Oilers GameDay- Vs Philadelphia: Sans Brotherly Love

Oilers Flyers Game day

The Philadelphia Flyers are a hurting club. Even though Philly broke their 10 game losing skid with a 5-2 win over Calgary on Monday night this club has one win in their past 11 games and the seat is beyond scorching under the backside of head coach Dave Hakstol. With a record of 9-11-7 the winds of change could be blowing for this club.

For the Oilers, they return home after a dramatic 7-5 win this past weekend in Calgary in a game that saw their 6-1 lead almost totally evaporate in the third period. Laurent Brossoit is absolutely going to have to bounce back in net with a strong game after the debacle at the Saddledome.

Keys To The Game

Edmonton:

May sound silly that I have to say it out loud but: for all that is holy – escape the first 4-6 minutes without giving up the first goal of the night.

Philadelphia:

Neutralize #97 and #29; last time these teams met up in Philly the only scoring came from Patrick Maroon in a 2-1 win over the Orange and Blue.

Players To Watch 

Edmonton:

Since being recalled from Bakersfield he’s been a joy to watch and now coming off a multi point game, I’m hoping we once again see some jump out of Jesse Puljujarvi who now has four goals in 10 contests this season with the big club.

Philadelphia:

He helped seal things for the Flyers in Calgary and has burned the Oilers already this season, Wayne Simmonds is someone that I’ll be keeping an eye on tonight. The man known as Wayne Train has found a home on the Flyers first line and at times has proven to be even more dangerous than Claude Giroux at times.

Projected Lines

Edmonton Oilers:

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jesse Puljujarvi

Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Anton Slepyshev

Drake Caggiula – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Strome

Jujhar Khaira – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Darnell Nurse – Kris Russell

Oscar Klefbom – Matt Benning

Yohann Auvitu – Eric Gryba

Laurent Brossoit

Philadelphia Flyers

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Wayne Simmonds

Michael Raffl – Valtteri Filppula – Jake Voracek

Dale Weise – Nolan Patrick – Travis Konecny

Taylor Leier – Scott Laughton – Jordan Weal

Ivan Provorov – Andrew MacDonald

Shayne Gostisbehere – Robert Hägg

Travis Sanheim – TJ Brennan

Brian Elliott

Prediction:

In a battle of two teams desperate for a win I think both clubs come out flying early but the home side takes this 4-1 on the strength of two goals from McDavid, one from Klefbom and the other from Mike Camamalleri.

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