Back In Oil Country

It's hockey season again in Edmonton. The pre-season officially kicked off at Rexall last night, I went to the game last night against the Panthers - was about 10 minutes late so it was 3-0 for the Oil by the time I got there. The highlights:

• They showed a guy who I'm pretty sure was Robbie Schremp sitting in the crowd. He was wearing an Oilers jersey and sitting with some girl who looks like she works as a beer tub server at The Standard. When he noticed the camera was on him, he turned to her, put his arm around her, and turned back to the camera and smiled. It was hilarious; I hope he turns into our version of Joe Namath.

• I didn't even notice that Matt Greene was in the game until late in the 3rd Period, which probably means he played okay.

• I'm not sure who else was on defense, besides Gilbert and Young, but they gave up a ton of shots. Roli and Deslauriers (to a lesser degree) looked sharp though.

• Sam Gagner is the real deal. His goal was a bit of a fluke, but he was sharp all night. I hate to sound like Joe Morgan, but that kid is a hockey player. He was always around the puck, and didn't make any stupid decisions.

• Hemsky looked like Hemsky, and Dustin Penner did nothing remarkable that I could tell.

• Florida's goaltending looked shaky. Vokoun had given up 3 goals on 5 shots by the time I got there, and the other guy coughed up the puck all three times he left his crease to play it (only leading to one goal, amazingly enough).

• Kyle Brodziak will be a perfectly fine utility forward in the Toby Peterson mold.

• I'm pretty ambivalent about the new jerseys, but I can't fathom why anyone would pay between $150-350 for one of them. However, I wouldn't mind being the first person to own a Gagner jersey...