[Sylvanfan]

Well the preliminary round of the WJC is done and 6 of the 7 Oiler players will advance on to the medal round although only 5 will play. Ironically the player who performed as well as any is the one guy who is going to the relegation round. Poor Meszaros would likely be inline to be a tourney allstar on defence if not for todays loss to the Swedes and an unfortunate tie breaker formula (I still don't understand how Finland goes on over Slovakia) but thus far Meszaros is backing up former Oiler GM Speeds claim from draft day that he was the best d-man to be had in the draft. Jeff Carter, Johannes Salmonsson, Colin Fraser, and Andrej Meszaros have so far averaged at least one point per game. Both Carter and Salmonsson have each scored 5 goals in 4 games. Meszaros finished the prelim round tied for the lead in defenceman scoring, and leading all d-men with 3 goals. Lauri Korpikovski has 2 goals in 4 games and Cam Barker had 1 in 3 games, but will now sit out after being diagnosed with mono (still messing around with all them highschool girls in the Hat methinks). The other Oiler prospect Johan Fransson has yet to put up a point, but is even in the +/- which is acceptable considering that Canada pounded the Swedes. So far it's been a good tourney for Oiler prospects and we'll wait to see what the medal round holds.