EDMONTON, AB – One more game until the real thing.
The Edmonton Oilers took part in a full practice at the Downtown Community Arena on Thursday in advance of their final exhibition game of the pre-season calendar against the Seattle Kraken on Friday.
There’s only one more match left on the docket before preparation shifts fully towards preparing for the 2022-23 regular-season opener against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place, and the number of players left at Camp (18 forwards, 10 defenseman and two goaltenders) signals that there’s still a few decisions to be made before the Oilers solidify their opening night roster.
The Oilers roster is inching closer to what it should appear as for Wednesday’s home opener, but Head Coach Jay Woodcroft stressed the importance of Friday’s pre-season finale when it comes to the opportunity for a number of players, especially those on the bubble. securing NHL roles, to make a final impression.
Video: RAW | Jay Woodcroft 10.06.22
“We say in our coaching staff that when you have time, you use it,” Woodcroft said. “We’re using this last game as another opportunity to evaluate our players. There are some key battles going on, there are people pushing very hard, and I just think there’s no need to box ourselves in right now. We’re going to use the time we have available to us.
“As a coaching staff, we sit in that room at the end of every day and evaluate how the day went, how the team performed, how individuals are performing, and especially in the key battles. We spend a lot of time talking about that. , so we’re going to use that last pre-season game tomorrow night as a real evaluation tool to help set our team up heading into next week.”
The continuing evaluation of players in competition for roster spots isn’t delaying the preparation for the new season, however, as the Oilers players and coaches look to get back to some of the positive habits and systems that led to success last season after Woodcroft took over. over the bench with Dave Manson.
“Right when we started Camp, we had the basics nailed down,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “The first three days were tracking in the offensive and defensive zones and things like that, so now it’s getting more specific. We’re really honing it in a bit more working on faceoff stuff and getting that track back to where we were last year. I think that’s something that we really excelled in to give our team more offensive looks — having guys come back hard and having those D step up. That’s something we worked on a little bit today and I think moving forward, that’s a big focus. for us.”
Video: RAW | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 10.06.22
Forwards Kailer Yamamoto, Warren Foegele, Leon Draisaitl and defenseman Dmitri Samorukov were not on the ice on Thursday along with Tyler Benson, who did not participate due to a lower-body injury and could miss extended time after putting together a strong camp.
“Leon had a personal day and Yamo got nicked up a little bit, so we held him off,” Woodcroft said. “We’ve held Foegele off the last two days and Sammy played last night, but we held him off today… Tyler had the picture taken and it’s not day-to-day, more week-to-week.”
Earlier in the morning, the Oilers placed goaltender Calvin Pickard on waivers for the purpose of re-assignment to the Bakersfield Condors and released forward Jake Virtanen from his professional tryout agreement (PTO). Off the ice, former Oilers defenseman and Hamilton Bulldogs President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Steve Staios was added to the club’s hockey operations staff to serve in a special advisor role with a focus on player development.
The Oilers fell to the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 on the road in Abbotsford, BC on Wednesday in pre-season action that saw McDavid score a highlight-reel goal and Elias Pettersson score twice on the man advantage for the hosts. Vancouver went 3-for-8 on the power play as Edmonton’s rhythm was limited all evening with the parade to the penalty box.
Get all of the day’s written and video content below.
WRITTEN
Video: RAW | Derek Ryan 10.06.22
VIDEO