Oilers Gameday – @ San Jose

The Oilers are coming off yet another bad 3rd period leading to a loss to the Coyotes. This time, at least, it happened in overtime so they at least got a loser point. (Which led to this, from our friends at Oilers Nation.)

Thanks @EdmontonOilers​ for getting a point last night because it inspired one MUST-SEE video. (H/T @OilersNation). https://t.co/Wse5cXoMDB

— Tim and Sid (@timandsid) January 14, 2016

Tonight, however, the Oilers try to regroup in San Jose, against a Sharks team that’s (obviously) doing way better than the Oilers of late. It’ll be interesting to see if the team can get Todd McLellan another win against his old team.

 

Last Games

Edmonton

After 40 minutes against Arizona, the Oilers were looking real good. They were up 3-1, Eberle had a 3-point night, the power play wasn’t abysmal…. then the 3rd period started and Max Domi scored 2 more goals (to add to his earlier one, busting a 16-game slump), and the Oilers found themselves fortunate to make it to overtime, earning a loser point in the process.

I don’t know what it is, but we’ve been saying it for years: “if they could just play a full 60, things would be better.” In this case, it’s absolutely true.

San Jose

The Sharks beat the Jets 4-1, but Tony definitely out-danced Bernardo.

http://https://youtu.be/uVspqShcXSA

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

Play. 60. Whole. Minutes.

Seeing the Oilers have these lapses (sometimes as short as 1:30 and as long as a period) leading to multiple goals against after years of the same is starting to wear thin. If other teams can finish, why can’t they?

San Jose

Capitalize on the Oilers slump-busting ways and win consecutive home games for the first time this season (seriously, they’re the reverse of the Oilers. 6-12 at home, and 15-6-2 on the road – that is certainly not normal).

I figure they need to get the puck to Brent Burns. Dude does it all, including scoring beauty goals off a rush. Must be the power of that beard.

 

Players to Watch

Edmonton

Nail Yakupov is back in the lineup after missing 22 games with a high ankle sprain (from when he tripped on a linesman in the faceoff circle, way back on November 25th). He’ll be a little rusty, I’m sure, and if he turns the puck over, I anticipate half of Oilers Twitter calling for an immediate trade.

Zack Kassian looks to make his Oilers debut tonight, despite only having played 4 games in Bakersfield. He’s chosen 44 as his number, and this makes me chuckle considering the last few guys we’ve had here who have worn that number…. (Basically it means I can still hate him a little for the Gagner thing while still liking him for being an Oiler.)

(With both those guys being in the lineup, someone needs to be sent down to Bakersfield or placed on IR. My money’s on brad Hunt going to the farm.)

Taylor Hall. One of these days he’s going to score a million….

San Jose

Brent Burns. You can’t really miss him, and with 177 SOG this season, surpassing everyone on the team by at least 60, and 18 goals, he’s quite the offensive threat. He’s also built like a brick outhouse, and is very hard to move off the puck. Hopefully our ‘soft’ forwards can handle him.

 

Projected Lineups

Edmonton – These are from practice yesterday. I know nothing.

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Iiro Pakarinen

Benoit Pouliot – Leon Draisaitl – Jordan Eberle

Lauri Korpikoski – Mark Letestu – Teddy Purcell

Nail Yakupov – Anton Lander – Zack Kassian

Darnell Nurse – Justin Schultz

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

San Jose (again, I know nothing)

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Matt Nieto – Patrick Marleau – Joel Ward

Joonas Donskoi – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels

Melker Karlsson – Chris Tierney – Mike Brown

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Kyle Braun

Paul Martin – Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon – Dylan DeMelo

Martin Jones

Final Thoughts

Alright, here it is: This team stinks.

There are good things happening and they’re better than they’ve been in the past, but when the bar is set so low a toddler could walk over it without any difficulty, well….you probably get the picture.

I’m okay with them losing 1-goal games (like against Washington earlier this year), or even against Florida (hot goalies will get you every time)… what I’m not okay with seeing is a team that looks like it’s just floundering. When they DO put together a string of solid shifts, they look good. The breakout isn’t as scary, and they cycle well, and they hit passes more often than not. I don’t know what happens though.

What I do know is that there is NO way this is fun for the players. None at all. I can’t imagine being Taylor Hall or Jordan Eberle, and being in my 6th season and not having been on a team that played 0.500 over the course of any season. THAT has to be infuriating. And then this season, having one of the best pure talents in years get hurt 12 games in hasn’t helped.

However, they are professional athletes and should be able to figure this thing out. I listened to an “interview” with Craig Simpson earlier, where he refused to accept that the Oilers’ problems are because of injury to their young guys. I say “interview” because it was conducted by Bob Stauffer, and he (predictably) did more talking than listening.

Anyway, give it a listen, if you’re so inclined. Interesting stuff.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/241824996″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

 

 

 

[adsanity id=11742 align=alignnone /]