A big part of the Oilers pre-season is about building an identity. Interestingly enough, the Oilers may not have showed that identity yet.
The moves General Manager Peter Chiarelli has made in the last year have created a much bigger, more physical roster. In a lot of ways, the roster is built to be much more effective in the Pacific Division, a division and Western Conference riddled with heavy players.
Edmonton is 5-2-0 in pre-season play, but hasn't had much of a chance to play the style of game they believe they will play in 2016-17. The Oilers are eager to show they won't be pushed around in their house.
"I'd been a player coming into Edmonton before I got here and it wasn't a fearful place to come in," said forward Mark Letestu. "You knew if you could skate with them and get them into mistakes you'd win the game. But now, I think the roster composition is changing.
"There's some big bodies in here who play heavy games. We haven't had to play that heavy game and grind one out yet, and I'd really like Saturday to be that game. But we have the horses in here to do it. I think the closer we get to that style early on in the season, (capturing that) identity of being that heavy, hard team and especially in the West, the more success we're going to have."