Hopefully everyone had their fill of turkey, friends, family, and whatever else you find yourself thankful for during the Thanksgiving weekend. As Oil Kings fans, the team on the ice certainly fed us our fill of goals with a 4-1 win on Saturday followed by a 6-2 win on Thanksgiving Monday. Tonight, the Oil Kings move on from the Turkey and are prepared to serve a heavy heaping of hot dogs to the fans in the stands and the Portland Winterhawks on the ice as it's the first Wiener Wednesday of the season!
The offense has been clicking, and a great offense is the best kind of defense for any goalie. Parker Snell and Ethan Simcoe continue to roll in the victories as the offensive puck control has been so strong that the defense and the goaltending only has to do the little that has been asked of it on most nights.
The Top line of Lucas Sawchyn, Miroslav Holinka, and Joe Iginla continues to be on fire since being put together when Miro returned from Toronto. Of the 10 goals scored by the Oil Kings over the holiday weekend, 7 of those goals featured one or multiple players from that top line in the scoring summary. They’ll be looking to keep it going tonight.
The Portland Winterhawks have made the trip to Edmonton for tonight’s game, it will be their first game here in nearly 2 full years. They have started the season with one of the longest and most difficult road trips I have ever seen. This is their 9th game of the season, and they have not yet played a single game at home. They won’t actually open their home schedule until October 25th. They are currently sitting with a 4-4-0 record, and are coming into Edmonton off of a 3-2 victory in Calgary on Monday.
On The Throne
Those players that are considered to be trending upwards, on a hot streak, or otherwise impressing will be seen as being On The Throne.
Miroslav Holinka - The way that this season has started for Miro Holinka he should have a permanent seat on the throne. Every time I take him off, he has a massive performance to put himself right back into this seat. Monday was no different, as he put up 2 goals and 3 assists on his way to being first star of the hockey game, not to mention his beautiful spinning pass for the 6th and final goal of the game. During the offseason, I speculated that I thought Holinka was good enough to secure himself a spot on the Toronto Marlies roster and we may not even have him in Edmonton this year. Not only did he come home, but he is proving my thoughts correct, and Toronto’s decision to send him back to the WHL as questionable at best. His cost as both an import player and an over-age player is a double cost that many teams are hesitant to pay for a single player. Holinka has made Edmonton appear to be brilliant for being willing to fill 2 spots with one player.
The Entire Team Defense - Watching games live at Rogers place over the weekend gave a different perspective from watching on Victory+ for the road trip. One of the biggest things that stood out to me was the rotation of our team’s entire defensive corps. The Oil Kings have had consistent offensive zone pressure all season, at times looking like a powerplay even at 5-on-5. What I hadn’t recognized was that every single one of our defense is willing, and capable of rotating down to the goal line and controlling play all around the zone. At times over this weekend I saw Alcos, Pederson, Lee Mackenzie, and even Tsakumis all deep in the zone generating high quality chances. The key to a highly successful team is a roster that can play a 200 foot game and fill all positions, that is what I’m seeing from this team right now.
Kayden Stroeder - Our love for Stroeder has not been a secret so far this season. The young rookie had a phenomenal pre-season, and then had to start the season on the sidelines recovering from injury. He finally made his way back into the lineup on Saturday and had a highly impressive weekend debut. He was getting consistent 2nd line PP minutes, he made an exciting connection for with Cage Smith for Smith’s first WHL goal and Stroeder’s first assist of the season. He had smart stick positioning takeaways, exciting highlight reel stick handling moves, and high danger opportunities throughout his shifts. In Monday’s game with the Oil Kings playing 11 forwards and 7 defense, we got a glimpse of Stroeder and Smith on a line with Joe Iginla, and it whet my appetite for what we could get in the future. Iginla is obviously solidly locked with Holinka and Sawchyn right now, but the electricity on the ice with the 2 future stars was something I want to see more of.
Off The Throne
Players that are struggling through a rough patch, on a cold streak, or possibly battling the puck at times will be viewed as being Off The Throne.
Luke Powell - It’s a tough game sometimes at the CHL level, where you can go from scoring your team’s first goal of the season, filling an important role in the Top 6 Forwards, to suddenly finding yourself in bottom 6 minutes and now out of the lineup completely. It appears that the return of Stroeder has pushed Luke Powell to the press box for the time being, which is unfortunate considering how strong his start to the season was. This doesn’t mean he’s out for a long time, but you have to feel for a guy who went from Top Line to No Line over a course of 7 games. Here’s hoping he gets another chance soon and can make the most of it.
