Hockey is back. Sure, it’s the preseason, but it’s back nonetheless. Tonight’s opponents, the Flames, are mostly over in China playing the Bruins and dressing up for a great wall visit.

So the Oilers have dressed a bit of a bare-bones squad for this one.

Benson-Mcleod-Yamamoto
P.Russell-Malone-Chiasson
Gambardella-Currie-Aberg
Polei-Vesel-Hebig

Gravel-Bear
Stanton-Bouchard
Lagesson-Day

Koskinen-Starrett

That said, let us review all the action.

-Barely enough time for the air to escape from my cold one before the Oilers fall back and Koskinen looks behind him, down 1-0.

-Polei and Sabourin fight with Sabourin landing five or six good punches early.

-a nice zone entry and passing by the Oilers with Bouchard trailing in and he picks a corner over Rittich’s shoulder, 1-1.

-Polei gets drilled behind the net and Brad Malone steps up for his teammate. You gotta like that in the pre-season.

-Yamamoto gets smoked by Spencer Foo at the blueline but he pops up and takes a nice feed by Kevin Gravel to go in on a short-handed break, 2-1 Oilers.

Koskinen looks a little all over the place to start. The first goal was a weird one but he was chasing the puck and not following it overly well. Polei has a fight, a big hit and a goal post to start this one off solidly.

-Having flashbacks to last year with these early period goals tonight as Dube puts one through the side of Koskinen from an angle he’ll want back.

-Dube is a bubble player on the Flames but tonight he looks like a sure-fire NHLer. He splits the D and into the net, 3-2 Flames.

-Koskinen’s adjustment to the NHL ice surface is clearly not there yet tonight. He is fighting the puck, huge rebounds and positional issues.

-At 13:09 the Oilers get a PP and there is some flashes of some offence from both PPs.

-The Battle of Alberta is alive and well here with the third and fourth fights of the night.

-Logan Shaw instigated the aforementioned fourth fight and on that subsequent PP the Oilers are all over the Flames. The puck comes to Bear at the point and he makes no mistake tying it up, 3-3

The goals are going to need to keep coming as Koskinen doesn’t look comfortable out there. Benson with two points on the night so far. Yamamoto gets pushed around out there but won’t stop popping up and creating offence.

-Shane Starrett comes out for the third. Koskinen’s first game is in the books and it can only go up from here.

-Buddy Robinson takes a penalty early for the Flames. I don’t have much to say about this except that his name is amazing.

-Oilers second round pick this year Ryan Mcleod makes an absolute beauty pass from behind the goal line to Yamamoto on the Flames blueline and Kailer skates in making no mistake, 4-3.

-Flames push back hard through the middle of the period but the Oilers have the bulk of the Grade A scoring chances.

-Starrett having a good period coming in cold.

-Goaltending and D went out the door in the last four minutes of this one as the goals just flowed in.

This game was a bit of a wash on account of the rosters put forth by both teams. That said some guys stood out to me for both teams both good and bad.

– Kailer Yamamoto: To pretty much no ones surprise after seeing him last year to start the year, Yamamoto is a heck of a player and tonight was just furthering that storyline

– Mikko Koskinen: I’m not going to pile on the guy here. He wasn’t good. Onto the next game for him.

– Evan Polei: The big boy is a spirited one. His first period he was all over the place. More full games from him and we may have a player down the road.

– Dillon Dube: The Flames aren’t giving a roster spot to this guy? Really? He has destroyed the Oil over this pre-season period. Three goals in this one.

– Ryan Mcleod: His pass alone in the third period to set-up Yamamoto puts him on this no doubt.

The Oilers are undefeated to start the pre-season and now will look to have a little more NHLer heavy lineup going into Vancouver tomorrow night at 8:30pm MT.