Oilers Gameday – Vs. Buffalo

After beating the Flames twice in a row, Oilers fans are riding a wave of enthusiasm. Connor McDavid has 6 points in two games and is currently tied for 1st in scoring in the NHL. The last game against Calgary started off rough with the Oilers being heavily outshot in the first, but the team would recover in the 2nd and 3rd to put the Flames away 5-3. The power play finally started to click and the Oilers scored 2 goals with the man advantage. Hopefully that trend continues tonight as the Oilers face the injury riddled Buffalo Sabres at Rogers Place.

It’s a bit of an earlier start as the game gets underway at 5pm MST. You can catch the action on Sportsnet One.

Keys to the game:

Edmonton: Connor McDavid needs to be Connor McDavid. It will be interesting to see if the wonderkid can continue his scoring streak. Can McDavid make 7 (or more) points in 3 games? There’s no reason he can’t, but even the best players in the league find it tough to score every night.

Edmonton will need it’s special teams to be in order and another strong performance from Cam Talbot. Ryan Nugent Hopkins needs to get his offensive game going, and I think he’ll do just that tonight. The Oilers can’t rely on McDavid to do everything, and they’ll need secondary scoring to keep their momentum going.

Buffalo: The Sabres are without Jack Eichel (who is out 6-8 weeks with an ankle injury) and Evander Kane. Dmitry Kulikov missed the first game with a lower body injury but could draw in for Buffalo tonight. Kyle Okposo is expected to play his first game with his new team, which should help Buffalo generate a little more offense than they did after being beaten by Montreal 4-1 in their first game of the season. The Sabres will need to buckle down and play a tight checking team game if they hope to contain McDavid.

Players to watch:

Edmonton: Connor McDavid, obviously. Adam Larsson continues to play well for the Oilers but took another maintenance day yesterday. Hopefully it’s nothing. Nugent-Hopkins is pointless, and needs to up his game. Leon Draisaitl has 4 points in 2 games and it will be interesting to see if he can build on a strong start to the season after many were worried he might not produce as much without Taylor Hall.

Buffalo: Kyle Okposo makes his debut. The former Islander signed with Buffalo on a free agent deal after having a strong year in Long Island. Matt Moulson started off well and was the only player to tally a goal for the Sabres on Thursday.

Projected Lines:

The lines are largely expect to remain the same as they were against Calgary on Friday night.

Edmonton:

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Zack Kassian

Patrick Maroon – Leon Draisaitl – Jesse Puljujarvi

Tyler Pitlick – Mark Letestu – Anton Lander

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Buffalo:

Sam Reinhart – Ryan O’reilly – Kyle Okposo

Marcus Foligno – Johan Larsson – Brian Gionta

Tyler Ennis – Derek Grant – Nicolas Deslauriers

Matt Moulson – Zemgus Girgensons – Hudson Fasching

Josh Gorges – Cody Franson

Jake McCabe – Casey Nelson

Zach Bogosian – Rasmus Ristolainen

Dmitry Kulikov

Robin Lehner

Game Notes:

The Oilers will be looking to avoid a poor start after giving up 24 shots to Calgary in the first period of Friday’s game. Pakarinen, Caggiula, Davidson, and Matt Hendricks all remain on the Injured Reserve.

Prediction:

I’m going to go ahead and say that Connor McDavid will continue his point streak and pick up an assist on a powerplay goal tonight. Ryan Nugent Hopkins will break his slump and tally one for the Oilers as well, but it won’t be enough and the Sabres will surprise the home team in a 3-2 regulation victory off a strong performance from Kyle Okposo. I hope I’m completely wrong (I usually am, so there’s hope).

Cheers, Oiler fans! 🙂