As expected, the NAIT/MacEwan all-star team didn’t stand a chance against the Oilers rookie team this time around. Final score: 9-1 rookies.
In what was a pretty boring game, the Oilers rookies were better, faster, and stronger than the College Boys this year. The shot clock (68-16) pretty much says it all. I just got home from the game and what I’m seeing on Twitter is a pretty upset group of fans that the Oilers are no longer playing the Golden Bears in the annual rookie vs an-Edmonton-University-team game. Although that may be true, I’m sure the NAIT/MacEwan squad enjoyed playing against the Oiler rookies and really soaked up the experience.
It’s important to note that the Oiler rookies bounced back from a disappointing loss last year against the NAIT/MacEwan all-star game. Even though they badly outshot the University squad last year, the Oilers ended up losing 2-0.
Unfortunately because of the way the game turned out, it was very difficult to assess the Oilers rookies and how they played individually. One guy who without a doubt stood out to me and everyone else was Tyler Benson. He looked extremely poised and experienced out there, and was extremely confident in moving the puck. The Oilers rookie team as a whole stood out to me on how physical they were. Lagesson and Vessey kicked off the first period with a couple enormous hits that got the crowd going. The team didn’t let up throughout the game and it ended up getting pretty chippy.
Here are a couple other observations I noticed throughout the game.
  • Caleb Jones & Ryan McLeod also had very strong games. They dominated the play and put up five points combined tonight.
  • Both Connor McDavid AND Kailer Yamamoto weren’t on the ice tonight and I was very disappointed.
  • Dylan Wells didn’t face a lot of shots but he was forced to make a few difficult saves which can’t be easy under the circumstances.
  • I don’t really know much about Oilers prospect, Ryan Van Stralen but he looks even older than Evan Bouchard does, I was shocked.
  • Evan Bouchard didn’t show a ton of flash tonight but wasn’t tested very much in the defensive zone. He was firing slap shots from the point every chance he took, and even got a couple helpers on the score sheet.
  • The College Boys team were obviously out matched tonight, and it forced them to take a ton of penalties. The Oiler rookies spent a lot of the game on the power play.
  • I’m sorry to remind you but the beers at Rogers Place are still $13 bucks. It was an extremely disappointing reality check when we got in the line.

Lineups

Because no official lineups were entered before the game and Baggedmilk pretty much had to guess in his GDB earlier today, I thought I’d throw in the actual rosters from both teams.
Oilers
Benson – McLeod – Vesel
Hebig – Marody – Gust
Maksimov – Larkin – Vesey
Van Stralen – Esposito – Polei
Jones – Bouchard
Kulevich – Lagesson
Crevier-Morin – Day
Wells
Rodrigue
NAIT/Macewan
F – Dallas Smith
C – Brayden Harris
F – Brett Njaa
F – Cam Gotaas
LW – Jake Mykitiuk
LW – Brandon Ralph
F – Ryan Baskerville
F – Brett Smythe
LW – Tyler Robertson
C – Thomas Foster
LW – Tanner Dunkle
F – Nolan Yaremchuk
D – Jordan Davies
D – Stefan Danielson
D – Tyler Morrison
D – Austin Yaremchuk
D – Isaac Farrah
D – Colton Waltz
G – Marc-Olivier Daigle
G – Brendan Jensen
Did you watch the game tonight? Whether online or at the rink? Let me know in the comments what you thought of the rookies performance.