Oilers Gameday – @ Hurricanes

After falling 1-0 to the Capitals on Monday night, the Oilers look to rebound tonight against the Hurricanes.

The Oilers will be without F’s Rob Klinkhammer and rookie Connor McDavid, along with Justin Schultz (expected to make his return to the lineup on Friday in Detroit). Griffin Reinhart and Andrew Ference are healthy scratches, while Luke Gazdic will most likely sit out in favour of Anton Lander drawing back in after being a healthy scratch on Monday.

Carolina’s Nathan Gerbe (F) is out for 4-6 weeks with a ‘lower body injury’; this is funny to me because he’s only 5’5, thereby making any injury a lower body injury.

Last Games:

The Oilers lost 1-0 to Washington after Braden Holtby absolutely robbed Eric Gryba on what would have been the game-tying goal Monday night. On the whole, they played pretty well but couldn’t bury their chances.

Carolina might have won, but probably not because they are terrible too.

Keys to the Game:

Edmonton:

Score more goals than the other team in regulation. The Oilers power play needs a kickstart. They’ve gone 1-for-19 (5.2%) in the last 5 games, and have yet to win a game in which they do not score on the PP. They also need to stay out of the penalty box, as Carolina’s PP (at home) is 22%.

Carolina:

Try not to be blown away by how amazing Leon Draisaitl and Taylor Hall are.

Players to Watch:

Edmonton:

Neon Leon. The Deutschland Dangler. SuperDrai (blame @rascalgas for that one). Dr Drai. Whatever you want to call him, Leon Draisaitl has been Tearing. It. Up. since he was called up to Edmonton from Bakersfield. He’s scoring 1.55 points per game (highest in the league), and has 17 points in 11 games. Taylor Hall, the team’s leading scorer, has 24 points in 21 games and is scoring 1.14 points per game (but we should probably trade him anyway, right?)

Carolina:

Does Rod Brind’Amour still play there? No? Then maybe watch Not-Tuukka Rask. Or Noah Hanifin, who would have looked good in Oiler blue but for us winning the Draft Lottery yet again.

Quick Hits:

To be honest, I still struggle watching the Oilers play the Hurricanes in Carolina because of 2006. The last series against the Hurricanes that mattered was the Stanley Cup Final, and we all know how that one turned out.

Lineups:

Edmonton

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Nail Yakupov

Lauri Korpikoski – Anton Lander– Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Oscar Klefbom – Mark Fayne

Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba

Anders Nilsson

Carolina

Eric Staal – Not-Tuukka Rask – Elias Lindholm

Joakkim Nordstrom – Jordan Staal – Andrej Nestrasil

Jeff Skinner – Riley Nash – Kris Versteeg

Brad Malone – Jay McClement – Chris Terry

Ron Hainsey – Justin Faulk

John-Michael Liles – Brad Pesce

Noah Hanifin – Jaccob Slavin

Cam Ward