Tonight is the night where we will see if the Edmonton Oilers have learned their lesson. Back in the distant time of the first round, the Oilers lost Game 1 to the LA Kings after struggling to find their way into the game. They then won the next two straight in convincing fashion, having many fans believing that they could coast through the rest of the series. Instead, the Kings regrouped, pushed back hard and won two straight, forcing the Oilers to re-find their game and battle their way back to win in Game 7.

The Calgary Flames are a much better team than the LA Kings and you can bet they will regroup after their Game 3 loss and try to force the Oilers to play their style of hockey. Edmonton needs to take all the lessons and experience they have gained thus far in these playoffs and put it to good use as a win would put the Oilers up 3-1 in the series, and a good chance at returning to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2006.

In the post game interviews, both Rasmus Andersson and Matthew Tkachuk discussed how they got beat by "one player" who played half the game. I assume they were discussing McDavid who once again was showing everyone why he is the best player on the planet, dancing around the Flames forwards and defense and notching 3 assists but that doesn't add up to the statement because McDavid averaged the fourth most minutes among forwards in that game. Zach Hyman who scored the first goal played the most minutes of any player at 23:03, RNH played the second most minutes at 21:58, Leon Draisaitl who set an NHL record for most assists in a period in the playoffs with 4, played 21:37, followed by McDavid and his 20:28. Next in most minutes by a forward was Evander Kane who scored a natural hat-trick in roughly six minutes, playing a total of 18:10 minutes. Perhaps they were talking about Mike Smith who made 32 of 33 saves, and had to leave the game briefly after getting run by Milan Lucic before making an exciting, almost WWE style return to the game.

These Oilers are more than Connor McDavid and in Game 3 the Oilers ran the show. The Flames had no answer for the Oilers in the neutral zone or their own end as Edmonton simply had too much speed for them to be able to try and break up the play. We will talk about the nuclear line of McDavid-Draisaitl-Kane in a moment but first the other lines do need some praise.

The RNH-Hyman-Puljujarvi line was matched against the Backlund-Magiapane-Coleman line and while they didn't score, the line was really clicking and managed a few great chances against Markstrom. Calgary is going to zero in hard on the top line tonight and try and make things as low event as possible whenever they are on the ice. The difference in the game tonight could be a goal by this second line.

The other line that was highly effective was the new young guns line with Ryan McLeod and Kailer Yamamoto with Warren Foegele as well. McLeod is transforming into a defensive stalwart before our eyes and is using his speed far more effectively to break up any attempted rushed by the Flames. That line finished 4-2 at 5 on 5 in High Danger Chances, playing most against the Dube-Jarnkrok-Toffoli line.

Now for the big one. A huge factor in both of Edmonton's wins against the Flames has been because they have not yet figured out an answer to the Oilers top line of Kane-McDavid-Draisaitl. In the past two games they have outscored the Flames 5-0 at 5 on 5 and out-chanced them 8-2 in High Danger Chances. That line also played 4 minutes together in the first game and despite the 9-6 win for the Flames, that line still managed to go 1-0, scoring a 5 on 5 goal.

Tonight I expect the Flames to be far more aggressive, attacking this line and standing up the blue line to try and prevent zone entries but while they will surely be better than they were in Game 3, I don't think they can stop this line, only reduce their chances.

My last thoughts are on Jacob Markstrom and if he will start in Game 4. The obvious answer is yes of course he will but the Flames starter has not yet posted a 0.900SV% and has allowed at least four goals in every game. Markstrom kept Calgary in the game after the Oilers outshot them 21-7 in the first period but in the second period when the shots were 13-12 for the Oilers, the Flames netminder allowed four goals. Vladar meanwhile stopped 7 of 7 when he came in in relief in the third period. If the Oilers find a way to go up early in Game 4 against Markstrom, will we see a change?

Line Combinations:

Oilers

Kane-McDavid-Draisaitl
Hyman-RNH-Puljujarvi
Foegele-McLeod-Yamamoto
Kassian-Ryan-Archibald

Nurse-Ceci
Keith-Bouchard
Kulak-Barrie

Smith

Calgary

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Dube-Jarnkrok-Toffoli
Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie

Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Stone
Zadorov-Gudbranson

Markstrom

I hope everyone enjoys the game tonight!

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