Oilers Gameday vs Los Angeles: Officially Out

The Oilers are back home at Rogers Place tonight to host the LA Kings, who are still fighting for a playoff spot in a tight Western Conference. The Oilers were officially eliminated from the playoffs on earlier this week, marking the 11th time in 12 seasons the Oilers best players will likely suit up at the World Championships.

Like sands through the hourglass, or something.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• Score first. Score often. Keep the puck with Connor or Leon or apparently Rattie because there’s not much else to hope for.
• Stay out of the box and try not to force the Kings to take penalties either. The penalty kill is still real bad, and the power play isn’t much better.

Los Angeles

• Force the Oilers to take penalties. It’s a strategy that has worked for most other teams in the league this season.
• Honestly, keep the Oilers to the perimeter. They can’t seem to get too many pucks through from the outside, so it’s easy to defend.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• Since his assignment as Connor McDavid’s left winger, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had something of a renaissance. It’s been fun to see the two of them on the same line, making ral magic. Hopefully it’s enough to keep RNH in Oiler colours for the foreseeable future.

Los Angeles

• Drew Doughty is absolutely the kind of player that fans of other teams love to hate but would also LOVE to have on their team. It’ll be fun to watch him get turnstiled by Connor McDavid and simultaneously get under the skin of every Oiler fan in Rogers Place.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Connor McDavid – Ty Rattie

Drake Caggiula – Leon Draisaitl – Pontus Aberg

Milan Lucic – Ryan Strome – Jesse Puljujarvi

Anton Slepyshev – Jujhar Khaira – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson

Kris Russell – Ethan Bear

Yohann Auvitu – Matt Benning

Cam Talbot

Los Angeles

Tobias Rieder – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown

Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Trevor Lewis

Kyle Clifford – Adrian Kempe – Tyler Toffoli

Andy Andreoff – Nate Thompson – Torrey Mitchell

Derek Forbort – Drew Doughty

Alec Martinez – Dion Phaneuf

Jake Muzzin – Christian Folin

Jonathan Quick

Notes

There were things to talk about but then Dan Paperclip went and RTed something and this writer got REAL annoyed. Twitter will tell you, if you don’t already know.