Last week, there was some chatter with regards to which pair of defensemen would be better for the Edmonton Oilers, Oscar Klefbom and Matthew Benning or Tyson Barrie and Caleb Jones. It’s hard to go barrelling off of a cliff wrong here because all four defenders have redeeming qualities that any coach would love to have at his disposal, but I’m going to go with a healthy Klefbom and Benning.
You see, I get that Barrie and Jones would be better at moving the puck but that’s based on them even having it. I have more “battle” faith in Klefbom and Benning and in addition to that, I know that I can put Klefbom in ANY situation and Benning will help me on the PK and on defensive zone starts whereas I’m only comfortable putting Jones and Barrie on in CERTAIN situations like the PP or offensive zone starts.
Don’t get me wrong, I am salivating at the idea of watching a high-octane Oilers defence light up the opposition. Between Jones, Barrie, Bear, Broberg, and Bouchard… Edmonton’s blue line will be dangerous on at least one side of the puck. Nurse, Larsson, and Russell best be training like this is the season of their lives because the Oilers are going to need them at their best on the other side of the puck.
Moving on… I’m surprised nobody caught on to some of the subtle hints Bob Stauffer was throwing out on last Friday’s Oilers Now.
“Edmonton can easily add a 4th line center during the course of the season that can check. We’ll see what happens in goal, we’ll see if something happens in that regard and maybe another defenseman with some experience.”
Bob threw out a random Montreal Canadiens rumor too. He said that something is going to happen over the course of the calendar year with their right-wings. They have Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher, and Tyler Toffoli and Stauffer was wondering if someone was going to get boxed out.
Maybe the Gallagher to Edmonton rumors pop-up again. I mean, if Jesse Puljujarvi comes in and is a 30pt player, that could be pretty tempting to flip him to Montreal for Gallagher for some folks.
Lastly, this quote is the one that stands out,
"Edmonton's not going to be done here. There's a lot to happen between now and the start of the season." – Bob Stauffer (630CHED)#Oilers pic.twitter.com/RsXqezTJt7
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) November 8, 2020
Bob used the Dallas Stars as an example saying that you never know what could happen in training camp or earlier (Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop are out for months after having surgeries to correct their respective problems). So we’re left to assume he means that Edmonton is going to add some more depth or is he saying that he expects some injuries to “pop up” that would give the Oilers some flexibility to work with?
So what do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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