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Game Six: Flyers @ Oilers - Avoiding The Hangover |
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After defeating the Golden Knights last Friday, the Edmonton Oilers enjoyed some team bonding in Vegas for a couple of days before returning to Edmonton to resume practice. Being off for five days gave the team a well deserved rest at the start of the season and a chance to practice some areas that need improvement. The trick tonight will be avoiding the figurative and potentially literal hangover from the past almost week off.
The Flyers are an offensively gifted team. In their first four games, all at home, they have scored 18 goals yet they have only won two games. In the losses, goalie Carter Hart posted a 0.897SV% and a 0.900SV%. Hart has only played against the Oilers twice in his career, allowing 8 goals and posting a 0.862SV%. If the Oilers are sharp and challenge Hart early, Edmonton could be on their way to a 6-0 start to the season. Here are five things to watch for tonight.
1) Barrie Bounceback: It has been an ugly start for Tyson Barrie as the right shot will likely play tonight on the third pairing. Last season it took Barrie several games to really start to gel with the Oilers so hopefully that is the case here. Barrie is better suited for less ice-time and PP minutes and that mixture might be exactly what the player needs to get going and help produce.
2) McDavid's Rocket In Jeopardy: Since last night, my Twitter feed has been plastered with comments about how Mangiapane and Lindholm have more goals than McDavid. I don't feel the need to explain that they have one more goal in one more game than Connor. McDavid has elevated his game this season in terms of how much he is shooting. I do expect McDavid to finish in the top 5 in goal scoring this season.
3) Top Heavy: The Flyers have a strong top six group of Coururier, Farabee, Brassard, Giroux, and Konecny but their bottom six has not provided much in terms of offensive punch yet. At home, expect Tippett to run power against power for the top six but another strong night from the Ryan, Foegele, Kassian line could once again be the difference maker.
4) Smith Not Ready Yet: It looks like Mikko Koskinen will get the start once again tonight. Koskinen has been rock solid since Smith went down with injury. The 38 year old netminder is skating and likely will be ready in time for the game on Saturday.
5) Happy Birthday Draisaitl: It's Leon Draisaitl's birthday today. Hopefully the elite German has a great day and maybe scores a hat trick as a 26th birthday present.
OILERS LINE COMBINATIONS
Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi
RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Foegele-Ryan-Kassian
Perlini-Shore-Turris
Nurse-Bouchard
Keith-Ceci
Koekkoek-Barrie
Koskinen
FLYERS LINE COMBINATIONS
Giroux - Couturier - Konecny
Farabee - Derick Brassard - Cam Atkinson
Lindblom - Laughton - van Riemsdyk
Aube-Kubel - Thompson - MacEwen
Provorov - Justin Braun
Sanheim - Ristolainen
Yandle - Seeler
Hart
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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