from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

The Oilers appear to have finally surrounded the NHL’s two most recent Hart Trophy winners with a capable cast.

There’s every reason to believe that this team, coming off a 35-19-2 season in the coronavirus pandemic shortened 56-game schedule, is about to begin a new era of 100-point seasons and significantly expand their collection of banners that hang from the rafters during the decade.

The Oilers rate no worse than second to only the Vegas Golden Knights returning to the Pacific Division where none of the other teams managed to make the playoffs last year and where one of them is expansion Seattle.

The Edmonton arrow, with the additions to the line-up to join the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with GM Ken Holland finally out of salary cap jail is definitely pointed up. Way up.

You may be about to watch the greatest power play this league has seen since the Montreal Canadiens inspired the rule change that resulted in the penalized player leaving the sin bin when a power play goal is scored instead of residing there the full two minutes....

Yes there are still questions. This team won one playoff game in the last two no-fans-in-the-stands Stanley Cup tournaments. The goaltending isn’t exactly set for any long stretch of success. But that’s all to be dissected and diagnosed in depth as we go forward.

For the here and now there’s one thing that might be missing as the 2021-22 Oilers complete their pre-season schedule with home-and-home exhibition games against the Vancouver Canucks before meeting the same squad to start the regular season here next Wednesday.

In a normal circumstance, you’d expect these ‘Go For It’ Oilers to skate on the ice next week in front of the first of 41 consecutive sold-out, all-in, over-the-top, gung-ho giddy fans. But in the city where the Oilers sold out those 551 consecutive games during the worst of times, as a result of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, you can forget about 41 consecutive sellouts to begin the expected and projected return to the best of times.

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