Edmonton has not played bad by any stretch these past to games but they also haven't been amazing. Both games could have ended up going either ay; both games ended up going the way of their opponent.

Tonight the Oilers need to clean up some aspects of their game and split this mini series against the Calgary Flames.


OILERS LINE COMBINATIONS

RNH – McDavid – Puljujarvi
Ennis – Draisaitl – Yamamoto
Archibald – Shore – Kassian
Kahun – Haas – Chiasson

Nurse – Bear
Lagesson – Larsson
K.Russell – Bouchard

Smith

It looks like Barrie is a game time decision and might play tonight. Until that is confirmed I'm going to keep putting Bouchard in the lineup until it actually happens.

FLAMES LINE COMBINATIONS

Tkachuk – Lindholm – Dube
Gaudreau – Monahan – Ritchie
Lucic – Backlund – Mangiapane
Bennett – Ryan – Leivo

Giordano – Andersson
Hanafin – Tanev
Valimaki – Kylington

Markstrom

4 GAME THOUGHTS

1.) Avoid Odd Man Rushes - Credit to the Flames for doing such a good job at holding up the Oilers at their blueline. Edmonton generates so much on the rush and Calgary did an excellent job of shutting that down. A by-product of that is it allowed the Flames to quickly turn the other way with the puck with the Oilers on their heels. Tippett needs to coach a better game and get his players to be aware of this.

2.) Smarter Smith - Mike Smith had one of those games we come to expect at least a handful of times a year, where he makes a dumb move to come out of his crease, gets caught and costs the Oilers a goal. Smith has played well this year and has bounced back strong. Tippett going to Smith tonight means we can expect Koskinen in the next one.

3.) Larsson - Adam Larsson is making a case for himself to earn another contract with the Edmonton Oilers. We will discuss on another day what that will look like but right now Larsson is skating well and looking like a solid top four option for the Oilers.

4.) Wake Up Early - While most of the game was a good back and forth, Edmonton came out slow in the first period and it's a habit we are starting to see occur more often for this team. The Oilers need to put their best foot forward early and not have to deal with the Sutter Shutdown.

Join the Discussion: » 34 Comments » Post New Comment

» Oilers vs Kings Round 1 Game 2

» Oilers vs Kings Round 1 Game 1

» Oilers vs Kings Round 1... Round 3

» Game 82

» The Games Don't Matter