Preparation for War #4- Can We Get Excited Yet?

Tonight is the fourth stage of the Oilers Preparation for War™ when they will face the Winnipeg Jets Phoenix Coyotes down at Rexall Place. One of the many things to look for in tonight's game will be how strong Jeff Deslauriers plays. This would seem as though his last chance to prove the goalie he is(but by looking at what Dubnyk has played, roughly a whole game already with probably another start) it would seem that Deslauriers is the odd man out in the crease.

The lines for tonight(courtesy of Dan Tencer) are as follows:

Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky
Dustin Penner - Andrew Cogliano - Gilbert Brule
Liam Reddox - Colin Fraser - Ryan Jones
Alex Giroux - Ryan O'Marra - Colin McDonald

Ladislav Smid - Alex Plante
Taylor Chorney - Tom Gilbert
Richard Petiot - Kurtis Foster

Jeff Deslauriers
Martin Gerber

Lines one and two are what many expect to be lines one and three when the season offically starts next Thursday. I am curious to see two things: 1) Can Sam Gagners foot speed keep up with King Magnus and The Pardubice Prince. If Sam shows up with a strong showing tonight there should be no reason why he doesn't hit 65 points this season. And 2) Who gets cut from camp after this game either tonight or tomorrow? We still have 37 players in camp, some of which don't have a snowball's chance in hell of making the team(e.g. Alex Giroux, Taylor Chorney, Ryan O' Marra). Renney needs to find 25 or so names that either have a spot locked up or are serious contenders for a spot.

One little neat quote I read on tsn.ca this morning from Jordan Eberle about the competition between the young guys "It's more of a friendly competition, you see a guy do well and you're excited for him but at the same time we are competing for jobs. It eleveates each other's games." Seriously, how do you read that and not get excited about this then Eberle trying to out do it with this and then a beauty play here. The competition between the "Big 3" should leat to some exciting hockey this season regardless of where the team finishes in the standings.

My score prediction:
Oilers: 5
Yotes: 3