Oilers Game Day – Split Squad Vs. Calgary

Happy Saturday folks! We are 17 days away from the regular season, but tonight is the open of the next best thing, pre-season hockey! The Oilers will play two games tonight, both of which will be against the Calgary Flames. The split squad game will see at 7:00 PM faceoff in Calgary and an 8:00 PM faceoff in Edmonton.

Tonight will no doubt be a feeling out of sorts and players for both teams will be playing their first real games since late April (with a few exceptions like Andrew Ference). It’s expected to be a sloppy game as a lot of the junior and minor league players will get a chance to show something.

That said, there are a few things to watch here. Let’s start with the early puck drop in Calgary..

OILERS @ FLAMES

PUCK DROP: 7:00 PM MT

RADIO: FAN 960

The Oilers send star forwards Jordan Eberle, Sam Gagner and David Perron to Calgary to lead the offense against the Flames. This unit sees the Oilers top defensive pairing of Ladislav Smid and Jeff Petry join in too.

Up front, keep an eye on the line of David Perron, Boyd Gordon and Ryan Jones. They looked really good in the scrimmage yesterday and it will be interesting to see if they keep that up. Ryan Hamilton will skate with Sam Gagner and Jordan Eberle, so keep an eye on him. He’s getting a big time chance to do something here.

Ty Bilcke, a training camp invite, will get a chance to play tonight on the Oilers third line, while Greg Chase will play on the fourth line. I’m interested to watch Chase play here, it might be our only chance to watch him in pre-season action, and he had a really good rookie camp.

On defense, Taylor Fedun wears an Oilers jersey for the first time since his gruesome injury two season ago in the pre-season against the Wild. Happy for him. Philip Larsen makes his Oilers pre-season debut tonight too, and should be a player of interest.

Barons coach Todd Nelson will run the bench here tonight for the Oilers.

Lines:

Eberle-Gagner-Hamilton

Perron-Gordon-Jones

Bilcke-Ewanyk-Nesbitt (AHL contract, camp invite)

Eager-Acton-Chase

Smid-Petry

N. Schultz-Fedun

Marincin-Larsen

LaBarbera

Bachman

FLAMES @ OILERS

PUCK DROP: 8:00 PM MT

LISTEN ON 630 CHED AND WATCH LIVE ON EDMONTONOILERS.COM

Rexall Place sees it’s first live NHL action since Edmonton’s season ending blow-out win over the Vancouver Canucks. The story lines here are all over the place, and promise for an entertaining open to the pre-season. Taylor Hall will start his move to center tonight and play on a veteran line. Linus Omark also makes his return to Edmonton, playing his first game since March 2012.

Denis Grebeshkov returns to Edmonton and will play in the NHL for the first time since the 2010 playoffs when he suited up for Nashville. Andrew Ference will play his first game in an Oilers jersey too, playing against his former team in Calgary. Oilers first round pick Darnell Nurse will see action tonight as well.

Back up front, Oilers second round pick Marco Roy, a guy I’m very excited to see, will be in the lineup too.

Keith Acton and Kelly Buchberger will run the Oilers bench here, while head coach Dallas Eakins watches his team from the cat walk to get a better look at the team.

The Oilers lines are as follows:

Smyth-Hall-Hemsky

Omark-Arcobello-Yakupov

Joensuu-Lander-Roy

Platzer-Martindale-Brown

Davidson-J. Schultz

Nurse-Ference

Musil-Grebeshkov

Dubnyk

Olivier Roy

Random Notes:

I expect that we see all four goalies tonight. I’m assuming they try and split this 50/50 as best as possible. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked if Roy got in for two periods tonight and Dubnyk would only play the opening frame. We know Devan is the Oilers starter. Tyler Bunz isn’t in either line-up tonight, and one has to wonder if he will get in at all this pre-season.

Anton Belov is having some visa issues right now and has yet to skate with the team. He clearly won’t be around for the games tonight, and it is currently unknown when he might get to Edmonton. If this keeps dragging on, we could see Belov start in OKC to get up to speed.

Corey Potter isn’t in either line-up tonight, but according to Oilers insider Bob Stauffer he is currently suffering from an upper injury. This is a huge camp for Potter, and it can’t be good news for him that he starts behind everyone else.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ditched the non-contact jersey yesterday, but as expected is not playing tonight. Do not expect to see Nuge at all during the pre-season.

The games will not be televised tonight, but you can watch the Oilers home game tonight on edmontonoilers.com and the road game on calgaryflames.com (No promises though, as the Flames tweeted out). There are also radio feeds for your listening pleasure.

Follow the Oilers Rig team on twitter for in game thoughts and updates @TheOilersRig @Alex_Thomas14 @RustyKnuckler and @Jthompson2380.