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G56: Oilers @ Penguins - Desperate |
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Desperate. That is the word that Connor McDavid used to describe the Edmonton Oilers. "We have got to be the most desperate team in the NHL," said McDavid after practice in Pittsburgh yesterday.
The Wild Card position is slowly crawling away from the Oilers and the team is now 6 points back of a playoff spot. A win against the Wild momentarily stopped the bleeding, but another trouncing at the hands of the Sharks gouged open the wounds once more.
Keith Gretzky has said recently that he hopes that the Oilers can be buyers at the deadline, but I just don't see how. The Oilers play 6 games before the NHL trade deadline on February 25th, were the team to go on a six game winning streak, they may still find themselves 2 or 3 points out of a playoff spot. From a building standpoint it makes little sense to give up assets for a playoff push, from a financial standpoint the reasoning is clear.
LINEUPS
OILERS
Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian
Khaira-RNH-Puljujarvi
Lucic-Malone-Chiasson
Rieder-Cave-Brodziak
Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Manning-Gravel
Koskinen
PENGUINS
Guentzal-Crosby-Rust
Pearson-Bjugstad-Kessel
Simon-McCann-Hornqvist
Blueger-Cullen-Wilson
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Riikola
Johnson-Ruhwedel
Murray
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) A Depleted Lineup. For once it isn't the Oilers having to deal with players out of their lineup. On the backend Olli Maata is expected to be out for at least a month with a separated shoulder, and Evgeni Malkin will miss the game due to a high sticking penalty he took against the Flyers. Justin Schultz may return to the lineup tonight but if he does it will mark his first game in four months. The Penguins will never be more beatable for the Oilers than tonight.
2) Bugging Bjugstad. The Penguins acquired Nick Bjugstad from the Florida Panthers a couple of weeks ago and the results have fine for the Penguins. Bjugstad had an assist in his first game as a Penguin and scored his first goal for them last game. Tonight Bjugstad will be playing more minutes due to Malkin's absence. He is a fast player who is strong on the puck and the Oilers need to watch him as much as Crosby.
3) Kostly Koskinen. The Oilers will be going back to Mikko Koskinen tonight. The results the Oilers have gotten from their supposed #1 netminder have been sub-par since gifting him a three year deal. The Penguins have plenty of fire-power even while they are missing key players. Even when Koskinen is on his game, he has the tendency to give up massive rebounds. He needs to limit that against the aggressive Penguins.
4) Responding to the Coach. Hitchcock called his guys out hard after a pitiful performance against the Sharks. To be clear, there is more than work ethic that the Oilers need...they are not skilled enough to keep up with most teams. If the team took his message seriously, they should come out flying to start the first period.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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