Doug Weight Injured!
Weight quickly signs with the Oilers and then is quickly injured.
His ACL was torn during the Washington game, where he was taken out
of the play on a clean hit by Mark Tinordi. Luckily enough, he'll
only be out a few months, rather than the worse case scenario which
would have been the whole season.
Weight? Who needs him?
Fortunately, the Oilers have been doing just dandy since Weight went
down. Counting the 8-2 win over the Capitals the night he was
injured, the Oilers have gone one a four-game winning streak and
are 5-1 in their last six games.
Other Oilers have been picking up the slack, most notably Billy
Guerin, Joe Beranek and Boris Mironov.
Guerin is leading the league with 10 goals in 13 games. At this
pace, he'll hit 63 goals, not bad.and all without Doug Weight. Joe
Beranek has kept up his pace since he rejoined the Oilers, with 14
points in 11 games. Right now, he's a big part of the Oilers'
puzzle. But be weary, he's known to be a streaky player and can
just stop producing at anytime.
Mironov has come back from cleaning up his personal problems and has
really cleaned up on the ice. He's third in Oiler scoring with 12
points in 10 games, and has really shown himself to be the leading
force on the Oilers' blue line. He's tied with Al MacInnis in
scoring among defencemen.
Line Combos
Right now, the top line consists of Beranek centering Guerin and
Andrei Kovalenko -- a very productive line right now. Mats
Lindgren with Pat Falloon and Rem Murray is virtually
interchangeable with another line of Todd Marchant, Dean McAmmond
and Mike Grier. Up until the Chicago game, Kevin Brown, Boyd
Devereaux and Kelly Buchberger have made a very effective fourth
line for the Oilers. But Brown was scratched against the `Hawks,
and Ryan Smyth played on that line in his place.
Other Stuff
The rumor circulating right now would see the Oilers and the
Philadelphia Flyers swapping Ryan Smyth and Dainius Zubrus. It's
not out of the question. Both Smyth and Zubrus are struggling big
time. Smyth could really use a change of scenery, especially since
Low has him stuck on the fourth line. Apparently, Zubrus is more
likely to head to Calgary in a deal for Theoren Fleury. We'll see
how this develops soon, although Glen Sather isn't in any rush to
make any deals now with the way the team is going.
