GDT: Preseason Game 5 at Edmonton

[FreshSeabass]

Lineup
eravainen-Staal-Williams
Aho-Rask-Lindholm
Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen
Nordstrom-Wallmark-Jooris

Slavin-Faulk
Hanifin-Pesce
Bean-van Riemsdyk

Darling
Smith

We got video!!!!

Click to read more...

 

[the halleJOKEL]

late game zzzz

i will be at RCI for the whole thing

 

[Wolfpuck]

I want to see Darling, but I need to sleep.

I can just sleep at work tomorrow.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Me likey streamy.

I finally watched a highlight video of Darling the other night (honestly I've never seen him play), and damn he's got a mix of conventional/unconventional tricks up his sleeve that I think he pulls off by being so large. Lots of sprawling pad, and glove saves where you could tell the shooter thought he had him beat but his extension gives him that extra advantage. It kind of reminds me of some of the saves Cam attempts but due to his size he often can't quite get to it. Darling is quick too for his size. He's gonna be fun to watch, I hope.

 

[tempest2i]

Oiler's Fan coming in peace.

The Oilers TV streams have been a challenge all pre-season. If you are interested in watching tonight's game, the Edmonton Oilers have been streaming their pre-season games on Facebook, which is an option for watching the game for anyone interested.

Projected Oilers Lineup:

 

[The Faulker 27]

I want to see Darling, but I need to sleep.

I can just sleep at work tomorrow.

I'm gonna need to go ahead ask you to come back when I've fulfilled by 8 hours of sleep, umkay.

 

[Aerrol]

Hi, another Oilers fan here with a question.

We have these lines listed in our GDT for you (no idea as to accuracy):
TT - Rask - Williams
Aho - Staal - Lindholm
Skinner - Ryan - Necas
Nordstrom - Kruger - McGinn
Jooris - Saarela - Zykov
Di Guiseppe - Wallmark
Kuokanen - Roy

And I noticed that both Aho and Lindholm are on the wing, which surprised me. I thought that both of them were natural centres (Aho from the famous Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi line), but googling tells me that only Lindholm is listed as a centre. Is there any talk about moving either back to C or are they permanently wingers now?

Thanks, and good luck tonight .

edit: In case you somehow don't have all our numbers memorized, that works out to:

Maroon - McDavid - Puljujarvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Caggiula
Jokinen - RNH - Strome
Khaira - Letestu - Yamamoto

Klefbom - Larsson
Russell* - Benning
Auvitu/Simpson - Fayne

* #2 is Sekera, who is injured so I'm assuming that it was a typo for #4, Kris Russell.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Hi, another Oilers fan here with a question.

We have these lines listed in our GDT for you (no idea as to accuracy):
TT - Rask - Williams
Aho - Staal - Lindholm
Skinner - Ryan - Necas
Nordstrom - Kruger - McGinn
Jooris - Saarela - Zykov
Di Guiseppe - Wallmark
Kuokanen - Roy

And I noticed that both Aho and Lindholm are on the wing, which surprised me. I thought that both of them were natural centres (Aho from the famous Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi line), but googling tells me that only Lindholm is listed as a centre. Is there any talk about moving either back to C or are they permanently wingers now?

Thanks, and good luck tonight .

edit: In case you somehow don't have all our numbers memorized, that works out to:

Maroon - McDavid - Puljujarvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Caggiula
Jokinen - RNH - Strome
Khaira - Letestu - Yamamoto

Klefbom - Larsson
Russell* - Benning
Auvitu/Simpson - Fayne

* #2 is Sekera, who is injured so I'm assuming that it was a typo for #4, Kris Russell.

Both Aho and Lindholm can play center, but we currently deploy both of them on the wings. Lindholm typically plays on the right wing, but we do occasionally use him on faceoffs. With Aho, the plan is to move him from the left wing to center eventually, after he's gotten stronger and more experienced at the NHL level.

 

[JCLA]

And I noticed that both Aho and Lindholm are on the wing, which surprised me. I thought that both of them were natural centres (Aho from the famous Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi line), but googling tells me that only Lindholm is listed as a centre. Is there any talk about moving either back to C or are they permanently wingers now?

The front office and coach have said Lindy will stay on the Wing and Aho will move to center at some point in his career.

Lindholm spent most of the season the wing last year but played some center, was far more effective on wing. Aho was a winger last year.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Hi, another Oilers fan here with a question.

