PS1: Oilers at Canucks

Last night’s Joey Moss gave us some (copper and) blue clues about the 10-11 season. Khabibulin isn’t (apparently) ready for the pre-season (unless he plays tonight); Shawn Horcoff’s off-season conditioning appears to have included acquiring some jet skates; Ales Hemsky’s passing is as sublime as remembered; The kids are alright.

Tonight we’ll get a look at the town team against the dynasty that is the Vancouver Canucks. A summer filled with addition has the Canucks deep at several positions and weak at only one (wherever Sami Salo is supposed to play).

I don’t know the Oiler lineup tonight, only that Jason Gregor passed along that Taylor Hall won’t play tonight. The things I’ll be looking for are goaltender performance; how the blue handles the job of exiting their zone; how many defenseman get beaten wide AND along the wall; and how many legit scoring chances the kids create.

One final thing: Pääjärvi back-checked last night. I saw it with my own eyes. That’s a wonderful arrow.

UPDATE: Courtesy digger below, the lineups

• Giroux – Horcoff – Eberle
• Jones – O’Marra – McDonald
• Stewart – Moran – Stortini
• Hartikianen – Vande Velde – Ondrus
• Whitney – Petry
• Peckham – Vandermeer
• Chorney – Taylor
• Gerber-Dubnyk