Renney does a line juggle but faceoffs still a concern.

After a dismal two games, the Oilers are testing new line combination's. Trying to spark the 3rd line and give Paajarvi more ice time, Tom Renney compiled the following:

Paajarvi - Horcoff - Hemsky
Penner - Gagner - Eberle
Hall - Cogliano - Brule

The line of Jones - Fraser - Stortini remain in tack. 

The overall consensus coming from fans is a desire for a Cogliano and Brule swap. Certainly this has merit with Cogliano sitting at a disappointing 25.9% at the dot. This was only reassured yesterday with comments from Tom Renney:


"As a coaching staff, we have to place a premium on that every day," Renney said of improving on the dot. "It's very disconcerting.
"Whether you're on the power play, with possession in the offensive zone, it helps that part of your game. If you're on the penalty kill, and we all know where you're starting that play, this is very, very dangerous territory.
"For this team, under the circumstances with what we're trying to do, our faceoff play is not good. It has to improve dramatically."

Yet, Gilbert Brule who has a fantastic winning percentage of 68.9% after 19 face offs is still sitting on the wing.

There have always been arguments with how important the face off really is. But take this for what it's worth:

In 2005-06, when the Oilers went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, they finished second in the league with a percentage of 53.4. Every single centre from this years team, Horcoff, Jarret Stoll, Mike Peca and Marty Reasoner, were above 50 per cent. Since the loss of their better face off performers, the Oilers have failed to make the playoffs.

With the new rules where a penalty results in a face off in the penalized teams end, it's become even more importance to have a better winning percentage on the draw. This was re-assured in the Oilers last game vs the Flames where they allowed 4 goals on the PK.

It's a nonsense assumption to think the Face Off is of no importance, if you don't have the puck you don't win games.

With a weak defensive core, and a struggling Tom Gilbert. The Oilers will be expecting the bulk of the work to come from a 37 year old goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin. Unless a few tweaks are made, expect this season to be a roller coaster ride.