Kid Line or No Kid Line?

Some recognizeable faces made the trip to Boston as the Edmonton Oilers get set to take on the Boston Bruins in an early game match-up on Saturday. Fernando Pisani, Lubomir Visnovsky, Steve Staois and Mike Comrie all tagged along with the expectation they could be asked or might be ready to play.

Steve Staois is doubtful. His concussion is giving him on and off effects too widespread to label him ready to return without further review. He's been skating with the team and looks good, but he could be another couple games away.

Lubomir Visnovsky, while also doubtful, is getting past his bout of the flu more quickly than expected. Great news for the Oilers who almost gave away 2 points in a massive meltdown against the Red Wings and could have used Visnovsky's veteran presence and steady hand in the Oilers own zone.

Fernando Pisani wants a couple practices to make sure his back will hold up, but could be set to go if the Oilers are missing pieces and Pisani's presence helps fill out the otherwise depleted roster. Should Pisani play, it would be interesting to see where Quinn would choose to place him.

Mike Comrie who is also considered day to day, may be the most likely of returning players and could be reunited with O'Sullivan and Horcoff (or Gagner) depending on what Quinn chooses to do after the first line of Horcoff, Penner and Hemsky tallied 10 points between them in Thursdays game.

No matter what the combination, fans can expect that the "kid line" reunion is all but dead. The trio of Gagner, Nilsson and Cogliano were low on the plus/minus scale and were heavily out-checked by the Red Wings, resulting in a handful of goals that brought Detroit back to life in an otherwise Oilers offensive blow-out.

Good riddance. Putting that line together was a mistake, but with few other options, I can see why Quinn tried it. That said, he's not likely to try it again with other offensive options available and his formula of a little "crust" on every line seemed to suit the Oilers well.

No reason to change that if it can at all be avoided and should some of the familiar Oiler faces return, it can easily be avoided.