The Oilers are back in action tonight after what turned out to be a prolonged Christmas break (they last played on Dec 23rd, and all the other teams have played at least one game since then). The Oilers went into the Christmas holiday sitting second in their division (behind the San Jose Sharks, to whom they lost on December 23rd), which is a far cry from where they’ve been at any point in the last 10.
The Kings are in town after playing last night in Vancouver, so with any luck the Oilers can capitalize.
Keys to the Game
Edmonton
- Get the puck to Connor and let him work his magic. It’s clear he’s playing with a boat anchor on his line, so hopefully he figures out that he can shoot the puck and doesn’t need to pass it all the time.
- Let Talbot see the puck. The Kings are good at getting in the way and plugging up the slot, so it’s important that the Oilers play solid defence to combat what has been a problem for them in years past.
Los Angeles
- Attempt to reign Connor in – The Oilers are pretty light on secondary scoring, and neutralizing Connor will go a long way towards a Kings win
- Force Pouliot to take a penalty or seven. It’s not hard to do, and it will shorten the bench for the Oilers, making things more difficult. It will also keep power play specialist Mark letestu from unleashing his magic, so that’s important.
Players to Watch
Edmonton
- Connor. Duh.
- I’m interested to see how Maroon-RNH-Drai play tonight. Maroon is slowly working his way towards being a solid top-6 player, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch. He’s not the fastest, but he gets himself in the right spot and that’s definitely resulted in success for him.
Los Angeles
- Jeff Carter is a bit of an Oiler killer, and I’d expect nothing less than for him to continue that tonight. (For the record, he’s 14-10-24 in 17 games against the Oil.)
- Anze Kopitar. He’s fun to watch, and he’s the kind of guy who could play on my team any day.
Projected Lineups
Edmonton
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Leon Draisaitl
Benoit Pouliot – Drake Caggiula – Jesse Puljujarvi
Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Kris Russell – Matt Benning
Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba
Cam TalBot
Los Angeles
Marian Gaborik – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Devin Setoguchi
Dwight King – Nic Dowd – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Andy Andreoff – Nick Shore
Derek Forbort – Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin – Alec Martinez
Kevin Gravel – Matt Greene
Jeff Zatkoff/Peter Budaj
Notes
The Oilers must win this game in regulation. They can’t give up points to divisional rivals, as this will surely come back to haunt them at the end of the season. The Kings also need to win so they can keep up to the Oilers and the Sharks.
OILERS RIG LIVE4MS
Our 4th annual fundraiser for the MS Society of Alberta is set for January 21, 2017 at The Pint Downtown, at 6:30pm
It’s a Battle of Alberta on HNIC, with the Oilers in Calgary. Puck drop is 8:00pm.
We’ll have a great lineup of silent auction items, as well as raffles throughout the night. We’ll even have some limited edition Oilers Rig tshirts for sale ($15).
All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.
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