Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

At least one unpleasant result without the Edmonton Oilers stars was bound to happen.

I feel bad for Jeff Malott. Even if you’re the team that gets scored on, having someone’s first NHL goal get called back is the most uncool thing ever. He joined the Kings in late March and has played in 7 career NHL games, his first was for the Jets last year. The 28-year-old reminds me of Derek Ryan as a late bloomer. Even when cheering against him, here’s hoping he keeps at it and makes a decent name for himself. And hey, at least his team still won by three goals, even at our expense.

Trent Frederic played his first game as an Oiler at last. I thought he looked pretty good in his first game back on the ice, and on a new team. He threw the hits you’d expect him to throw, and he even generated a couple of scoring chances with his size. The Oilers have been missing levels of swagger and toughness all season long. Having him and Evander Kane in time for the Playoffs, imagine those two potentially on a line with Corey Perry. There’ll be a Rat Pack in Edmonton. They could’ve used more urgency around the net instead of just taking perimeter shots on Saturday. So these new-ish additions might help that later on.

Outside of the hockey games, Stan Bowman signed two undrafted forwards to ELCs. One is 29 a 29-year-old right-handed center, David Tomasek, who has put up points through 193 games played in Russia, Czechia, and Sweden. The other is 23-year-old left-handed center Josh Samanski, who put up 85 points through 151 games played in Germany. Word in Edmonton media is that Leon Draisaitl was making a pitch to help lure his fellow countryman.

Best of luck to those brand-new Oilers prospects. I hope to one day include them in a game preview as I say these next words. The keys to the game are…

Edmonton Oilers Notes

Rod: With Calvin Pickard playing the first three games on this road trip, I think Olivier Rodrigue is getting the start in Anaheim tonight. It’ll be his first career NHL start, which I feel he should’ve gotten against San Jose. If this is true, as long as he gives what he gave in the third period against Seattle a week and a half ago, the players in front need to do a decent job at protecting him.

No Fantastic Four: In two meetings with the Ducks this season, one in Anaheim and one in Edmonton, the Oilers allowed four unanswered goals. The last meeting before this one saw it happen in just the second half of the first period. So yeah, don’t do that again.

Freddy: As mentioned above, Trent Frederic played a pretty good first Oilers game. He’ll get slightly easier competition tonight, which might help him slowly get into Playoff mode as he tries to build off the other night.