Oilers Gameday – @ Islanders

The Edmonton Oilers pay a visit to Long Island tonight to take on the Islanders in a battle of young teams. The Isles, led by captain and former first overall pick John Tavares, broke through and made the playoffs last season. Meanwhile, Edmonton is still looking to break through and has struggled so far this season, sitting with a 1-5-1 record through seven games.

Edmonton Oilers:

The Oilers have been a big disappointment record wise so far, sitting at 1-5-1 through seven games. A major part of that has been historically bad goaltending for the Oilers, which must turn around ASAP. The team is supposed to be competing for a playoff spot, but instead is sitting dead last in the western conference. A wake-up call to say the least.

That said, the Oilers as a team have done some decent things as well. I examined those here: http://www.theoilersrig.com/?p=1815 on Wednesday night. Check it out to see why the sky isn’t falling and this thing can get turned around.

The Oilers are doing a little bit of a change up in the lineup, including shifting Mark Arcobello to the top line to play with Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. Nail Yakupov, who has been involved in quite a few wacky rumors, gets to play with David Perron and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Yak attack finally gets some real top six talent to play with, and I think he has a big game tonight.

We see the bottom six shift a little bit as well, with Hemsky joining the group and Luke Gazdic taking another seat on the bench. Ryan Jones, who was recalled on Tuesday, remains in the lineup.

The defense gets a little shake up too, as Ladi Smid and Jeff Petry get back together, and Anton Belov pairs up with young Justin Schultz.

Devan Dubnyk, who was shelled for six goals (four pretty weak ones) last Saturday night will get back in between the pipes. This is a HUGE game for DD. The Oilers are rumored to be in talks for a few goalies, and Devan having a bad night will only intensify those talks.

Lines:

Taylor Hall- Mark Arcobello – Jordan Eberle

David Perron – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Nail Yakupov

Ryan Smyth – Boyd Gordon – Ales Hemsky

Ryan Jones – Will Acton – Mike Brown

Ladislav Smid – Jeff Petry

Anton Belov – Justin Schultz

Nick Schultz – Andrew Ference

Devan Dubnyk

New York Islanders:

The Islanders come into the season riding high after a playoff birth last spring. The Islanders got over the hump in their rebuild last season, backed by star player John Tavares and a great supporting cast including Michael Grabner, Matt Moulson, Kyle Okposo, Travis Hamonic and Lubomir Visnovsky.

The Islanders are currently 2-2-2 on the season and have been under-whelming to this point. They’ve suffered regulation losses to the Predators and Blackhawks, while falling to the Blue Jackets, and most recently the Sabres, in the shoot-out. The Isles have struggled in the early going against teams that are coming off losses, which the Oilers are.

The Islanders have a lot of offensive talent, just like Edmonton, and like the Oilers they have question marks elsewhere. The Islanders feature an average defensive unit led by Hamonic, and have a weaker goalie in Russian Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov has out-produced Dubnyk to this point, but I’d still rather have DD than Nabby, which should explain a lot.

Lineup:

Michael Grabner – John Tavares – Kyle Okposo

Pierre-Marc Bouchard – Josh Bailey – Frans Nielson

Matt Moulson – Peter Regin – Cal Clutterbuck

Colin McDonald – Casey Cizikas – Matt Martin

Travis Hamonic – Andy MacDonald

Lubomir Visnovsky – Thomas Hickey

Matt Donovan – Brian Strait

Evgeni Nabokov