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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 3064769" data-attributes="member: 2012">Oilers begin camp with more firepowerCanadian Press9/14/2006 6:03:26 PMEDMONTON (CP) - The new-look Edmonton Oilers began training camp Thursday with no Chris Pronger but a lot more firepower.And they're going to need it because the NHL Western Conference champion with the oil drop on its front now has a target on its back.''Every team is going to be ready to play us and there's going to be no easy games. We'll have to come out focused and ready to play,'' said captain Jason Smith while his teammates went through physicals and photo sessions at the University of Alberta before heading north to Grande Prairie for the first few days of camp.The team that pushed the Carolina Hurricanes to the seventh game of the cup final will begin the new campaign with a third of their lineup now playing somewhere else. Gone are Pronger and defensive standout Jaroslav Spacek. In are goal-scorers Joffrey Lupul and Petr Sykora.Centre Shawn Horcoff said the team now has enough scoring talent over three lines to take the game to opponents the way the Hurricanes' third line of Doug Weight, Andrew Ladd and Ray Whitney took it to them in the finals.''The kind of aspect we're looking at this year is really trying to put a lot of offensive pressure and play more in that zone,'' he said.But the blue-line still has a six-foot-six 220-pound gap to fill. Pronger was the main reason the Oilers went deep in the playoffs. He played 30 minutes a night, shut down the opposing offensive stars and led the team in post-season points.His unexpected trade demand - for family reasons, he said_ just days after the cup final put an ice-cold chill on any post-playoff warm and fuzzies in the Alberta capital.He was shipped to the Anaheim Ducks to begin what became a jailbreak of some of the team's best and brightest.Smith said the defence will adapt, ''whether it will be one guy that will step up and play a lot more minutes or whether it will be by committee.''Buffalo and Carolina, he noted, had success without one dominant blue-liner.Winger Ryan Smyth shrugged off the fact some oddsmakers have them as a longshot to finish what they started last spring.''We believe in our locker-room that we were there for a reason last year,'' he said. ''We gained so much experience out of that run, knowing what it takes to get to the finals.''After an inconsistent regular season, the Oilers came from way back in the playoff pack to take the Hurricanes to the limit.But the team that began last year with solid defence but questionable scoring and goaltending now finds one year later the situation is the reverse.With Lupul coming over from the Anaheim Ducks in the Pronger deal, the Oilers' top two lines appear set. Horcoff, who had a career year last season (22 goals and 73 points) centres Smyth and Ales Hemsky on the top line. Jarret Stoll is expected to line up between Lupul and Sykora on the second unit.Hemsky, Horcoff and Stoll all had breakout years last season while the crease-crashing Smyth led the team with 36 goals. Winger Fernando Pisani, a solid two-way forward in the regular season, caught fire in the playoffs with 14 goals in 24 games.The defence corps better come with name tags for the first few days.It will be led by veterans Smith and Steve Staios along with Matt Greene, young Ladislav Smid (from the Pronger deal), free agent Daniel Tjarnqvist (signed from Minnesota) and Marc-Andre Bergeron.In goal, last year's playoff hero Dwayne Roloson appears to have recovered from the knee injury that knocked him out early in the Stanley Cup final. Jussi Markkanen is expected to be the backup.It was a crowded departure gate at the Edmonton International Airport this summer.After Pronger left, Spacek signed with Buffalo and Dick Tarnstrom left to play in Europe.Up front, the Oilers lost Mike Peca (signed with Leafs) tough guy Georges Laraque (signed with Phoenix), fleet winger Sergei Samsonov (signed with Montreal), and forward Radek Dvorak (signed with St. Louis).On the plus side, the first Oiler Stanley Cup appearance in 16 years means fan interest has become insatiable. The team has sold out its 13,000 season-ticket packages and faced such demand for some of the smaller packages, it had to hold a lottery.</blockquote>

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