Gavin Hodnett - Nothing against Hodnett’s game here, but it is worth a mention that he went down hard in the third period of Monday’s game. He managed to struggle his way onto the bench and down to the locker room, but no update was given about his status postgame. Upon review of the replay, the Hurricanes player rolled up awkwardly on the side of Gavin’s ankle and may have caused a strain or a sprain. Hopefully his staying out the remainder of the game was out of caution and because the team was in the lead, and our captain will be back onto the ice in no time.
At the Gate
Who is the man standing between the pipes, the soldier standing between the opponent’s hopes and dreams? The man in the mask, and heavy padding, is the man At the Gate. This is our section where we will look at the starting goaltenders.
Snell got the 4-1 victory over the Warriors on Saturday, Simcoe got the 6-2 victory on Monday against Lethbridge. Our goalie rotation continues to be successfully and there appears to be no reason to think the coaching staff will make any changes to it for this game.
That would mean tonight is back to Parker Snell, who is sporting a spectacular 1.25 GAA and .943 Sv% over 4 games to start this season. Even more impressive is that if you include his 2 games played last season, those numbers improve to 0.87 GAA and a .965 Sv%. This would be his first career game against the Portland Winterhawks.
The Roil Ledger
How well do the Oil Kings match up with their opponents? How have they fared against them in recent seasons? Is there a lot of red in that ledger, or have the results been more positive? We’ll take a look at recent history and notable stats between the two teams.
Edmonton and Portland are in opposite sides of the league, and therefore only see each other once per season unless they meet in the playoffs. Of course, they have met in the WHL Finals on 3 different occasions with the Oil Kings winning 2 out of 3 tries. In regular season action this series has been a fairly consistent story of the home teams prevailing. The Oil Kings are 6-2-0 in Edmonton, while the Winterhawks are 5-3-0 in Portland. This sits the all-time series at 9-7-0 in the Oil Kings favor.
The Threats Beyond the Wall
What awaits the Oil Kings on the other side of the ice? Who should they be keeping an eye on? How has the opponent stacked up around the league? We’ll be looking at the players to watch, those high on prospect draft boards, and the ones already drafted by NHL teams. The team’s place in the standings, win or loss streaks, and other important information to prime everyone to be ready for the opposition.
The Winterhawks scoring output has been centered so far this season around 2025 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Ryan Miller. The 5th round pick has played in all 8 games and is scoring at a point-per-game pace. He’s a puck battler who fights hard in the wall battles and somehow always seems to come away with the puck. For this Oil King team, he could be a nuisance at disrupting the offensive possessions that Edmonton has dominated for much of the season so far.
Defensively it’s the Utah Mammoth’s 2025 2nd round pick, Max Psenicka, that holds everything together for Portland. He has an aggressive mentality and is always willing to make a stick or body challenge to deny zone entry. He’s a quick player, who transitions well and also isn’t afraid to battle along the boards.
Between Miller in the offensive zone, and Psenicka in the defensive zone Portland relies heavily on winning the puck battles to dictate their style of game, and Edmonton will need to be prepared to out finesse a tough opponent. Winning board battles is a highly important factor for this game, but the more the Oil Kings can keep the puck away from the boards the better their chances of success.
In net Portland relies heavily on their 18 year old star goalie Ondrej Stebetak. The 2007-born netminder was eligible for the 2025 draft and was ranked #8 on Central Scouting’s list of North American goaltenders. Somewhat surprisingly, he went undrafted and found himself back in Portland looking for another draft opportunity to come his way next summer. He has started 7 of 8 games so far this year, and ultimately struggling for consistency with a 4-3-0 record, a 4.02 GAA, and a .876 Sv%
The rivalry between Edmonton and Portland was definitely at it’s peak in the early 2010s, when they met in 3 consecutive WHL Finals fighting for their chances at the Memorial Cup tournament. Since then, these two have mostly gone their separate ways. It’s still fun to remember the rivalry that was, and enjoy seeing these two storied franchises renew hostilities every couple years that Portland makes the trip up north. You can watch the game for free on Victory+, or listen along on iHeartRadio, head on down to Rogers Place to grab a ticket and take in all the action live. Puck Drop is at 7pm local Edmonton time. The next game will be Saturday Evening in Edmonton as the Oil Kings welcome the Prince Albert Raiders for the first time since last season’s stunning 7 game playoff series loss. Make sure you’re following us here at The Roil Line for all future Roil Briefings!