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Battle of Alberta: Round Two — Keys to Success for Both Teams |
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Much has happened since the Oilers were kicked to the curb 4-3 by the Calgary Flames two Saturdays ago on October 15.
Calgary has staged two comeback victories. First Vegas, then Carolina.
They dealt with sickness within the roster with most players playing through with the exception of Noah Hanifin.
They lost their first game in an oddly flat performance against the Buffalo Sabres, yet still gave themselves a chance to win in the third.
And with three days off between Tuesday’s 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Flames head coach Darryl Sutter opted towards a bag skate immediately followed by some strategy breakdown.
One should expect a bit more polish on some of the finer points of their game when they return to the ice tonight.
No skating lines for the Oilers, but they have been exceptionally busy this week. Tonight’s Battle of Alberta will be their fifth game in eight days — or their third road game in four days. However you want to look at it.
They’ve made the most of it. Edmonton is on a three game winning streak. The team has leaned on their prized lottery picks to power them through offensively during this busy stretch.
It’s important to note that each of these players represents a season worse than the Calgary Flames have ever had. They’ve never selected third overall (Draisatl), let alone first overall four times. (McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Hall, Yakupov)
Production in Last Three Games
McDavid: 3G 2A
Draisatl: 2G 5A
Nugent Hopkins: 3G 3A
Let’s take a look at the lineups.
Per Derek Wills, here is the Flames projected lineup. @Fan960Wills
Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Dube-Kadri-Mangiapane
Coleman-Backlund-Lewis
Lucic-Rooney-Ritchie
Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone
Markstrom (Starter)
Vladar
Per Daniel Nugent Bowman, here are the Oilers lines. Skinner is confirmed to be starting. @DNBsports
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Foegele-McLeod-Puljujarvi
Holloway-Shore-Ryan
Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Bouchard
Niemelainen/Murray-Barrie
Skinner
Campbell
Special Teams Kind of Game
While most of us are hoping for a barn burner of a game, fighting hasn’t been on the menu this season for either team.
Zero fighting majors for both sides.
Minor penalties, on the other hand, have been plentiful.
The Oilers sit fourth in penalties taken per 60 minutes at 5.38. Also of note is their penalty kill running at a 75% success rate. They’re 27th in the league in that category.
Conversationally, the Flames are in 7th with an 84.6% penalty kill success rate. They’ve taken 4.61 penalties per game. 11th overall in the NHL.
We bring up penalties because both teams are around the top of the league in powerplay conversion.
Powerplay Success Rate
Calgary Flames: 30.4% (4th)
Edmonton Oilers: 34.5 (2nd)
You have to imagine that both sides have coaches pounding it into their player’s heads to play a clean game. That may pose a challenge to a few players on both teams.
Penalties In Minutes per Game Played (Total PIM)
Darnell Nurse: 1:45 (14)
Evander Kane: 1:30 (12)
Rasmus Andersson: 1:20 (8)
Nikita Zadorov: 1:20 (8)
Blake Coleman: 1:00 (6)
Dylan Holloway: 1:00 (4)
Two clear culprits here. Same as last year. If the Flames land a few hits on Darnell Nurse and/or Evander Kane, they’ll get a powerplay or two out of the response.
Different Netminders
October 15th featured Campbell vs. Vladar to start. This time around we get Markstrom vs. Skinner.
Stuart Skinner performed well after Campbell got chased from his net in the first period. 1.000 save percentage on 31 shots against. Not hard to see Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft’s reasoning.
Jacob Markstrom, on the other hand, has not had much success against Alberta opposition in recent years. A .852 save percentage in five playoff starts against the Oilers. .884 in four regular season starts. He knows he needs to be better against that group.
Managing the Puck
Woodcroft had the Oilers playing an aggressive forecheck two Saturdays ago. The Flames had issues getting the breakout started. You can expect more of the same tonight, but without the Swiss cheese goaltending.
On the Other Hand
Three road games in four nights — what level of aggression are we going to see on both the forecheck and the backcheck? Edmonton allowed five goals against the Blackhawks. Two were powerplay goals against. One was a defenseman getting beat in a race and the other two were from a lack of coverage in front of the net. If that Oilers blue line shows up tired, Stuart Skinner is in for a very long night. It may be that the Flames are doing the majority of the forechecking.
Puck drops at around 8:10pm MST. Catch it on CBC or Sportsnet One in Canada.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick.com and nhl.com.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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