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G47: Canucks @ Oilers - Enjoying The Successes

January 16, 2019, 12:03 PM ET [211 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Being an Oiler fan is a rough gig. The highs and lows of a season are as tall as Everest and go as deep as the Mariana's Trench. The ownership group has made a series of baffling trades and moves while failing to address the real problems that plague this team.

With all of the being said, the game of hockey is still a phenomenal sport and the best sport in the world. Edmonton is a beautiful city filled with passionate fans and one only needs to turn their head to find someone else they can engage with about their favourite sports team.

I'm a writer and it's my job to look at the team with a critical eye and do my best to provide some sort of insight on the day to day goings on of this organization. To sit here and write about how good things are for a team that might miss the playoffs again, due to failures of management would seem disingenuous.

However it's possible to go to far the other way, so let's take a moment to look at some of the positives.

- Connor McDavid. Full Stop.
- Leon Draisaitl is well on his way to a 100 point season and could also be a 40 goal scorer.
- Ryan Nugent Hopkins should easily break is previous career high of 56 points. He has had to spend much of his time away from McDavid and yet he has still produced.
- Though there are still warts in his game, Darnell Nurse has tied his previous career high in goals and is three points away from a new career high. He could finish the season close to 40 points.
- The Klefbom injury has been rough and the team needs better players to cover injury but it also goes to show what a good player Klefbom is and how he makes the whole team better.
- There are supporting cast members helping out, Khaira, Caleb Jones, Chiasson, and Larsson have been performing strongly in their roles.
- Milan Lucic has three goals in his last four games and hopefully can continue to help this team out.

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LINEUPS

OILERS


Draisaitl-McDavid-Rattie
Lucic-RNH-Chiasson
Khaira-Cave-Puljujarvi
Rieder-Brodziak-Kassian

Nurse-Russell
Jones-Larsson
Manning-Benning

Koskinen

- No official word on the lineup yet but when you win 7-2 not much is going to change. Waiver pickup Colby Cave may play tonight.

CANUCKS

Baertschi-Horvat-Boeser
Roussel-Sutter-Virtanen
Schaller-Granlund-Leivo
Erickson-Beagle-Motte

Edler-Tanev
Hutton-Strecher
Pouliot-Gudbranson

Markstrom

- Pettersen is day-to-day with a knee injury but may play tonight. If he is not in the lineup that is good news for the Oilers.

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4 KEYS TO VICTORY

1) Win The First Period.
The Canucks have had the Oilers number so far this season, winning both contests by a score of 4-2. Of the 8 goals that Vancouver has scored against Edmonton, 6 of them have come in the first period.

2) Now It's Your Turn. Lucic and Kassian both chipped in offensively versus the Sabres. Now it is time for some others to score; I'm looking at you Tobias Rieder.

3) Shots. Shots. Shot, Shots Shots, Shots. There will be more time on another day to question Ken Hitchcock's strategies. The biggest issue under Hitchcock is how few shots the Oilers are generating. Despite a blowout win against Buffalo the Oilers were nearly doubled in shots. Edmonton needs to be more aggressive in their own end and quit waiting for the perfect scoring opportunity.

4) String Together 2. The Oilers have not won two games in a row since their four game winning streak from December 5th to 11th. Edmonton has been lucky to remain in the hunt due to other teams struggles. In order to take a Wild Card spot the team needs to put together some winning streaks.
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