Friday, November 11, 2005

 

Oilers Game Day - Columbus




Season Record: 8-8-1 Season Record: 5-11-0


Preview


Simply a must win for the Oil tonight. Markkanen will get the start and Peca and Reasoner should be back in the game

In other interesting news, the Oilers have claimed Krys Kolanos off of waivers from Phoenix.

I seem to recall that Lowe has wanted him for a while, although I'm not entirely sure why. He's a big Alberta boy who had a decently promising rookie season (22 points in 50 games - 8th in rookie scoring with 6 game winners) but then suffered a concussion and hasn't done much since. I'm actually not sure what to think about this move. Here's Gretzky's quote:

It's pretty simple. First of all, he's a nice young man. We just feel at this point in time maybe he needs a change, maybe he needs a new venue.

Who do we have to get rid of to make room for him? I hope it isn't Reasoner. I've said it before, but Reasoner is Mr. Everything and is instant chemistry. You can put him on any line and not worry. Laraque? Rita? Winchester?

On the other hand, he is an asset(?) obtained for free and does have potential . . .

Thoughts?

Comments:

I know its still early and winchester hasn't had a great deal of time or opporunities but he really hasn't shown anything when he has played. Nor can I really make a compelling argument for the continued play of Jani Rita, although he did score against the St.Louis Blue Hobbos.
 


Or Pisani. He hasn't been stellar this year. Could he and one other player (Rita?) get us a defenseman from someone?

Is Brendan Witt someone we would be interested in? What would it take to get him?
 


Do we now have enough spare parts to cobble together a trade for someone like Kozlov?
 


why would any team take the oilers dregs for a decent player...unless its for a salary dump, and it's a little early for that.
 


Prediction: Oilers lose 5-2 with another goaltender meltdown.
 


I wouldn't write off Pisani yet. The guy has the uncanny ability to outscore at 5 on 5. Igor at Oilfan's started a thread on Pisani that showed some of his EV +/- stats. Either the guy has gotten every lucky bounce in his young career or he is a damn good two-way player.

For what he makes, he stays on my team over Rita, Winchester and Laraque, no question.
 


I'd be more upset if they got rid of Pisani than the two players I mentioned - Rita and Winchester. Pisani seems to be out there working hard, and with that alone good things remain possible. With Rita it might just be time to admit that as far as a first round pick goes, he's been a bust. It happens to everyone..you just need to move on.

Witt is a fairly good defenseman, and I think he'd be a solid addition to any team. I'm not certain if the oilers are hard up for another defenseman our current plague of injuries aside. Whether we should be interested or not depends on what we would have to give up. If it was a matter of giving up Jani Rita and Cory Cross, I'm for embracing Brendan Witt with open arms.
 


Winchester has shown more promise than Rita. I will chip in some money for a plane ticket if it will help Rita get out of Edmonton faster.

And although Pisani has been good in previous years, he's been invisible this year.
 


I thought Pisani looked pretty good tonight, so I stand behind what I said earlier about thinking it would be a mistake to get rid of him.
 


Pisani will never be a stand-out skill player. Being invisible and coming out on the positive side of the +/- is exactly what he needs to do to remain an effective player. And it's exactly what he's done for his entire, albeit short, career.
 


Pisani isn't going to be a super star by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he has the potential to be a rather solid hockey player. Which is more than I can honestly say I expect from Rita...
 

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