Speculation: Oilers 2 Players Away From First NHL Team Since 2006

[Captain Catatomic]

This 100% . Gordon needs to win face offs in front of Scrivens and he needs Hendricks to help battle for the puck when it gets into the corner so they can get it out of our zone. Hendricks and Gordon together on the fourth line makes the most sense BY FAR. They will be playing a lot more minutes than a typical fourth line and against much harder competition, but every shift of theirs should be about getting the puck out of our zone.

Perron can win puck battles. He can also pass. Something Hendricks is not the best at. Look for Pouliot and Purcell to eat alot of hard own zone minutes.. something a fourth line with a third pairing D should not be doing. Having a speedster like yakupov out there to enter the offensive zone on the fly only makes sense once gordon and perron win a faceoff and the Petry can pass the puck up on the rush to Yak who shoots and Perron and Gordon take out the trash.

 

[Kyle VanEdmonton]

Perron can win puck battles. He can also pass. Something Hendricks is not the best at. Look for Pouliot and Purcell to eat alot of hard own zone minutes.. something a fourth line with a third pairing D should not be doing. Having a speedster like yakupov out there to enter the offensive zone on the fly only makes sense once gordon and perron win a faceoff and the Petry can pass the puck up on the rush to Yak who shoots and Perron and Gordon take out the trash.

I agree with a lot of what you said except I don't think Gordon has the offensive skill to be a better 2c option than ARCO or LD. Especially when we want and need him taking as many defensive zone face offs as possible. Just because Gordon and Hendricks are in our zone it doesn't mean we need to stick them with 3rd pairing guys (although the difference in skill level of our pairings might be a bit blurred this season). It's just that Gordon and Hendricks seem to play those defensive roles best on the team and Gordon can't do that on the second line.