pitlick will be one of the last cuts from the team and then have quite the season this year in the AHL. He will also be one of the early call ups if there are injuries and a good preseason will go a long way to ensure he is on the radar.

I am looking forward to this game, just to see who has taken a step in the offseason and who is going to need a little more seasoning before they are ready to make the big show.

So in the meantime I will tip a brew or two and just enjoy myself.

Until next time.