We have these lines listed in our GDT for you (no idea as to accuracy):
TT - Rask - Williams
Aho - Staal - Lindholm
Skinner - Ryan - Necas
Nordstrom - Kruger - McGinn
Jooris - Saarela - Zykov
Di Guiseppe - Wallmark
Kuokanen - Roy

And I noticed that both Aho and Lindholm are on the wing, which surprised me. I thought that both of them were natural centres (Aho from the famous Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi line), but googling tells me that only Lindholm is listed as a centre. Is there any talk about moving either back to C or are they permanently wingers now?

Thanks, and good luck tonight .

edit: In case you somehow don't have all our numbers memorized, that works out to:

Maroon - McDavid - Puljujarvi
Lucic - Draisaitl - Caggiula
Jokinen - RNH - Strome
Khaira - Letestu - Yamamoto

Klefbom - Larsson
Russell - Benning
Auvitu/Simpson - Fayne

No idea if those will be the lines for tonight, but those 4 are approaching what we are expecting for the regular season. Stempniak is injured right now, and normally would fit in as 3RW instead of Necas, who's shown well in camp and whether or not he will make the team has been the subject of much discussion.

Lindholm is just better as a winger. Has trouble playing both sides of the puck when he's a center, tends to be an ok defender but has trouble playing offensively as one. When he's a winger he's a great playmaker and good on D. At this point Peters has bluntly answered that question by saying "Lindy is a winger."

Aho came in as a winger, and while the coaching staff says that they eventually see him as a center, it also came out a few weeks back that they expect him to require another full year as a winger.

 

[FreshSeabass]

And I noticed that both Aho and Lindholm are on the wing, which surprised me. I thought that both of them were natural centres (Aho from the famous Laine-Aho-Puljujarvi line), but googling tells me that only Lindholm is listed as a centre. Is there any talk about moving either back to C or are they permanently wingers now?

Bill peters say he sees Aho at center in the long term but they want to ease him into it.

 

[JCLA]

That should answer it

 

[Wolfpuck]

Ask a question, get the same answer 4 times.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I've only seen 1 line listed for the Canes.

Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen will be one of the forward lines tonight.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

In the back of my mind the last few months has been TT-Rask-Williams, because I think Williams could show them both a thing or two about consistency.

But given the last few weeks I wonder if Staal-Williams will move forward as a pairing. Recapture some of the Brindy-Williams magic from back when.

 

[geehaad]

I doubt Aho ever plays center. I'd be willing to bet on it, but wouldn't bet that he won't ever get even one game there, and don't know what the over/under should be.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Just curious, are there many recent cases of guys that spend 2-3 years on the wing before then transitioning to center in the NHL?

 

[geehaad]

Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen will be one of the forward lines tonight.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Just curious, are there many recent cases of guys that spend 2-3 years on the wing before then transitioning to center in the NHL?

I think but don't know that Seguin was primarily a winger in Boston.

EDIT: Some quick Googling suggests he was the lucky third member of the Bergy-Marchand line for awhile.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I think but don't know that Seguin was primarily a winger in Boston.

EDIT: Some quick Googling suggests he was the lucky third member of the Bergy-Marchand line for awhile.

I wonder how long he was used as a winger and was it exclusively as a winger. If it was 2-3 years, then he'd be a good example of what I was looking for. I know that Draisaitl was used on the wing some, but also was used at center for the Oilers.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Oiler's Fan coming in peace.

The Oilers TV streams have been a challenge all pre-season. If you are interested in watching tonight's game, the Edmonton Oilers have been streaming their pre-season games on Facebook, which is an option for watching the game for anyone interested.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[FreshSeabass]

As expected:

 

[MinJaBen]

I've only seen 1 line listed for the Canes.

Saarela-Necas-Kuokkanen will be one of the forward lines tonight.

That looks like a fun line to watch, but I'd love to see Necas playing on a line with some definitive NHLers so we can see if his game elevates due to the higher skill level.

 

[Aerrol]

Haha, thanks for the answers guys! Very thorough. Appreciate it!

 

[geehaad]

I'd love to see Necas playing on a line with some definitive NHLers

Not sure if "see" should be taken literally (meaning: you, with your own eyes), but I think he was on a line with Ryan and Skinner in one game. Now, whether or not Ryan is a definitive NHLer is not for me to decide for anyone.