Tom Gilbert better get used to the workload.

From now until the end of the season, the Edmonton Oilers defenceman is expected to play on the top pairing, kill penalties and man the point on the power play.

He's gone from logging just over 21 minutes of ice time a night to playing a team-high 27:07 Tuesday in a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

He'll probably play similar minutes Thursday as the Oilers begin a four-game road trip in Montreal.

"He's going to have to get used to playing that much," said Oilers head coach Pat Quinn.

"That's part of developing your conditioning and your mental play, so you can take up more time. Tom is conditioned well and we figured he's able to play more time. We have a lot of young guys back there on defence now."

With the injury to Sheldon Souray and the subsequent trading away of Denis Grebeshkov, Lubomir Visnovsky and Steve Staios, the onus has fallen on Gilbert to pick up the slack.

Just three years into his tenure with the Oilers, the 27-year-old native of Bloomington, Minn., has suddenly become one of the elder statesman on the blue-line.

If he was perhaps lost in the shuffle before, there is no confusing his role now as one of the Oilers' top-two defencemen.

"I think the biggest difference is that if you're going to be out there a lot, you don't want to be out there too long," Gilbert said.

"You don't want your shifts to be 50, 55 seconds, you want them to be more in the 40-second range. Having quick shifts is crucial if you're going to play those kind of minutes."

He's also playing those minutes against the opposition's top line. Known for his offensive capabilities, going up against other teams' best players is also giving his defensive game a workout.

"It's a little more challenging," Gilbert said. "But it shouldn't matter who you're playing against, if you're in the right position and there is talk on the ice and you know where your partner is, it makes the game a lot easier regardless of who you're playing against."

Skating alongside Ryan Whitney helps. The two have developed a strong rapport in the short time they've been together. Acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for Visnovsky, as a former first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Whitney is used to being the featured guy on defence.

"So far, it's been great playing with him," Gilbert said. "We're starting to figure out where each other is going to be. It makes the game a lot easier knowing where he's going to be. He moves the puck well and if he's got nothing, I try to get open for him and I try to move the puck as quickly as I can up the ice.

"It makes such a difference when you play with a player like him that has such a great offensive upside and can make plays and limit your time in the defensive zone."

As the Oilers move forward with their rebuilding phase, Gilbert will also be counted on to take on a bigger leadership role. He's been appointed an assistant captain with the club as the Oilers make their way down the homestretch of the season.

Whether he's asked to take on a similar role next year will depend a lot on how he handles the responsibility now.

"I've never been too much of a vocal guy, I'm more a guy that likes to lead by example," Gilbert said.

"I'm a guy that tries to come every single night and do what it takes to win games. I think everyone here, to an extent, has to try and lead regardless if you have a letter on your jersey or not."

derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca

When speedskater Shani Davis took home a gold and a silver medal from the Vancouver Olympics last month, he left dozens of vanquished competitors eating ice shavings.

But for an eclectic group of two dozen skaters circling the rink at the Robert Crown Community Center in Evanston, following the 27-year-old Chicagoan's blazing blades is right where they want to be.

Fueled by Olympic fever, a surge of new and prospective members joined the Evanston Speed Skating Club for its final winter training session last week. Club members range in age from 5 to 53, with goals as diverse as their backgrounds, but they share a love of speed and a reverence for the ice where Davis, a three-time Olympian, learned to skate fast.

"Shani Davis started here, so maybe I could do the same thing," said Tommy Elzinga, 12, of Chicago, who joined the club two weeks ago. "You never know."

Davis, who in 2002 became the United States' first black Olympic speedskater, also won gold and silver medals in 2006, and is now the first American to medal in the 1,500-meter race in back-to-back Olympics. As his legacy grows, so does quadrennial interest in his club.

"We always get a big bump around Olympic time," said Jamal Nubani, 46, of Chicago, the club's head coach. "Last week, they just came out of the woodwork. We'll retain a few of them."

Founded in 1966 by Sanders Hicks, the club was something of a second home for Davis, who began training there when he was 6. His mother moved the family from the South Side, where Shani was born, to the North Side when he was 10 to be closer to Evanston. Though Davis' travels take him around the world, he finds time to return to his roots each year.

"He still skates with the club," said Robert Lloyd, manager of the Robert Crown Center. If he is at home, he shows up for twice-weekly workouts. The loyalty is reciprocated, as club members gathered en masse at a Chicago sports bar to cheer their most famous alumnus on to gold in the 1,000-meter race.

At the center, Nubani put the skaters through their paces. While some crashed periodically into the boards as if cross-checked in a hockey game, most glided at breakneck speeds, with a few young prodigies leading the pack.

"I see potential in a lot of them," Nubani said. "It's just a matter of whether they want to stick with it. It takes a long time to develop into a world-class skater."

Bundled up in the stands, Marlene Igel, of Evanston, shouted encouragement to her 5-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, a pint-size blur whose blond curls streamed from beneath her pink helmet as she raced past.

"Turn it on," said Igel, clutching a third-place trophy her daughter had won at her first meet the previous week.

Speedskating since January, Mackenzie demonstrated an aptitude for the sport during figure-skating lessons last winter.

"They tried to get her to slow down in figure skating, but she was all about the speed," Igel said.

Alec Dinerstein, 12, of Evanston, took up speedskating four years ago during the Turin Olympics and trains regularly with his 9-year-old sister, Tess, and 53-year-old father, Matt. While dazzled by Davis' occasional visits to the club, Alec said that mainly, he just likes "to go fast."

Cassi Saari, 20, a junior at Northwestern University from Duluth, Minn., who was a nationally ranked youth speedskater, joined the club this winter after a three-year hiatus from the sport. An environmental science major, her affinity for ice was on full display as she kept pace with the group's fastest members.

"The Olympics got me back in the mindset of speedskating," said Saari, who plans to resume competition. "I guess it was kind of a draw because Shani skated here."

Watching over the new batch of skaters, Hicks likened the spike in membership to the impact of another Chicago sports legend: Michael Jordan.

"Everyone," Hicks said, "wants to be like Shani."