Follow @SMaloughney Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers May your day be filled with excessive eating, desperately trying to get away from family members, and falling into a turkey coma by 8. For my Canadian readers, I applaud you for celebrating Thanksgiving on the correct day.
Tonight the Oilers enter their first game of the Hitchcock era. While Hitch did sit behind the bench for the Oilers OT win vs San Jose a couple nights ago, the systems in place were entirely from McLellan. Yesterday, the Oilers had their first Hitchcock practice meaning we could see some different hockey from Edmonton tonight.
Ken Hitchcock, the third most winning coach in NHL history certainly knows how to talk to talk. In the few days he has had a chance to speak he has said all the right things. A few points from Hitch that stood out for me.
- McLellan had spoke of McDavid's recovery time but Hitchcock went further in depth, specifically how he felt they could take further advantage of it. Against San Jose we saw Hitchcock double-shift McDavid on the fourth line so look to see McDavid's minutes increase.
- Some people felt a Hitchcock coached McDavid would decrease in production but there is no evidence to support that. Tarasenko exploded onto the scene under Hitchcock and Seguin had a 40 goal campaign under him.
- The new Oilers coach did say he wants to build McDavid's game from the Oilers zone as well as the other centres on the team. He feels all the Oilers centres should get the puck earlier so look for that tonight.
When you have the puck that's for you, when you don't have the puck that's for us.
I think that's just a really cool quote from Ken Hitchcock. He went on to talk about how flexible he was with systems as far as when his players have the puck but it was non-negotiable when the opposition did. Too often over the past few seasons I've felt the Oilers have let the opposition enter their zone too easily. If the players buy-in to Hitch's system the wins should come.
--- LINEUPS
OILERS
Caggiula-McDavid-Draisaitl Spooner-RNH-Chiasson Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian Khaira-Marody-Rattie
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Gravel-Benning
Koskinen
- Not official but guessing Koskinen gets the start. Wideman will not play tonight but should be ready in time for Sunday's game. - A common misconception from last game was that Hitchcock moved Lucic to the fourth line. In actuality Hitch moved Brodziak and Kassian up to the third line. Meanwhile Khaira and Rattie averaged about 8 minutes while Marody averaged just under 5.
DUCKS Rakell-Getzlaf-Kase Aberg-Henrique-Silfverberg Cogliano-Kesler-Sherwood Ritchie-Kossila-Gibbons
Larsson-Manson Mahura-Montour Pettersson-Welinski
Gibson
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) Gibson. If I was to sum up the Ducks in one word it would be Gibson...because he is the only reason they hold any ground in the standings. No other goalie in the league has taken or saved more high danger shots than Gibson. Gibson has taken 136 high danger shots, saving 119 of them. He has taken the third most total shots in the entire league (behind Anderson and Andersen) and whole playing 18 games for the Ducks, has only allowed 29 goals at even strength. It's Gibson vs the Oilers tonight.
2) Shut Down...Aberg? Pontus Aberg is tied with Ryan Getzlaf for the team lead in goals this season. That sounds impressive until you remember that number is only 6. As in Edmonton, Aberg is an incredibly streaky player who can play a few good games to make him appear better than he is. After scoring 2 goals in back to back games Aberg only has 2 goals in his past 10 games.
3) A New Third Line. Hitchcock likes his vets and tonight we will see him ice a Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian line. This is an old school line that would fit right in with mid 2000's. The Oilers third line has been a hindrance since Chiarelli traded one of it's better possession players in Strome. This new look may at least have a new identity.
4) Injuries. The Ducks defence tonight looks even worse than the Oilers. That is in large part due to two of their top players in Lindholm and Fowler being out with injury. A win tonight will put the Oilers ahead of the Ducks with a game in hand. They need to take advantage of a depleted lineup.
FILM OF THE DAY In honor of American Thanksgiving I decided to go with a classic Thanksgiving movie...but then I decided that was no fun so I picked an awful movie instead. ThanksKilling had a budget of $3500 and somehow there are now three of these movies.