Normally when the Sharks come into to town they can smell the blood in the water but the Oilers are riding a high right now (from a winning 2 games in a row) and the mood at the rink should be palpably different tonight. Edmonton is beginning to gain some confidence right now and are looking to match their season high for wins in a row (don’t laugh) by beating the Sharks. I expect a lot of energy tonight.
The lines as they have been constructed the last few games look a lot like the way one would imagine an NHL lineup to look. They have 2 scoring lines, a shut-down line, and a grinding 4th line. Maybe their success since they assembled these lines is purely coincidental but they are getting the job done. It has been good to see the bottom six hold up their end of the bargain in this deployment as well as the top 6.
One of the things that the Oilers will be in tough to defend against will be the big forwards for the Sharks. I look forward to seeing how Marincin and Petry handle the likes of Thornton, Marleau, and Burns, but I cringe to think at what the Schultzes will do. None of the Oiler defensemen are overly physical but Marincin is a tall man who can use his long reach to his advantage. If the Schultzes end up in their own zone with those big skilled Sharks I foresee a lot of panic creeping into their attempted zone exits. I hope I’m dead wrong about that.
If the Oilers can find Justin Schultz a partner who can help him slow the game down in his own zone I think we will see a drastic improvement from him. The Oilers lean heavily on Jultz with ice-time but this is a player still in only his 2nd year of Pro Hockey. And despite playing 2 minutes more a night under Eakins than he did with Krueger, Justin Schultz has taken 20 less shots on the season in roughly the same number of games played. I’m more than a little concerned that the added pressure of playing top minutes so early in his career is hurting his offense. This is something that I think will come around, but I cant help but come to the conclusion that the Oilers are hurting themselves by running him out there so much without someone who can really help him develop.
LINEUPS
Scrivens back in. Hemsky and Ference are not ready vs Sharks.
— Dallas Eakins (@dallaseakins) January 29, 2014Well that settles that. Scrivens is back in Net and didn’t have to wait too long to play again even though he played backup for 1 game in between starts. Ference still isn’t cleared to play based on concussion protocol but the Oilers are very quiet about what is going on with their Captain right now. I have no reason to believe this is a particularly “serious… concussion but the silence is odd. With Hemsky out the Oilers maintain that prototypical lineup structure but I still miss seeing him on the ice. I don’t see any indication there will be other changes to the lines.
Hall RNH Eberle Yak Gagner Perron Hendricks Gordon Jones Gazdic Smyth Joensuu
N. Schultz J. Schultz Marincin Petry Belov Potter
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Let Them Know You’re There. Matt Hendricks’ quote from this morning was “We just want them to feel us all night long.… This in reference to what he wants his line to do against the Sharks. This is why the Oilers went out and acquired Hendricks. This is what the team was missing and its rubbing off on other guys. The 2nd line also has a couple of players in Yak and Perron who play much more effectively when physically engaged. Get in there and mix it up.
2) Don’t Get Too High. The Oilers have had a fair amount of success in an extremely short time frame. This young team cant get too high and forget to do the things that were making them successful. This would be the absolute worst time to start letting the drop passes just past the blueline and the solo zone entries creep back into their play.
3) Don’t Panic. The Sharks are a big team and they are extremely well coached. The Oilers have a defense built on players with sound positioning and good stick work (when it goes well for them). They cannot panic when the big bodies like Burns or Thornton are bearing down on them in the Offensive zone. The Forwards need to support the D and the D needs to keep calm.
Puck drops tonight at 7:38PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!
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