At the 2010 Draft the Oilers made a choice that most dont regret but at the time was the center of probably the most divisive debate that the Oiler fanbase had ever seen. Most were sided firmly with Taylor Hall but a vocal minority were pushing for the Oil to take Center Tyler Seguin. Edmonton took Hall and hasnt looked back since, but the Taylor/Tyler matchup hasnt happened enough to create any kind of head to head rivalry.

Now that Seguin has been traded to the Stars it gives us the opportunity to see if a more meaningful rivalry develops. As it has all transpired, I imagine that Seguin is pretty happy having been taken 2nd Overall that year. He got his name on the Cup before the Bruins decided they didnt want to live through the growing pains of this young forward and now that he's top dog on his new team he is playing at almost a point per game.

Meanwhile, Hall has been the feature attraction on a losing club. He's put up more points in less games than Seguin but he's been afforded every opportunity to shine since he arrived in E-Town. Hall is also playing at nearly a point per game pace right now so at this moment in time, at least offensively, the two are evenly matched.

Despite the fact that he is still collecting points Hall cannot be happy with his overall play. He is missing that explosive fire that Oiler fans have become accustomed to seeing. Something is off and, while it's still a guess as to why that is, I think we can all agree that this team needs him to lead the way every shift if they want to change their losing ways.

LINEUPS

A couple of big notes here. First, Boyd Gordon is out because of injury. Acton will take his spot. Second, Ilya Bryzgalov is going back in there again. I thought that Dubnyk would get a chance to respond but the coach wants to test out Bryzgalov's conditioning. Speaking of conditioning, that is apparently still high on Eakins list of complaints about this squad. He seems to think that it played into the stinker they laid in Columbus. I dont see it. We're 28 games into an NHL season. If these guys are noticeably in worse shape than the competition I will eat my hat.

Hall RNH Eberle
Yakupov Gagner Hemsky
Smyth Acton Perron
Jones Acobello Joensuu

Ference Petry
Grebeshkov J. Schultz
N. Schultz Belov

Bryzgalov

The Stars lost Robidas for 4-6 months with a leg fracture and have recalled giant Jamie Oleksiak. This is a guy the Oilers would have grabbed in a heartbeat if he were still available the year they took Klefbom.

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Fresh Legs. They have not had a practice since the Columbus game and this is designed to preserve whatever jump they may have in them for the game time. At this point I'm open to any suggestion that might help them start the games with more energy.

2) Discipline. That last game had some questionable refereeing (IMO) but they gave up some extended PP time because of lazy or boneheaded penalties. Here's the silver lining though, Dallas is 30th for home PP percentage with 3%(!). Yes, that says 3%. 1 Power Play goal in 33 opportunities at home.

3) Secondary Scoring. The Oilers need more from Hemsky, Yak, Gagner, and Perron. When they get it, they get it in droves. They just need someone to contribute every night. It cant be all on the shoulders of the first line.

Puck drops this late afternoon at 4:08PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!

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