It started out looking so optimistic.  Oilers fans left Rexall place all smiles after a 4-0 thumping of the Calgary Flames on opening night.  But since then there has been little to celebrate for the Oilers, other than the bright future ahead of them.  All the Oilers young guns have at times looked amazing, and all of them have been benched throughout the season.

Offense: D

Its pretty hard to give a good rating to a team that ranks 29th out of 30 teams in goals scored.  As previously mentioned, they have shown flashes of brilliance, who can forget Jordan Eberle’s highlight reel goal on opening night?  But they have failed to light the lamp with any consistency.  Their leading scorer has 32 points in 49 games, and that honor belongs to winger Dustin Penner.  Forwards Gilbert Brule and Andrew Cogliano have both failed to meet expectations for themselves and are a couple of the reasons the Oilers sit at the bottom of the standings.  

Players to watch: Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner

Defense: D-

Edmonton has the second highest goals against in the NHL.  Trailing the Atlanta Thrashers, who have played 4 more games.  Which leads to believe that Edmonton would have the most goals against, had they played 4 extra games.  Defenseman Ryan Whitney, the anchor of the blueline, has never had the recognition he deserved having previously played in Pittsburgh and Anaheim where the focus was on either Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, or any of the Ducks like Ryan Getzlaf and Scott Niedermeyer.  However he is putting together a great year for the Oilers, amassing 27 points and a +13 rating despite being injured for a part of the season.  Since Whitney’s absence, Tom Gilbert has been logging the most minutes and is clearly not able to handle that kind of workload, as he has seen his plus/minus rating drop to -13 and looks fatigued and prone to mistakes at times.

Players to watch: Ryan Whitney, Tom Gilbert, Kurtis Foster

Goaltending: C+

Edmonton needs to have more consistency in goal moving forward if they are going to be successful.  Nikolai Khabibulin has looked shaky at times and at others looks like the goalie that led the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first ever stanley cup.  Devan Dubnyk has played a fair share this year and has impressed, but one has to question whether he has the ability to carry this franchise deep into the playoffs when the rebuilding phase is further along.  

Players to watch: Devan Dubnyk

The Oilers sure have a bright future ahead, and with their record so far this season they will likely acquire another blue chip prospect come draft day.  There is far greater depth on the front end than the blue line and in goal, and the draft does not have a lot of good goalies to offer.  Which leads to believe that if the Oilers are called to the podium with the 1st overall pick this summer, they will take stud defenseman Adam Larsson.

Jordon Judge

HockeyGods