Follow @SMaloughney Just as George Orwell wrote decades ago... all hockey is equal...but some hockey is more equal than others. Any game day is cause for celebration but there are some games that just get you hyped.
Connor McDavid is a player who rises to challenges. A season ago around February he was nearly 20 points back of Kucherov in the scoring race. McDavid went on to win the Art Ross. Matthews was the early darling this season, McDavid has been producing at a higher ppg pace.
In the 4 games McDavid has played against Sidney Crosby so far, McDavid has gone 2-5-7 while Crosby has gone 0-1-1. #97 has outperformed #87 in the head to head matchup... unfortunately in those 4 games the Oilers are 0-2-2. As usual, expect Connor to be brilliant tonight and hope the rest of the team decides to show up.
LINEUPS
OILERS
RNH-McDavid-Yamamoto Rieder-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi Lucic-Strome-Marody Chiasson-Brodziak-Kassian
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Gravel-Bouchard
Talbot
--- Despite the 3-0 score the Oilers played a fairly strong game against the Predators. Sometimes a team is just better. The goals scored against Edmonton were a result of a 120 second lapse in judgement but Edmonton will win more games than they lose if they play like that.
Cooper Marody was practicing with Lucic and Strome and likely gets the nod tonight. Garrison played fine against Nashville but it seems that callup Kevin Gravel gets his first NHL action of the season.
PENGUINS
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel Simon-Brassard-Hornqvist Grant-Cullen-Sheahan
Dumoulin-Letang Maata-Oleksiak Rikola-Johnson
Murray
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) Marody's First NHL Action. Last April, Chiarelli dealt a third round pick to the Flyers for Marody. The University of Michigan product scored 51 points in 40 games in his last college season. He went to the Condors for the remainder of that year with 3 points in 3 games. This year he has continued that pace with 6 points in 5 games. Marody is not being brought in as a fourth line grinder...management has brought him in expecting production from him. 2) Sid's Slumping Season Start. It seems for the past 2 or 3 seasons the same storyline is brought up..."Crosby struggling to produce" and two months later we've all forgotten about it because it's Crosby and eventually he has going to take off. In the past four games against the Pens the Oilers have kept Crosby off the score sheet. Keep doing that. 3) Help From The Backend. Kris Letang is second on the Penguins in points with 4 goals and 4 assists in 6 games played. The Oilers leading scorer on the backend is Darnell Nurse with a goal and two assists in 6 games played. Evan Bouchard in particular has been improving with every game... the next step for him is to bring some production. 4) Figure Out The PP. The issues began against the Predators on the Oilers PP. After failing to generate any offense the Oilers 2nd unit gave up the puck to Subban who made no mistake burying the short-handed goal. The Penguins have only allowed one goal on the PP this year. For Edmonton to convert on their special teams they need to be head and shoulders better than they have thus far.
FILM OF THE DAY Can you believe that two of the greatest movies of our time were released less than a month apart? Con Air staring Nicholas Cage released June 6th 1997, and on June 27th of the same year we got Face/Off Just like Cage and Travolta, tonight two of the greatest talents of our time will go head to head.