Music: {allcanada} Oilers form protection racket

EDMONTON - It's a team with a handful of new players, one too many goalies, $13 million US in salary-cap space and a defenceman in limbo.

But what kind of team is it, really?

According to Edmonton Oilers head coach Tom Renney, it's one with energy, speed, a quick transition game and Stanley Cup work habits, the tangible characteristics that have been previously used to define hockey in these parts. But it has to be something else first because of who made the roster and who didn't on Monday.

"I'm hoping we're in-your-face enough to get respect," said Renney, who made eight cuts and is left with 24 bodies, counting the so-faruntradeable Sheldon Souray (notes) and J.F. Jacques, who is destined to start the year on the injured list.

"I want to be a team that comes at you and doesn't get pushed out of games," Renney said.

The Oilers brain trust studied its roster efficiencies and deficiencies at great length last year and decided on a more burly identity, then spent all summer and this training camp stockpiling the necessary bodies and rolling them out.

It wasn't exactly a secret that a smallish forward lineup would get smaller with the addition of three skilled rookies, so they needed to offset the diminutive with the aggressive. Renney wanted to emerge from training camp with a team that would play with more "grit, size and jam" throughout the lineup.

That's why the return for Patrick O'Sullivan (notes) was Jim Vandermeer (notes) all those months ago and why, on Monday, the noise emanating from Rexall Place was in large part a protection racket. It's why Theo Peckham (notes) made the team on defence and Richard Petiot (notes) did not. Why both Zack Stortini (notes) and Steve MacIntyre (notes) will patrol and possibly platoon on the fourth line. It's why Ryan Jones (notes) is still an Oiler while little Liam Reddox (notes) punched a ticket to Oklahoma City.

Well, that and the contract thing. Jones has a one-way, Reddox a two-way.

When the Oilers decide to rid themselves of a third goalie, Reddox might be the first recall. He is obviously ready to play the role of undersized irritant, one that requires him to deliver as many hits as possible in a given shift. Think of him as the mosquito in your tent and you'll be on the right track. Even some of the small guys have to play bigger for this team to maintain an identity.

You have to know that Jones, Peckham, Stortini, Vandermeer, Jason Strudwick (notes), Ladislav Smid (notes), Colin Fraser (notes) and MacIntyre are well aware they will be required to ride shotgun for skilled rookies Taylor Hall (notes), Magnus Paajarvi (notes) and Jordan Eberle (notes). Renney addressed that physical prerequisite when discussing why he chose Peckham over Petiot or Shawn Belle (notes) as the sixth defenceman.

"He's one of those teammates that can protect others," Renney said.

Peckham is indeed big enough and history shows he is willing to fight both senior citizens and players who are not collecting their National Hockey League pension just yet. He is also 22 and an Oilers draft pick, and this franchise has re-dedicated itself to growing its own. Those who do not reach a minimum size requirement will be protected by those who do.

The list of endangered species doesn't end with the heavily hyped trio of neophytes. Ales Hemsky (notes), in case you haven't noticed, was flying around the ice during pre-season and I happen to think the spring in his step stems from the knowledge that he, too, will be afforded some muscle relaxants.

The same goes for Sam Gagner (notes) and Andrew Cogliano (notes) and anybody else who might want to think twice or thrice about dropping the flippers to defend himself.

Hemsky is no wimp. In fact, he'll go to those cliche "dirty areas" faster than many finesse players. But you don't want him even thinking about risking those million-dollar mitts on some lunkhead's forehead.

Last year, Ethan Moreau (notes) and Souray made it clear to Hemsky that they had his back. When Moreau and then Souray were off-loaded, Hemsky might have been wondering who was going to fill the guaranteed retribution quotient. He need not worry. He's an asset and will be protected with the same vigour that will cloak Hall, Eberle and Paajarvi.

Renney wants those kids to be responsible defensively and he also wants them flying around on offence, deploying their creativity. Since that long a leash will inevitably lead to costly mistakes, he wants those kids to know they will survive to play another shift and another game rather than find themselves stapled to the pine or perched in the press box.

"They're just naive enough," he said. "They're just going to go play. We have to encourage that. Go play and we'll help iron out the kinks."

That philosophy stands in stark contrast to the mantra of former coach Pat Quinn, who was prepared last year to blame most turnovers, bad changes and global warming on kids who supposedly had talent.

Renney will live with the potential downside of that many rookies, but is determined to stack the odds in their favour by offering them safe passage. The people who are built for it will first and foremost "protect what should be a young team."

The message from on high cannot be clearer, and the roster Renney and general manager Steve Tambellini have built to back it up should surprise nobody, save perhaps for Linus Omark (notes), who cited "politics" as one of the most remarkable aspects of his first NHL camp.

Omark, obviously, figures he didn't get the opportunity he thought he deserved in Edmonton and he has a point. When it came to skilled smurfs, he was the odd one out.

For all the talk of opportunity at this camp—people like O'Marra, Chris Vande Velde (notes) and Alex Giroux played plenty in the pre-season—it really only held true for the new kids up front and the men who are best suited to protect them.