The Line Has Been Broken

After yesterday's trade of Mike Brown for a 4th round pick, it makes sense to clear a roster spot. I'm ok with it. 

However, the Oilers just broke up the one consistent lines they've had. 

You knew what you were getting with Gazdic, Acton and Brown. You knew they were going to work hard at playing hard. I quite liked that line. I'm kind of sad it's been broken up. 

But, Ben Eager has been recalled and I'm assuming he fills Brown's spot on that line. Interested to see if he can fit in. 

I'm doubting it, but we will see. 

-WRITTEN BY SMOKIN' RAY BURNT-

'A closer look into the Oilers Bottom 6 forwards'

There has been lots of talk about Edmonton's bottom 6, but as it currently sits with Hemsky still in the mix, I don't quite see it as bad as others might. When you look further around the league most good teams spend very little on those bottom 6 and too much IMO is made of the bottom 6. It has been mentioned our bottom 6 was the scoring problem last year. I agree, they lacked scoring ability last year but our second line struggled as well. I do feel strongly that Perron will make a huge impact on that 2nd line with puck possession ability and relentless forechecking.

Taking a look here at the Oilers VS others teams bottom 6, I feel much better about our ability to produce this year. 


Edmonton
Ryan Jones- Boyd Gordon- Ales Hemsky
Ryan Smyth- Anton Lander- Jesse Joensuu/Mike Brown

Vancouver
Higgins-Schroeder-Hansen
Weise-Richardson-Santorelli

Carolina
Bowman-E.Lindholm-Palushaj
Westgarth-R.Nash-Dwyer

San Jose
Torres-Pavelski-Wingels
Sheppard-Desjardins-Burish

Buffalo
Foligno-Ott-Flyn
Kaleta-Grigorenko-Adam 

Pittsburgh
Bennett-Sutter-D'Agostini
Glass-Vitale-Adams

Ottawa
Conacher - Zibanejad - Condra
Greening - Smith - Neil

Tampa Bay
Palat-Johnson-Malone
Panikt-Thompson-Crombeen

This list could go on but very few teams actually have a incredible bottom 6 forward core. Nothing earth shattering here but nonetheless maybe its time to relax on picking apart our bottom 6 forwards and focus in on other others for growth and improvement. IMO, Edmonton has always been more focused on bottom 6 forwards then most teams fans in this league. Just a thought to ponder through a real slow summer.