Oilers Early Success Stems From Unexpected Sources

This time last year, a disgruntled Raffi Torres fan would openly state their regret at the Oilers acquiring Gilbert Brule.

Around the same time in 2008, your friendly neighbourhood Oilers fan would express their disappointment in Dustin Penner's level of conditioning, or smugly state that he was a "big fat" mistake of Kevin Lowe's.

Heck, even MacT put in his own two cents with regards to the big winger.

Well, we can forget those days.

So far this season, Penner's dedication to training and hard work has rubbed off on himself and on the team.

The Oilers are doing relatively well thus far this season, and for the most part are winning games convincingly. Though, there have been a few questionable games, most notably the Vancouver game, the Oilers have been winning without the contributions of notable veterans Sheldon Souray, Steve Staios, and Fernando Pisani—all out with injuries.

On the flip side, the Oilers also lost a couple games to Calgary that they should have won, as well.

Whether or not Penner or Brule can keep up their current scoring pace, it seems that the Oilers owe much of their current early season success to the emergence of these two players as leaders on the team.

Their production is especially impressive considering between the two of them they only have one point on the powerplay, suggesting that their strengths are most evident in even strength situations.

With Jacques "learning on the job" with Horcoff and Hemsky, and Comrie, Stone, and O'Sullivan drawing the ire of the opposition team. Brule and Penner have managed to flourish under the new trust shown to them by Quinn, Renney, Fleming, and Buchberger.

Brule will be missing a few games due to the flu, and with Hemsky also feeling the ill-effects of the season, it will be interesting to see whether Penner will be called upon in to try and re-ignite the offensive flare of other struggling Oilers, such as Shawn Horcoff.

It goes without saying that Lubomir Visnovsky, Ladislav Smid, Andrew Cogliano, Patrick O'Sullivan, and Denis Grebeshkov have also played well so far this season.

Visnovsky has moved the puck like a demon; Smid has shown flashes of shutdown brilliance. Grebeshkov and O'Sullivan look like they are finally delivering on the potential that has been in their scouting report since day one.

Another pleasant surprise has been the solid play of Jason Strudwick and Taylor Chorney.

Strudwick has played, for the most part, like the experienced defensive option that the Oilers have expected him to be, and to some extent, probably exceeded their expectations.

Chorney, has shown poise beyond his age and experience by replacing Souray in the lineup. He's still a bit rough around the edges, but he is showing why the Oilers are so high on him.

With so many Oilers playing well, and trade rumours in flux throughout the Oilogosphere, it's a wonder if the Oilers take anybody out of the lineup right now.

Notes: Steve MacIntyre has been practising on defense. Is there a chance that Quinn and Renney give Strudwick another spin at LW?