Liam Reddox. Photo by Springfield Falcons/AHL

Related Multimedia:  Nov. 25: Off Day: Craig MacTavish  Nov 25: Reddox, Sestito & Garon Nov 26: MacIntyre Injury Update Nov 25: Sestito, Souray, Cole & Brodziak Nov 23: Craig MacTavish

Reddox and Sestito: Re-united, raw and ready to pummel

Tim Sestito will play his first NHL game tomorrow versus the LA Kings and he’ll have a familiar face on the wing. Recent call-up, Liam Reddox, and Sestito played on the top line of the Springfield Falcons before Reddox got the call.

“We played on a line together for a bit right before he got called up so I’ll definitely be comfortable with him out there,” Sestito said after practice at Millenium Place in Sherwood Park on Tuesday. “Reds is a quick, gritty player and he’s got some skill too.”

Reddox is feeling more comfortable after the initial Big Show Jitters but all eyes will on Sestito who Reddox said will try to amp the team up.

“Tim’s an energy guy. He’s not going to pass up a hit and he’s going to get pucks deep and get pucks to the net,” Reddox said. “Down in Springfield he was a leader. He brought a lot of energy to the team and hopefully he can do the same thing here.”

Early Christmas

Sestito was blind-sided by his call-up.

“I got the call around midnight on Saturday,” he said. “I was in shock and I didn’t sleep much that night. It’s quite an honour. I never in a million years thought I’d make it to this level...with that said, I want to prove that I belong here.”

MacT said what?

Coach MacTavish gave his thoughts today about the season up until now. He touched on all the recent issues: lack of scoring, drive to play, the shuffled lineups, the schedule and needed improvements. He also tossed out this old chestnut, characterizing the Oilers’ position thusly:

“You form, you storm, you norm and you perform, they say,” MacTavish said to the chuckles of the media. “So we’re in the case where we’re still in the storm and going to the norm. That’s a Billy Moores-ism.”

Five days off will indeed lighten the temperament.

Homecomings and old teams

Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene will face the Oilers for the first time since being traded in the off-season for Lubomir Visnovsky. Stolli is LA’s second-line centre and has six goals on the year while Greene got an “A” on his jersey.

Luckily, Visnovksy will get the chance to face his former team. He had a MRI on Saturday after banging his knee (on which he had surgery a few years ago) in practice. It turned up nothing so Lubi was back on the ice today and cleared for tomorrow. 

Mathieu Garon is another former King but the “former-team” feelings have almost worn off...but not quite.

“It always means something when you used to play for that team but at the same time, I think they changed pretty much the whole team since I was there,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of new faces but it’s always good to beat you’re old team.”

Garon said the five-day break was good for the team and it seemed to show as the mood at practice was light.

“It was good break...we had a day off and then we had a lot of practices,” he said. “I think we all needed to work on little things and I’m feeling great right now.”

SmackIntyre, MacAttack, Mac and Cheese...maybe not

Steve MacIntyre is back to practicing with the team after breaking his orbital bone in a fight against Eric Godard of the Penguins of Nov. 6.

“I’ve been on the ice the last week...this is probably the third or fourth time (back) with the team,” MacIntyre said. ”I go back in on Dec. 9 to get a CT scan to make sure everything’s OK. It’s up to the coaches after that.”

MacIntyre has no points, 24 PIMs and two devastating, fan-rousing, team-energizing hits in 10 games with the Oilers this season, his first in the NHL.