Match-up - Edmonton Oilers (20-33-6) @ New Jersey Devils (23-21-13) Road/Home records - 10-19-4 -------------- 12-7-7 TV - SN-West, MSG Plus Puck drop - 7:00 p.m. ET Season series - Oilers lead 1-0 Last 10: Oilers 5-4-1 / Devils 4-3-3 Projected starting goalies - Ilya Bryzgalov vs Cory Schneider
Projected lines for the Oilers:
Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Nail Yakupov David Perron - Sam Gagner - Jordan Eberle Matt Hendricks - Boyd Gordon - Ales Hemsky Luke Gazdic - Ryan Smyth - Ryan Jones
Nick Schultz - Justin Schultz Martin Marincin - Jeff Petry Andrew Ference - Mark Fraser
Projected lines for the Devils:
Dainius Zubrus - Andrei Loktionov - Jaromir Jagr Patrik Elias - Travis Zajac - Damien Brunner Ryan Clowe - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne Jon Merrill - Marek Zidlicky Bryce Salvador - Pete Harrold
Game notes:
- The Oilers are a horrible 5 vs 5 team and they have been all season long. They tend to spend a lot more time in their own zone than in the offensive zone, and they allow a ton of goals as a result. All their talent up front hasn't been enough to make up for their poor defense and bad goaltending (pre Ben Scrivens). Scrivens has been able to hide some of their deficiency's of late, but he isn't expected to start tonight in the 2nd half of a back-to-back. The Devils are the decisively better team at 5 vs 5 and they should be able to take advantage of a tired Oilers team tonight.
- When I watch the Oilers, their defense always seems to stand out to me for the wrong reasons. Most of them struggle with clean zone exits and in their own zone they're all over the place. When things start to break down they start panicking and flopping all over, and it gets pretty messy. I guess you can expect that when Mark Fraser is in the lineup and Nick Schultz is on your top pairing.
- Taylor Hall and David Perron have been one of the best 1-2 left wing duos in the league this season. They both have at least 19 goals and 40+ points on the year. They're probably the two best goal scorers on the team right now so the Devils best stick with them when they're on the ice.
- Andrei Loktionov will center Jaromir Jagr and Dainius Zubrus on the top line tonight. Jagr's been a pretty consistent point producer this season and seemed to mesh well with Travis Zajac, so I'm interested to see if he can continue to produce with Loktionov centering him instead. That'd be ideal because I think Zajac could be a nice fit between Patrik Elias and Damien Brunner.
- Cory Schneider will make his 5th consecutive start tonight as Pete DeBoer and the Devils attempt to pick up as many points as possible before the Olympic break. Schneider's played exceptional over the last couple months, so I think he's deserving of these starts. If he plays well tonight and isn't tested too much, I think we'll see him in net again tomorrow against Washington. He'll have a couple weeks to rest up after.
- New Jersey's power play is pretty good and the Oilers penalty kill, well, isn't. The Devils don't draw too many penalties, but if they find themselves on the power play a few times they should be able to convert. It's a bit of a mismatch.
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- I recently posted my midseason rankings for the top-30 first-year NHL draft eligible players from the OHL. You can view that here.
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