GDB -5.0: I HATE WINNIPEG

8 years ago

For NHL purposes, the Jets and Oilers started the same day. Winnipeg and Edmonton entered the NHL at the same time, and both clubs were boot stomped within an inch of their lives by the establishment. The Jets, in a real way, never did recover from that beating. The Oilers? Five years later they were pillaging the entire league and beating them senseless. Pray those days return, and this time maybe Winnipeg can join in the fun.

THE JETS

Winnipeg dressed their “Sisters of the Poor” group for Wednesday night’s game, so we expect the full Monty when the Portage and Main 23 step onto the ice with their bone skates and Royal Canadian Air Force logo. The big news out of Jets camp is they sent 11 players away from camp yesterday, including Jimmy Lodge (no relation to John) and David Leggio movie (famous for The Leggio Movie). Source.

The Jets improved their building but forgot about the fans! D’oh! Source

LINEUP

Stafford-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Lowry-Ehlers
Lemieux-Copp-Lipon
Petan-De Leo-Thorburn

Stuart-Trouba
Enstrom-Chiarot
Morrissey-Harrison

Pavelec
Hellebuyck

That top line is a monster, and I think Lowry’s line is a concern tonight. The Jets are running four good defenseman and a fabulous prospect, plus their No. 1 goalie. Edmonton will run a team that has a lot of AHL men, so we should expect Winnipeg to win by a goal or two. That’s not hedging bets, that’s facing facts. Source

THE OILERS

ROSTER CONFIRM, LINES AND PAIRINGS PROJECTED

Hall—Draisaitl—Korpikoski (McLellan often put a two-way W with two skill F’s in SJ)
Slepyshev—Lander—Yakupov (Losing Leon from this line hurts it)
Klinkhammer—Miller—Pitlick (All three waiver players, suspect two get sent down)
Gazdic—Khaira—McRae (I think Gazdic makes the Oilers as 13F)
Sekera—Fayne (Top pairing, I think they’ll start the season together)
Davidson—Nikitin (I think they’re both on the bubble)
Musil—Hunt (Last chance Texaco is also their first chance in the lineup)
Scrivens—Nilsson(This could be the best battle in camp)

B TEAM MEMBERS IN TONIGHT’S LINEUP—BUBBLE BOYS!

D: Brandon Davidson, Brad Hunt, David Musil
C: Jujhar Khaira, Phil McRae
L: Anton Slepyshev

QUICK HITS

I know you’ve heard me say this many times, but expect a trade. Scrivens, Nikitin and Klinkhammer are in tough spots on this roster, mostly because of Anders Nilsson, Griffin Reinhart and Luke Gazdic. We’ll see how this turns out but some of the younger men are pushing hard enough to win the day.
Massive chance for Leon tonight. He’s one of the bigger forwards and is going to face giants on the Winnipeg side. If he can be effective, that’s going to be a massive arrow for him.
Slepyshev is an interesting cat. I’m looking forward to seeing him on a line with Lander (hope that’s the line) and Yakupov should be able to help in the offensive end. I’m liking the marriage of Lander and Yak, seems to me they can help each other while also covering for the other man’s shortcomings.
Davidson, Musil and Hunt must show something.
I think Tyler Pitlick is already off the team. We’ll see. Miller’s speed is clearly making a difference for him and he has the edge now imo.

TONIGHT

GAME DAY PREDICTION: Oilers lead Winnipeg 2-0 in the first, as Bill Ranford stands on his head. When Ranford leaves, all hell breaks loose. 5-2 Jets.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Todd McLellan points a lot during the final 40 minutes.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers make a trade right after the game.