Happy Boxing Day to everybody. I hope you found everything you wanted under the tree. Our short reprieve from NHL hockey is over and we are right back into it with back to back wildly important games for the Oil, complete with playoff implications.
One of the most common Oiler Christmas wishes was for the team to wipe the floor with the Canucks tonight. Strangely, a growing number of Canucks fans are leaning towards bottoming out this year anyway in hopes to kick off a quick rebuild (Hahaha. Quick, that’s rich). These games are the ones the Oilers have to start winning if they want any hope of making the playoffs.
The team has been the whipping boy of the Division since before they adopted this configuration. So far this year Edmonton is 4-4-0 against the Pacific. An even record is a marked improvement compared to years past. In fact, the team is tied for as many Wins against divisional opponents as they had all of last year. Yeah, you read that correctly.
vs Pacific Division 2014-2015 4-21-4 2013-2014 8-17-4
vs North West Division 2012-2013 10-7-1 2011-2012 8-11-5
That’s one winning record against their own Division in the last 4 previous seasons and none since they changed the structure of the West. Given the state of the Pacific Division and the fact that the top 3 teams are guaranteed to make the Playoffs. It’s without a doubt that these games are going to be the key to keeping any Playoff dreams alive.
Edmonton is only 3 points behind Vancouver (despite having 2 more wins than them) and this game would mean potentially pulling even with Arizona and Calgary. These games might be the closest we get to playoffs if the team can’t string together wins against their rivals.
For the young leadership of the team, this is where they can prove themselves. None of them have won a thing in the NHL but it has to start somewhere. I’m specifically looking at Hall, RNH, Eberle, and Draisaitl tonight. They are the most skilled players on the bench. Three of them have served as Oilers for a significant time already even though the Nuge is just 22 years old. There is no formal Captain of this club and they shouldn’t be waiting around for one to arrive to say or do something that can save this season. I’ve seen enough from Hall to believe he’s the heart of this team. If he wants to wear the C you have to believe he’ll prove it with his play in these crucial games.
LINEUP
Edmonton’s lineup should be relatively unchanged from the last game, barring someone getting Salmonella from an undercooked Turkey. Something to note, neither Davidson nor Klefbom were on the ice this morning. I’ve penciled in Nikitin on the bottom pairing.
Hall Draisaitl Purcell Pouliot RNH Eberle Hendricks Letestu Korpikoski Gazdic Lander Pakarinen
Nurse Sekera Schultz Fayne Nikitin Gryba
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Run Support. Edmonton is having trouble getting more than 1 line going at a time. If the RNH-Eberle duo is scoring then Hall-Draisaitl are quiet, or vice-versa. Overall, Edmonton is doing just fine scoring goals (91 Goals For is middle of the NHL), but they have yet to put together a stretch where multiple lines are pushing the play in each game. They have the capability to do it. Hopefully when Klefbom gets back he can help keep a 2nd defensive pair pushing the club in the right direction.
2) Markstrom. Based on the morning skate the Oilers will be facing Jacob Markstrom tonight in goal. While clearly in the backup role, Markstrom has a significantly better save percentage than Miller. It’s the Backup’s .917 sv% vs the Starter’s .909 sv%. Frankly, the Oilers would have probably preferred seeing Miller. Like Edmonton, the Canucks are team that can score an appropriate amount of goals, but they give up way too many. In Vancouver’s case, they’ve given up 103 goals vs Edmonton’s 106.
3) Patchwork Blueline. If Klefbom AND Davidson are out tonight that means there is a very real possibility that Nikitin keeps playing. This would be less than ideal even though he hasn’t been the problem on his pairing most of the time. As it stands the last game was strange with Fayne and Schultz taking shifts together, both right handed shots. On paper it makes sense to split Sekera and Nurse, but in practice it didn’t look good enough for McLellan to stick with it. Edmonton desperately needs to find a fix for their blueline but until that comes it’s going to take a renewed effort from Schultz. He scored a goal and regained some confidence (based on his play afterwards). Let’s hope that continues.
Puck drops tonight at 8PM Mountain Time on CBC. Get Better, Connor! Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy