Badger Alumni Update: Tom Gilbert

(Photo by Neil Ament)
Tom Gilbert surprised a number of people by outplaying Ladislav Smid in training camp and making the Oilers right out of camp. Despite his good play during camp, many thought he'd be sent down due to the Oilers depth on D. However, it was Smid who was sent down (he's back up due to injuries to Pitkanen and Souray) while Gilbert made the opening night lineup.

While his relative NHL inexperience shows and he makes some mistakes, all in all he's been playing pretty well with the Oilers. He's one of a handful of players whose +/- isn't negative (Smid is the only other D without a negative +/-), and he leads the defensemen with 3 points (2 G 1 A). He's been getting a good amount of ice time, and his minutes haven't been soft minutes -- lately MacTavish has been playing him against other teams' top lines.

Anyway, the Edmonton Journal has a nice article on Gilbert, and he also gets some love in the Sun's preview of the Oilers upcoming game v. the Red Wings. Go ahead and take a look, as both articles have some fun quotes. (Thanks to DPlaya for the heads-up on the first article; I'm a sieve and hadn't checked the Edmonton papers recently.)