Oilers Gameday @ St. Louis – Swan Song for the Road

After a 84 years 11 days and six games, the Oilers are heading home from their longest road trip of the season. Before they can, though, they’re in St Louis tonight to take on the newly Shattenkirk-less Blues. There are myriad reasons for this, but the Oilers are poised to sweep the season series against the Blues for the first time since Rebuild 7.0 began in 2010.

The Blues have long been a tough opponent for the Oilers, but somehow, this season the Oil have their number. It’s a nice change, really, from having games against the Blues be almost certain losses, to this scenario where they might actually go 4-0 against them. The Shattenkirk trade is actually really helpful to the Oil, as they’ll most likely have an easier time than expected, due to a new-look St. Louis blue line.

Strange things are afoot in the NHL this week, and the Oilers being good might be one of them.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• Pucks to the net, get in front of the goalie, beat not-Shattenkirk in a foot race – in other words, the Oil need to take control of this game and show the Blues who’s boss.
• Stop taking stupid penalties – Things got a little out of hand on Sunday, and that needs to stop. Discipline down the stretch is going to be key.

St Louis

• Contain the top line for the Oilers, and force them to the outside.
• Get in the faces of the Oilers defencemen, and make them take penalties
• Jump over the blue line to avoid going offside, because apparently that’s a thing.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• Connor, for reasons
• Jordan Eberle, because if you believe some of the scuttlebutt around, he might not be here much longer.
• Darnell Nurse, because he’s back and it’s been a really long time.

St Louis

• It’s the ex-Oiler parade: Paajarvi, Brodziak, Perron should all be in the lineup tonight, so look for at least 3 goals against.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Draisaitl

Milan Lucic-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -Jordan Eberle

Anton Slepyshev – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Matt Hendricks – Jujhar Khaira – Iiro Pakarinen

Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Cam TalBot

St. Louis

Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko

Alex Steen – Paul Stastny – Magnus Paajarvi

Dmitrij Jaskin – Patrik Berglund – David Perron

Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Ivan Barbashev

Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo

Joel Edmundson – Colton Parayko

Carl Gunnarson – Rob Bortuzzo

Jake Allen

Notes

• With fewer than 20 games left, this team needs to make a statement. This is the best record they’ve had in years, and they’re markedly improved over seasons past. What can’t happen is what’s happened before, and they let up a bit and get caught by a team behind them. Calgary, once 10 points back, are sitting only 4 points behind the Oilers and could conceivably be in a solid playoff spot by the end of the week.
• Last time the Oilers were in St Louis, Patrick Maroon scored in front of his son and it got real dusty in a lot of houses and bars. In case you’ve forgotten:
  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ath5E3oyGbo] Hopefully Maroon can find some magic again tonight.
• There was an interview with Taylor Hall on Barstool’s Spittin’ Chiclets podcast yesterday, and among the stories he told about his time here (along with former Oiler Ryan Whitney), this moment stood out: