Oilers Gameday vs St Louis: That’s Why They Call It The Blues

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The Oilers are back in action tonight after they lost to Vancouver on Sunday. It was just as well that no one put effort into a pregame, because the Oilers didn’t deserve it that night.

It’s about that time in the season where Oiler fans start to wonder if their team will make it into the playoffs. This year, the outlook is…..not terrible? There’s no guarantee, but at least there’s less despair than in 11 of the last 12 years.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

  • Lots of pucks on net.
  • Matchups will be key. There’s a pretty big drop off between St Louis’ first and 2nd defence pair, so the Oilers (with last change) should be able to capitalize.

St Louis

  • If they can play hard against the top line, it’s likely that they’ll neutralize most of the Oilers offence. That’s maybe the only way.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

  • Connor McDavid does ridiculous things, so watch him if you can find him.
  • At some point, Lucic has to score a goal, right? Like the law of averages would suggest that he’s due for about 8 million, but I think most Oiler fans would settle for 1.

St Louis

  • Colton Parayko because he’s a local boy who does good things in the community but also because Oiler fans have attached his name to the team and maybe it’ll be the last time he plays for St Louis because he’ll get traded after the game and stay here.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Alex Chiasson – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl

Tobias Rieder – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Ty Rattie

Milan Lucic – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian

Drake Caggiula – Jujhar Khaira – Jesse Puljujarvi

Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson

Kevin Gravel – Caleb Jones

Jason Garrison – Matt Benning

Mikko Koskinen

St Louis

Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko

Alex Steen – Ryan O’Reilly – David Perron

Patrick Maroon – Tyler Bozak – Robert Thomas

Jordan Nolan – Ivan Barbashev – Oskar Sundqvist

Joel Edmundson – Colton Parayko

Jay Bouwmeester – Robert Bortuzzo

Vince Dunn – Chris Butler

Jake Allen

Notes

It’s almost Christmas, which means that the pregame for Saturday will be a poem.

Get your eye holes ready.

 

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