Oilers Gameday: Nashville Predators November 3rd

The Edmonton Oilers are a couple days removed from a interesting win against the Kraken in which they hardly generated any shots to start the game and were outshot on the whole. Whereas Nashville is coming off a hard fought win against division and provincial rival Calgary. This will be the second of a back to back for Nashville, as they put their 4 game win streak on the line against the Oilers.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: Improved 5v5 play, over the past few games the Oilers have tailed off on their start of season strong play at 5 on 5 when the top 3 lines were all driving play and creating more chances than they were giving up. Its hard to be critical of a 7-1 team however there will be nights that the powerplay doesn’t click and they will have to win based on winning the even strength battle. They are getting solid goaltending, couple that with the insane special teams numbers, and if we see better 5v5 play from the group Edmonton should come away with the victory.

Nashville: On the second of a back to back, both of which are on the road, it will be critical for Nashville to find their legs early and try getting a lead against Edmonton. Edmonton hasn’t played from behind much this season (7-1) so if Nashville can grab an early lead and make Edmonton uncomfortable they may leave Alberta with two wins.

Secondly they absolutely have to stay out of the box. The Oilers PP can feast on teams and they’ve been doing so for the past 3 seasons. In order for Nashville to have success against Edmonton they will need to limit McDavid and company. Edmonton is currently operating at 46.2% on the PP whereas Nashville is currrently operating at 78.95% on the PK. Limiting the time spent on the PK when McDavid is buzzing about is key.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Mikko Koskinen is getting his 6th start of the season, coming off a strong showing against Seattle and a 5-2 W. Can he keep his strong play rolling in the absence of Mike Smith? So far this season he has posted a 2.21 GAA and a .933 SV%, which is much higher than his career average and we should expect a regression of sorts but not to the numbers of last season. Nashville is coming off an OT win over the Flames last night and could be a tired group, if Mikko doesn’t let in a few stinkers he should be in line for the Win tonight.

Nashville: Roman Josi is the best player on Nashville and an annual Norris Trophy candidate. He currently leads his team in points, unsurprisingly so, and is a averaging over 25 minutes per night from the back end. Josi is an excellent defender so don’t be surprised to see he and Fabbro line matched against McDavid whenever possible, as he is one of few defenders who may have the wheels to keep close to #97.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines: Expected

Hyman – McDavid – Puljujarvi
Nugent-Hopkins – Draisaitl –  Yamamoto
Foegele – Ryan – Kassian
Perlini – Shore – Turris

Nurse – Bouchard
Keith – Ceci
Koekkoek – Barrie

Koskinen

Nashville Predators Lines: Expected

Forsberg – Granlund – Duchene
Tolvanen – Johansen – Kunin
Trenin – Sissons – Jeannot
Cousins – Novak – Tomasino

Josi – Fabbro
Ekholm – Carrier
Borowiecki – Benning

Saros

Game Notes:

Yamaoto finally got on the score sheet with his first goal of the season, so look for him to start playing with more confidence and even get things rolling offensively as stays lined up with NHL assist leader Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and co-points leader Leon Draisaitl. He is a streaky player so we should expect to see his name on the score sheet again tonight.

Kyle Turris is playing his first game against his former club since joining the Oilers. He too found the back of the net last game, expect more minutes from the 4th line early however if Turris is going to keep the points coming it will be on the second PP unit.

Connor McDavid is coming off a single point night, which by his standards is low, so expect him to pop-off. Going into tonight Connor has faired quite well against the Predators in previous meetings with 5 goals & 13 assists for 18 points in 13 games. My guess for tonight if you are a betting person take the over 1.5 pts on McDavid and perhaps the over on 1.5 assists too.