Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Oilers Game 2 Thoughts...

Still not clicking on all cylinders, but a much better effort than the teams 1st game against Colorado.

Ethan Moreau woke from his slumber and provided the physical spark that was needed. Marc Pouliot and Kyle Brodziak were a superb combo on the ever changing 4th line, Sheldon Souray was full of venom tonight and also contributed on the stats sheet.

Mathieu Garon once again was sensational, the Oilers really need to look at getting this guy locked up.

Erik Cole started to get involved as well and Lubomir Visnovsky got his first goal as an Oiler.

I'm still weary of the lack of chemistry on the top line and the make-up of the 3rd line.

Changes that I'd be looking to make after game #2...

Cole-Horcoff-Hemsky
Nilsson-Cogliano-Gagner
Penner-Brodziak-Pisani
Moreau-Pouliot-Stortini

I know that it'd be nice to keep Pouliot and Brodziak together, but we need to improve on faceoffs. A 4th line with Moreau and Stortini could be a physical energy line while the new 3rd line would be a more offensive line than its current form.

4 comments:

freeze said...

I think Cole would be more effective in his natural position but hopefully he comes around. If the wingers can provide better support on faceoffs we should be ok. Amazing how dominate they could be once they started skating at full speed.

Troy said...

Can't agree more with those line combinations. Brodziak deserves that 3rd line centre spot, and Pouliot can provide solid minutes as 4th centre. That 4th line would be a buzz saw. I must saw this won't happen as MacT will remain loyal to his captain and refuse to demote him.

hockeyman99 said...

I think its a mistake to have Cole on the left side. My lines would be as follows:

penner-horcoff-hemsky
gagner-cogliano-nilson
pisani-brodziak-cole
moreau-pouliot-stortini

or(the best option IMO)

penner-horcoff-hemsky
gagner-cogliano-cole
nilson-brodziak-pisani
moreau-pouliot-stortini

the first combo keeps the kid line intact and returns cole to his natural position but I think the second combo is better overall because it gets some size on cogs line. It also takes pisani to the wing and nilson is very good in the defensive zone and he would make pisani and brodziak much more dangerous.

Bryanbryoil said...

Great points guys. I especially like the idea of Nilsson dropping down to the 3rd line. The previous lineup had Pisani on his off wing. However that'd be easier to play than center LOL!

It just seems like Cole would be better as a RW.

Another possibility would be...

Penner-Horcoff-Cole
ever since I thought of that line after we acquired Cole, I fell in love with the idea.

Nilsson-Cogliano-Hemsky
Moreau-Brodziak-Pisani
MacIntyre/Stortini/?-Pouliot-Gagner

IMO ideally, we'd call up Schremp and have him flanking MAP and gagner on the 4th line. That would give us 3 true scoring lines.