Oilers Gameday vs San Jose: Finally A Full Lineup?

The Oilers are back in action tonight at Rogers Place, after a weekend win in Minnesota. Cam Talbot was back between the pipes, and hw was sort of back to his old self.

With the return of Adam Larsson on the blue line, this Oilers roster will be as complete as it’s been all season long. Here’s hoping that win in Minny is the start of something big. (For the record, the Oilers are 5-10-0 at home and that’s dismal. They are, however, a perfect 3-0 so far against Pacific teams at home, so who knows anything anymore.)

With two more home games before the break (St Louis on Thursday and Montreal on Saturday), the Oilers are poised to start a bit of a run, IF they can get their penalty kill going. It’s not dead last anymore, but it’s close.

(P.S. The Oilers are 4th in waiver order, so that still sucks.)

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• Keep playing like they have been over the last few games. There’s been a bit of a turnaround in fortune of late and if they keep getting pucks to the net they’ll eventually win games.
• Get. The. PK. Going. They’re bad on special teams and that’s going to be the thing that sinks their season.

San Jose

• Lots of pucks on neat early and often and hope to rattle Talbot. He’s only played once since getting hurt so if they get in his head early, we could see Laurent Brossoit in the net.
• Take away Connor McDavid’s space. The rest of the team is starting to click, but the Sharks can limit the damage if they remove McDavid from the play.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• Adam Larsson is back in the lineup after a lengthy injury, so it’ll be good to have some stability back in the lineup. He’s slotted in alongside Brandon Davidson, so we’ll see how that goes.

San Jose

• Brent Burns has 5 goals in 5 games and is poised to be San Jose’s offensive leader, at least while Logan Couture is out with a concussion.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jesse Puljujarvi

Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Drake Caggiula

Jujhar Khaira – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Strome

Nathan Walker – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Darnell Nurse – Kris Russell

Oscar Klefbom – Matt Benning

Adam Larsson – Brandon Davidson

Cam Talbot

San Jose

Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Mikkel Boedker – Tomas Hertl – Kevin Labanc

Timo Meier – Chris Tierney – Joonas Donskoi

Jannik Hansen – Joel Ward – Marcus Sorensen

Brenden Dillon – Brent Burns

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun

Dylan DeMelo – Tim Heed

Martin Jones

Notes

This is the first meeting between the two teams since the Oilers eliminated the Sharks in the first round of the 2017 playoffs.

There’s maybe a little animosity between the teams, and it’ll be interesting to see how things will be different this season from last. The Sharks are 8 points up on the Oilers, and a regulation win for the visitors will increase that gap to 10. The Oilers need to win in regulation in order to close that gap. These divisional games are very important, especially given the Oilers place in the standings.