Follow @SMaloughney Survival was the phrase most associated with the Oilers this month. “If Edmonton could survive October they will at least have a chance throughout the rest of the season.… The Oilers found a way to not only survive, but to thrive. A win tonight would put the team in first place in the division.
The Pacific Division is a tight race and there are plenty of games left. The points Edmonton has collected up until this point should be commended but the players need to remember how they played in order to obtain them. The Oilers played against the best teams in the league and had to fight every battle in order to pull out these points. Playing this way, regardless of the opponent will keep Edmonton in the playoff hunt.
Edmonton needs to remember some of the basic rules of survival to continue having this success.
1) Don’t travel alone. Trent Yawney’s impact on the backend has been noticeable. Edmonton overall has an extremely average defence but the system implemented by Yawney has the group bought in. Players like Larsson and Russell have been more active in the offensive zone and the group has done a solid job moving pucks out of their own zone.
2) Build and protect a shelter. Edmonton returns home to play the Wild tonight. While the team has been on the road more than they have at home the Oilers still boast a 2-1-1 record at home.
3) Wear multiple layers. It isn’t enough to have just one scoring line. McDavid and the top line will always be the biggest contributor but the rest of the forwards have found ways to pitch in. Draisaitl and Rieder have started to find chemistry, Zack Kassian scored the only goal in regulation versus Chicago, and Caggiula found the net a couple times in Nashville.
Tonight Edmonton will need to remember these rules as they foray into The Wild once more.
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LINEUPS
OILERS
RNH-McDavid-Yamamoto Rieder-Draisaitl-Chiasson Lucic-Strome-Caggiula Khaira-Brodziak-Kassian
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Garrison-Benning
Talbot
Jesse Puljujarvi will sit for a fourth consecutive game. Whether you feel he can be an impactful player in the NHL right now or not everyone should agree it does nothing for the player to continue to ride the pine. Get him to the AHL.
WILD
Zucker-Staal-Niederrieter Parise-Koivu-Granlund Greenway-Coyle-Eriksson Ek Foligno-Fehr-Brown
Suter-Dumba Brodin-Spurgeon Seeler-Pateryn
Stalock
4 KEYS TO VICTORY 1) No Advantage On Back To Backs? The Wild played last night where they were beat 5-2 by the Canucks. Credit to fellow HockeyBuzz blogger Dan Wallace for pointing out the Wild are 2-0 in the second of back to back games. Edmonton shouldn't expect the Wild to take a couple periods to get their legs under them. 2) Stay Out Of The Box. Edmonton played alright against the Blackhawks but their overall game was severly hurt by an inability to stay out of the box. The Wild are not world beaters on the powerplay but that doesn't mean Edmonton should give them the chance. 3) Niederreiter Hasn't Scored Yet. Nino Niederreiter has had an interesting career. He failed to produce at all with the Islanders before being traded to the Wild where he has been a streaky player. Despite a strong start the Oilers have still been that team that allows goals from players on long scoreless streaks. 4) Goals From The Blue. Going into this game the Wild have 9 goals from four different defenders. Edmonton has 2 goals from two defencemen. As I stated early in this blog the Oilers defence has played a strong system game thus far but Edmonton needs to be able to count on them for some goals as well.
FILM OF THE DAY On a survival and wild kick, I went with one of the most underrated survival movies of the past decade. Liam Neeson delivers one of his best performances in a movie that's as bleak as it is unrelenting; The Grey.