EDMONTON, AB - Enter the arena.
When the Oilers take to the ice for their third pre-season game tonight in a rematch with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place, the club's centres will be waging a war of their own.
"If you want to watch one interesting thing, it's the centre icemen tonight," Oilers Head Coach Dave Tippett said.
Competition is high as players of all positions jockey for the bench boss' favour in their bids to lock down a roster spot on opening night against these very same Canucks who handed the Oilers a 4-2 defeat back on Tuesday.
As of now, for Tippett, there's no frontrunner who's emerged at centre behind regulars Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. On the wing, much of the same applies.
"We got McLeod, Marody, Haas and Malone. These are guys who are all fighting for jobs," Tippett said of the middlemen. "Our centre ice is fighting for jobs tonight and it's no different than the wingers. We got Benson, Nygard, and Jurco on the left wing and then Granlund is playing his second game tonight. But all those people are fighting. It's competition for jobs. It's competition for playing time and competition to see where you fit in the lineup.
"Nobody's really separated themselves yet, and it's a big game for all those players."
