Yeah there is a game tonight against a team named after some kind of flora but all eyes are upon Twitter today. News came out of New Jersey last night that Taylor Hall would not dress against Colorado and he is also being held out of tonight's game against Arizona. Mark December 10th against the Dallas Stars as Taylor Hall's last game he played for the Devils.
Will he sign in Edmonton? Signs right now point to no, but for Oilers fans it's fun to imagine.
While there appears to be interest from multiple teams for Taylor Hall...keep hearing St Louis and Arizona at the top of the list.
Both St Louis and the Coyotes make sense because they each have one thing that not many other teams can offer, and that is an NHL ready goaltender.
Raanta would absolutely be going back in any deal involving the Coyotes and while not as impressive, the 29 year old Jake Allen is having himself a season, posting a .925SV% in the 10 games he has played.
Whatever Hall ends up going for, fans are going to want to dissect the deal and compare it to their own team to see if they could have matched or surpassed the same deal.
Regardless of whether or not it is Taylor Hall, Ken Holland needs to find some way to improve this Oilers roster. McDavid and Draisaitl are looking more gassed by the ends of games than I have ever seen them. Too many mistakes are being made on the ice, and Mike Smith is doing exactly what I expected him to do before the season began.
After enjoying a nice bout as the top dog in the Pacific, the gap has shut. Arizona now leads the division. Calgary and Edmonton now have identical records, and teams like Vegas are hot on their heels.
Last season, through the first 34 games of the season, Edmonton had an 18-13-3 record, eerily close to the 18-12-4 record the team currently has. The 2018/2019 Oilers had 39 points compared to the 40 the 2019/2020 Oilers currently have.
The team from last season would go on to gain only another 40 points through the remaining 48 games and finish 25th in the league.
Taylor Hall might not be coming to save the day in Edmonton, but Holland needs to reward his team's decent start by sending in someone.
LINEUP
3 KEYS TO VICTORY
1.) Odd Man Rushes - One area that should be easiled addressed by Edmonton is how bad they have been at letting their opponents get behind them. Mike Smith was horrendous against the Wild but knowing that, Edmonton still gave up at least five different odd man rushes during that game. Especially against a team like Toronto, that will kill you.
2.) Rough Game For Nurse - After the game, people only wanted to discuss the physical beatdown Nurse gave to Greenway but Nurse overall played a really poor game. Too often Nurse is the one killing any scoring chances in the offensive zone with his weak shots that never seem to actually make it to the net. Nurse needs to channel the intensity he went after guys last game, and turn that into some real hockey plays.
3.) Don't Take Gagner Out - The overall best line last game had to be the Haas, Gagner, Neal trio. Gagner is a better option for production than 90% of the other bottom six forwards. I would run this line together for a long stretch.
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FILM OF THE DAY
Taylor Hall's tenure in Edmonton the first time around was certainly a mixed bag of brilliant production but also some stories on how he spent his personal time. The young man has grown up and I'm guessing if he does find his way back to Alberta, fans here will welcome him with open arms. Everyone deserves a second chance, just like how Pat did in Silver Linings Playbook
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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