Oilers set Opening Night roster, but questions still linger on defence

EDMONTON — Like every team, the Edmonton Oilers entered their pre-season with several well-defined questions:

• Can Ty Emberson and Darnell Nurse make up a second defensive pairing commensurate of a team with Stanley Cup aspirations?

• Why on Earth did Edmonton give defenceman Josh Brown a three-year contract, even if it is fully bury-able? And can he make up for the void on defence left by Vincent Desharnais?

• And what about a second line of Leon Draisaitl between newcomers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner? Are these the elite wingers Draisaitl has gone without for so long?

Well, the regular season starts Wednesday and Nurse has played just a single pre-season game next to Emberson. That question marks still exists, in a big way.

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In other news, Josh Brown couldn’t make the team — he has cleared waivers and is headed for AHL Bakersfield — and Skinner was kicked off the second line at practice Monday, pushed to the third line by Mattias Janmark.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch spoke Monday about spreading his scoring threats around his lineup, but the fact is that the plan would never have changed if that line had shown even an ounce of chemistry in the pre-season. It has not.

“We’ve had two games together,” said Draisaitl, “and I can certainly say that I wasn’t at my best.”

In the end, the Oilers announced a roster on Monday that could — with an addition or two at the trade deadline and some overall improvement — conceivably get them one game further than they journeyed a season ago. But the Stanley Cup hangover is real, and through eight pre-season games, the Oilers went 3-5, allowed a league-high 26 5-on-5 goals against, and are now left to count on flipping the switch in time for Opening Night Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets.

“I personally don’t put a lot of stock into (pre-season performance),” Draisaitl. “Do we have to be a lot better than we’ve shown? Of course.

“It’s fair to say it’s tough going from a Stanley Cup Game 7 to a pre-season game on a Wednesday night.”

OK, we get it.

Draisaitl is right — and we felt the same thing in the press box. Going from the intensity of June to a mundane pre-season is a massive emotional decline, and a team that played 107 games the season before is wrestling with how far to depress the gas pedal when the calendar still reads October.

“There shouldn’t be any motivational issues on Wednesday,” he said. “We just want to start on time. We don’t need to put on a show on Wednesday. We need to play good hockey; we need to be compact; we need to play our type of way.

“Get off to a better start (than last season) in terms of collecting wins.”

Up front, Edmonton’s lineup has most of the required elements. Here is how they’ll line up Wednesday (and we’re guessing that Monday was a shot across Skinner’s bow, and he’ll be back on Draisaitl’s line):

Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Hyman
Skinner-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
Podkolzin-Ryan-Perry

There’s plenty of offence here, a few good penalty killers, a wicked power play, a third-line centre in Henrique who is well cast, and after losing Dylan Holloway they hope Podkolzin will be the one who spells the Skinners of the world when they need a push.

No lineup is perfect, and this group is considerably slower minus off-season losses Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod and Holloway. But this group of 12 is certainly above average, and with four vets on expiring contracts, changing the complexion is a realistic possibility.

The defence is a bigger question mark:

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Emberson
Kulak-Stecher
Dermott

Here’s the play: At or before the Deadline, the Oilers acquire a legit second-pairing (or better) defenceman to play with Nurse. That pushes Emberson to the third pair, makes Troy Stecher, Travis Dermott, and perhaps Brown constitute your fourth pairing, and you’ve got a decent D-corps and good, veteran depth.

That implies that Emberson can get the Oilers to the deadline as a second-pairing guy, and that Stecher and Dermott can platoon with Kulak to become a sufficient third pairing. If it’s mid-November and this group doesn’t have what it takes, the gamble of letting Desharnais go to Vancouver could come home to roost.

In goal, they’re as good as they need to be, with the starter Stu Skinner and backup Calvin Pickard. Sure, if the starter gets hurt for any length of time, the Oilers are in trouble.

So are 25 other NHL teams.

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