Inside the Nation: Brad Malone recall, a Talbot trade, and Klefbom’s return

It’s Thursday, and we’re back with another Facebook live video featuring Dustin Nielson! 

Unfortunately, Dusty is coming off of a sickness that took him out of commission for the beginning of the week, so that is why there was no Inside the Nation episode on Monday. He’s back in good health today, and with the Oilers bye week coming to an end he’s got more than enough to talk about!

Brad Malone got called up from Bakersfield earlier today and Dusty’s actually stoked about this move. That’s correct, the first move in the post-Chiarelli era is a positive one! The Oilers have been preaching development lately so it only makes sense to keep the young guys in the AHL and have Malone come up and be a 13th forward who barely plays any games.

The Oilers return to practice tonight, and Dusty’s expecting some significant changes in how they play their game. Time will only tell if these changes actually happen, but it’s crunch time now and we don’t have a choice based on the way the team has been playing. Oscar Klefbom is also set to return this weekend post bye week and it couldn’t be more of an exciting time for Oilers fans. Klefbom’s return will be GREAT for the team because not only does he have great puck-moving ability and skill, but his return will also decrease the ice time from some of our other defencemen.

Speaking of injuries, Dusty feels like Sekera is closer to returning in a surprisingly good way. He’s got some theories that he may not actually need to head down to Bakersfield for a conditioning stint. Of course, we’ll know more after tonight’s practice, but this could be promising news. Nielson also touched on goaltending and whether or not we’ll see a Talbot deal get done soon, and he discusses who we might see slide in as a backup goaltender behind Koskinen after that.

As always, Dusty answered a ton of questions from our live commenters, including the most important question of the day: What did he think of the Joel Persson signing? Watch the full video to hear all these answers and more!

Check out the live edition of Inside the Nation on the Oilersnation Facebook page every Monday and Thursday at 2:30 pm MT.

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