Love or Hate

The weekend is now over. The Oilers' preseason schedule ended with an exciting 5-4 win over the 'Nucks. I wouldn't normally blog so much about hockey, but I am so intrigued and excited to see what the season will be like for our team.

There are so many different reactions to our team this year. Some people, who I would never, for the life of me, suspect turn against the Oilers in predicting a bad season to come out and say that we'll finish close to last place in the conference. There are also the faithfully optimistic who looks on the good of the team and say that we are definitely a playoff contender. I stand somewhere in the middle, but a little close to the optimistic side of things.

I think that whether you love or hate our team this year, it will be interesting to see how the season turns out. That's why I am heavy on the hopeful side in that making the playoffs would make everyone, who doubted them, wrong. But also, if the year doesn't turn out great, I won't be too disappointed because this year, in reality, is more of an adapting year - a year of change.

With final cuts approaching, I would hate to be Pat Quinn and company in determining the starting roster for October 3rd. Based on all the pressers that I've listened to, this is what I think the lineup might look like, as well as what I would prefer based on what Quinn has said and done.

Jacques - Horcoff - Hemsky
Penner - Gagner - Cogliano
O'Sullivan - Comrie - Stone
Moreau - Brule - Stortini
MacIntyre
Reddox

Souray - Gilbert
Visnovsky - Smid
Grebeshkov - Staios
Strudwick

Out: Nilsson, Pisani, Pouliot

The bottom 4 forward spots are so tough to work with. We have an incredible depth and it's almost impossible to predict what Quinn wants. I think that the moment we signed Comrie, Nilsson was done, and I just don't think very much of Nilsson anymore. Pisani could stick instead of MacIntyre, but I believe that having MacIntyre on our team DOES make a difference. Having just Stortini doesn't have enough of a deterrence effect on other team's big fighters. However, saying goodbye to Pisani will be hard because he's a good player, but overpaid. I also really like Reddox. Pouliot is useless; exhibit A, his "pubis situation". Also, I believe this Oilers' team needs a shakeup, like cutting a veteran, to send a message through the lineup that we have to play hard. I know not everyone will agree with what I have, but that's okay, that's the fun part of it all.

Since this is so popular now:

The Script - We Cry