Game 3 Sees Jacques and Stone Flourish and Schremp and Brule Sputter, Oh Yeah, and That Comrie Guy Did OK!

Just to bust Bluebelle's chops on a Saturday morning I figured that I'd give her a super long title even for me LOL!

As the title says, Jacques and Stone were very good, and as a result both made convincing arguments for roster spots. Jacques dished out some big hits, and actually backed up his actions with his fists. I'm glad that someone knows what comes with a hard hitting physical style of hockey. On top of that he scored a very nice goal and did pretty good on the PK save from one kill where he failed to clear the puck twice in a row.

Stone? Very nice pass to Chorney who scored with a very well placed shot. He also added at least one other assist and continued to play a heady and gritty game. Me thinks Fernando Pisani's days as an Oiler will be coming to an end if Stone can pull off another game or 2 this preseason like he has in his first 2.

Now the bad. Schremp had a couple of good cycling shifts but he just didn't do what he needs to do to make the club. It frustrated me to see him not produce tonight, he's faster, he's stronger, but he made the same error tonight on the PP. I once again found myself pissed at Robbie for not looking for his shot when the pass wasn't there. At best he scores, at worst it's another faceoff in the O zone. He had better get his stuff together, because like Nilsson he'll pull off a nice move or 2 mixed in with not much else when they aren't clicking.
Nilsson if a more proven commodity, Schremp needs to play better to get himself onto the roster.

Brule also had a few nice plays and was playing the body. Unlike Schremp (to my knowledge) Brule was coming off of the flu. This was Jillbear's first action of the preseason and he will undoubtedly get more games in as should Schremp. The problem is that a guy like Stone has yet to have anything but a really good game to date. It really is amazing how the club has so many players that could fill roster spots without much difference in terms of quality of play. The difference could literally be the contracts of these players. Nilsson, Pisani, and Moreau are all bigger cap number guys.

Something tells me that Tambellini is busy, busy, busy, trying to do a quantity for quality trade. At least he better be. Or maybe lesser versions of the Kessel deal, dealing contracts for picks and resulting cap space. This could be a very key point in Tambellini's career in Edmonton, time to shed salary to improve the teams position in the future.

Lastly but certainly not least, Mike Comrie had himself a whale of a game in his Rexall return. Comrie and O'Sullivan seem like a very solid duo and they should provide us with a security blanket should Gagner and whoever else is on his line have slow starts this season. I wasn't a big fan of the signing because of the makeup of this team and the amount of capable bodies that will probably be lost of waivers, but he brings us a guy that should outperform his contract and a guy that can fit in a number of spots up and down the lineup.

However if he really wants to back up what he says about how he loves Edmonton, let's wait to see if he'll re-sign for a little bit of a hometown discount on a multiple year deal after this season. Color me skeptical, but IMO the doubts of his short term worth to this team were snuffed out tonight.