Tonight Taylor Hall returns to Edmonton for the first time since the big trade that saw him sent to New Jersey in exchange for Adam Larsson.
When Hall was dealt he made it no secret he was taking the trade personally and would do everything in his power to make the Oilers look bad for dealing him. While I think that ship has sailed -- most agree the Oilers got 80 cents on the dollar -- Hall seems to have backed off that stance a little bit. He's enjoying life as a member of the Devils and is focused on helping them, not making the Oilers look bad.
It seems Hall is taking this game as a closing of the book, so to speak. He has made it known that he's hoping for, and expecting, a nice applause from the fans he entertained for six years. Some of his comments after the trade may have rubbed Oilers fans the wrong way, but I would hope they'll look past that and appreciate what he did for the franchise.
The Oilers may have lost a lot of games when he was an Oiler but that's not on him. During his last four years with the franchise only Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby and Jamie Benn recorded more points at 5v5. During his last two years, the Oilers scored ~52% of the goals with him on the ice and less than 40% without him.
He was a good soldier, as he put it, for the Oilers and more than did his part. The people around him didn't do theirs.
Hopefully Oilers fans remember that and give him a big ovation tonight. He deserves it.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Adam Henrique - P.A. Parenteau Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmier Miles Wood - Sergey Kalinin - Beau Bennett Blake Coleman - Devante Smith-Pelly - Nick Lappin
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson Jon Merrill - Ben Lovejoy Karl Stollery - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Oilers (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Patrick Maroon - Connor McDavid - Leon Draisaitl Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle Milan Lucic - Drake Caggiula - Anton Slepyshev Matt Hendricks - Mark Letestu - Zack Kassian
Andrej Sekera - Matt Benning Oscar Klefbom - Eric Gryba Kris Russell - Adam Larsson
Cam Talbot
A few notes:
1) Sticking with the Hall theme, he is pointless in his last four games but has 16 shots on goal in that span. He's going to snap out of this sooner than later if he keeps piling up the shots.
2) The Oilers were dominant against the Devils last time these two met.
The Devils managed to steal a point thanks to a great showing from Schneider, but if there is a repeat performance tonight the Devils won't be so lucky.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 9:00 eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and SNW.