Christmas Day aka Opening Night for the Oilers

After a very long off-season for the Edmonton Oilers and her fans, we are ready for hockey in Oil Country.  It's game day!!  Three Oiler draft picks (Eberle, Paajarvi and Hall) will take to the ice in their first NHL regular season game.  I hope fans keep their expectations in check and not put too much pressure on the kids or the team.  This is the start of a rebuild.  Yes it is exciting.  Yes we have hope.  But be patient.  This is not a contender.....yet.  Let's face it, this is a team that will struggle at times during the year.  If they can't win, please let it be entertaining!! 

There still exists major problems in goal:  Khabibulin has not looked very good in the preseason and they will start the year with three goalies once again.  Boozy has not played since November and is recovering from surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back.  And he looked okay in one preseason game but absolute shyte in the other.  Khabby needs to be solid and give this team a chance to start the season on a winning note. The kids should rejuvenate Hemsky, Horcoff and Penner.  This team will score goals.  I think they will need to score quite a few each night since the goaltending is questionable to start the year.  

Lineup to start the year (I don't think Jones will dress, they'll want Smacintyre in the game to smack some Lames around):

Hemsky - Gagner - Penner
Hall - Horcoff - Eberle
Paajarvi - Brule - Cogliano
Stortini - Fraser - MacIntyre (Jones)

Whitney - Gilbert
Smid - Foster
Vandermeer - Peckham (Strudwick)

Khabibulin (Dubnyk/Deslauriers)

I predict an Oilers victory tonight over the Lames.  It will be 5-3. 

Update:  As per Dan Tencer, Jones will play tonight in place of MacIntyre.   Honestly, I do not understand this at all.  Why have MacIntyre on the team if you won't play him against teams with heavyweights and teams who have pushed our Oilers around in the past?  Waive him!!