In case it wasn't abundantly clear, the month of December was awful for the Oilers. Everything that could have gone wrong, did and that included the play of the Oilers two best players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The early days of January have told a different story with Draisaitl and McDavid producing 5 points a piece in their last 3 games. Not only are the big guns firing on all cylinders again but the rest of the team is chipping in. Guys on the backend like Nurse and Klefbom are finding the back of the net, there has been some depth scoring, and Mike Smith is playing like he did in October.
Due to these things, the Edmonton Oilers put together two convincing wins against the Bruins and Leafs, two teams in the East that are serious threats.
Tonight Edmonton faces a challenge that even when the team was at their best in October they struggled with:
Beating a team they are clearly better than.
Montreal hasn't won a game since December 23rd and have lost 7 straight since. Chiarot, Byron, Drouin, Armia, and the young prospect Noah Juulsen are all injured. Chiarot was just announced to be out for the Edmonton game and is a massive loss as he has been averaging well over 20 minutes a game on the top pairing alongside Weber. Gallagher was injured but may be cleared to play tonight. A month ago it seemed likely the Canadiens were going to be in the playoff hunt till the very end. Now they could end up fighting Ottawa for a lottery spot.
Right now there are 6 teams beneath Montreal in the standings and Edmonton has lost to 4 of them. One of the big killers of the Oilers in those games has been their starts, something Tippett has fixed in recent games.
An interesting factoid about Montreal's recent abysmal skid is that 6 of the 7 games have been one goal games, with only one of those games being decided in OT. The Canadiens haven't been getting crushed each game and in fact were ahead at one point in 4 of those games.
Montreal hasn't been able to close out one goal games, something Edmonton has actually done a fairly good job in this season.
LINEUP
1.) Continue Beating Price - In 12 career games against the Edmonton Oilers, Carey Price is 3-8-1 with a SV% of 0.859. While Price isn't the same Carey of a few years ago, the Oilers have never seemed to have an issue solving him in net.
2.) Pushing For That Streak - Edmonton hasn't won 3 games in a row since the first 3 games of the season. Pulling together a strong stretch before the All Star Break would do wonders for erasing the deficit they made themselves in December.
3.) If The Little Guy Can Do It So Can You - Kailer Yamamoto is playing with a confidence now that we never saw in his previous NHL stints. His best strength and what is likely getting most noticed by his coach is his tenacity of the puck. Kailer never gives up on a play and even though he is almost a foot shorter than some other players he is always tough on the forecheck. Whether it's because Tippett finally threw a chair or they are following the young player's example the rest of the team has been doing much better in this aspect as well. Make things tough for Montreal.
FILM OF THE DAY
With the amount of times I uttered the word "Streak" in this blog there is only one choice here. Bring your green hat and watch this clip from Old School.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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