HOCKEY'S HERE: EDMONTON OILERS

It's time to air out your gear, sharpen your skates and tape your stick -- it's hockey season. Sure, your team flat-out ached last season, but there's hope, unless you're an Islanders fan. In that spirit, Out of Left Field is here with early looks at all 30 NHL teams. Presenting: The Edmonton Oilers.

Last season: 95 points, 3rd in Northwest Division; lost to Carolina in Stanley Cup final
Coach: Craig MacTavish (6th season)
Young gun: Ales (Pinto) Hemsky
Store this name away: Dan Syvret
Hey, get a load of the new guys: Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid (both added in the Chris Pronger trade), Petr Sykora
Blogs (including but not limited to): Battle of Alberta, Covered In Oil, Hot Oil, Lowetide
Pop culture moment: Well, there's that image of 1980s iconography... and if Wayne Gretzky's early-'80s cameo on The Young and the Restless (and you thought his Titans were wooden) isn't posted on YouTube, someone please dig it up

Everywhere you looked this sumer, available Oilers were being snapped up faster than a vacant apartment in Fort McMurray. They weren't counting on Chris Pronger and Mike Peca staying, so what other losses are going to hurt the most? Probably Jaroslav Spacek (signed with Buffalo), who was a good power-play point man and could be counted on to play 20-plus minutes each night. Other returning defencemen may have to log more ice time, which could take a toll on the Oilers, who probably log as many miles on the road as any other team in the league. (As noted previously, Edmonton's travel schedule makes it difficult for them to be a consistently elite team.)

It would be an oversimplification to say that Edmonton will have to rely on Dwayne Roloson to do for a full season what he did in the first three rounds of the playoffs before being injured in the first game of the Stanley Cup final. More likely, Edmonton has to show more offensive punch, and hope that the guys who matured in the playoffs -- Hemsky, Jarret Stoll, Shawn Horcoff, Fernando Pisani, Lupul (who made the great leap with Anaheim -- build on that.

That is a big if, however, and a doomsday scenario has the Oilers failing to recover from the double whammy of coming so close to the Stanley Cup and then having the team break up. That's life in the new NHL

Also in Northwest Division: Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks
Related:
Life'll Kill Ya: Requiem For Dwayne Roloson, Who's Kind Of Like Warren Zevon (June 7)

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca