After a two day break the Edmonton Oilers are once again back on the ice for a game against the Nashville Predators. After an uneven start to the season, the Oilers finished the month 6-3-0. good enough for second in the division. This four game winning streak the Oilers currently find themselves on has seen them playing their best hockey of the season. With the caliber of players on this roster, there is no reason why what we have seen as of late should not be the norm.
It's been an odd start for the Predators which is hopefully something that Edmonton can take advantage of. Nasville started their season a few days earlier than most other teams as they played a back-to-back against the Sharks in Prague as part of the NHL's Global Series. Nashville won both games against a Sharks team that currently looks like they will be one of the worst teams in the NHL this season. After that, the Predators were trounced twice by the Stars, only managing a single goal in each game, before losing in the shootout to the Kings after blowing a two goal lead going into the third period.
After that, Nashville lost to the Blue Jackets who have struggled to score goals and yet still scored 5 against the Preds, a Philly team that has been better than most expected, mostly due to good goaltending, and were shutout by the Capitals. Their one great win was against the Blues where they scored 6 against Greiss.
The things that went great last season; Saros playing at a Vezina level, Josi scoring almost 100 points points, and Duchene and Forsberg playing lights out has not happened up to this point of the season. Right now Nashville is a vulnerable team and the Oilers need to take advantage of that fact.
It should be a good test for Jack Campbell who in my previous blog I broke down his games this season. Campbell has had some good enough games combined with some rougher games which went hand in hand with the team in front of him not showing up on time. Campbell playing not just good in this game...but great should ease the naysayers off his back a bit. Campbell has played the Predators just three times in his career. He has gone 2-1 in those games with a 0.915SV% and a 2.67GAA.
Speaking of career numbers against the Predators, no Oiler loves playing against Nashville more than Leon Draisaitl. Leon has scored 19 goals against Nashville in the 20 games he has played against them, more than against any other team. Ironically he only has 6 assists in that same time. Draisaitl has dominated the Preds every time he has faced them which is a likely reason why the Oilers are 7-0-1 in their last 8 against Nashville.
One area that the Oilers need to clean up is their PK which currently sits 22nd in the NHL at 76.7%. The good news is that the team they are facing has the third worst PP in the NHL at a mere 8.3%. This is a game that the Oilers absolutely should win at special teams and the PK unit is going to need to work hard to keep this team from finding their game at 5 on 4.
RNH-McDavid-Hyman Kane-Draisaitl-Yamamoto Foegele-McLeod-Puljujarvi Holloway-Shore-Ryan
Nurse-Ceci Kulak-Bouchard Niemelainen-Barrie
Campbell
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Forsberg-Granlund-Duchene Niederreiter-Johansen-Tolvanen Trenin-Sisson-Jeannot Sanford-Glass-Sherwood
Josi-Fabbro Ekholm-Carrier McDonagh-Lauzon
Saros