I'm under the weather today and that might be a factor in this, but this toilet bowl battle between the Sabres and the Oilers just doesnt have any kind of fun to it. In the past we could laugh at the race to last place and wish some ill-will on our basement rivals. I just dont have the energy for it and im not sure there's a point.
The Sabres are the worst team in the NHL with a bullet. I dont see a scenario where they win out and climb from the bottom. On top of that I'm not seeing a lot of overlap between who the Sabres (and their fans) want and who the Oilers want at the draft. Normally when you're in the position the Oilers are in you would prefer to choose 1st Overall but there's no doubt that they want Ekblad and the Sabres want one of the young Forwards Bennett, Draisaitl, or Reinhart.
So the two clubs arent even competing for the same talent, which makes the matchup more bland than pablum. But the Oilers are determined to make this tank battle interesting so the potential lineup they have for today is the proof that if they wanted to they could have been trying to lose games.
LINEUPS
Eberle has a knee injury that may or may not require a MRI and Yak's ankle is still likely to keep him out. The Oilers had no desire to take the quality players away from OKC so they recalled Pitlick and Big Mac. I really liked Pitlick in the limited time he had with the team previously and, believe it or not, I really like Big Mac. He isnt a great hockey player but he seems like a genuinely good guy and I'm rooting for him. The other thing the Oilers could have been thinking was that Gazdic was out of his weight class with John Scott. Eakins has not decided if he's going with 7 D again.
Hall Gagner Perron Lander RNH Pitlick Hendricks Gordon Smyth Gazdic MacIntyre Jones
Fraser Schultz Marincin Petry Klefbom Ference
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Early Lead. The Sabres scoring has dried up even more than normal so a fast start can get the "Here we go again" factor into the heads of the Buffalo players.
2) Hack. Matt Hackett has an .898sv% in the AHL this year. With their other stoppers out its up to him to stop the Oilers. Advantage, Oilers.
3) Home Powered Power Play. The Oilers have the strangest splits for their PP effectiveness. On the road they are paupers, at home they are princes. I wish I knew (beyond randomness) why that is. All I can hope for is that they keep it up.
Puck drops tonight at 7:38PM Mountain Time on TSN. Game On!
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