A curse is an evil that has been invoked upon a person or group of people.
I don’t believe in curses. I really don’t. But there is some straight up voodoo magic happening whenever the Oilers play the Coyotes. In the last 25 meetings between these teams, the Oilers are 4-21 against the Desert Dogs. In case you’re wondering, that’s a win percentage of 0.160. While the Coyotes have come away from those meetings with 46 points, the Oilers have managed just 8.
Heading into Wednesday’s meeting at Gila River Arena — the third of the season between these teams — Tippett owns a 25-game point streak against Edmonton and is 21-0-4 in that span. The last time the Oilers beat the Coyotes in regulation was Jan. 25, 2011.
One part of the Coyotes’ success against the Oilers that has been a constant is goalie Mike Smith, who is 15-1-1 with .928 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average versus Edmonton in his career.
It’s a curse.
Keys to the Game
Edmonton
- A witch doctor? I don’t know what the solution is, but somehow they have to figure out how to beat the Coyotes. You know this season is going to come down to the wire, and the Oilers are going to miss the playoffs by a point or two, and it will be because they can’t beat the Coyotes.
- Get lots of shots on Smith and make sure he can’t see them, I guess? I mean, he’s probably got a sixth sense about them anyway, but you know.
Arizona
- Attempt to reign Connor in – The Oilers are pretty light on secondary scoring, and neutralizing Connor will go a long way towards another stupid Arizona win.
- Get in Talbot’s business early. He’s been really good, but he does have off nights. If the Coyotes can get him rattled, the Monster will come in and the Oilers will lose.
Players to Watch
Edmonton
- Connor. Duh.
- Jesse Puljujarvi is back in the lineup tonight, and it’ll be good to see whathe’s learned (?) from the press box. I don’t understand why the Oilers are using JP in this way – he could have been sent down to Bakersfield, he could have been loaned to Finland for the WJHC, but instead he’s not been playing for reasons that make no sense to anyone.
Arizona
- Mike Smith. People think he’s no good for some reason, but we forget that he was good enough to be selected to the 2015 Olympic team, and is a gold medalist, and has stopped the Oilers offensive weapons for the last 8 million years.
- I’d say Max Domi, but he’s out. It’s too bad – I like watching him play, and after he dummied Ryan Kesler, he became my favourite Coyote.
Projected Lineups
Edmonton
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Patrick Maroon – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Benoit Pouliot – Drake Caggiula – Jesse Puljujarvi
Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell
Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba
Cam TalBot
Arizona
Lawson Crouse – Martin Hanzal – Radim Vrbata
Jamie McGinn – Peter Holland – Anthony Duclair
Tobias Rieder – Jordan Martinook – Shane Doan
Josh Jooris – Christian Dvorak – Ryan White
Oliver Ekmann-Larsson – Connor Murphy
Alex Goligoski – Michael Stone
Jakob Chychrun – Luke Schenn
Mike “Oiler Slayer” Smith
Notes
Mike Smith owns the Oilers and will continue to do so until the Oilers get it out of their heads that he can’t be beat. Maybe Jesse Puljujarvi will be so excited about getting a chance to play again that he’ll score 3 and we’ll win.
On the other hand, maybe not.
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.
This week, we are auctioning off a Hatchimal, with proceeds going to the MS Society as well. Our current high bid is $251, and the auction closes at 5:00pm MT on Friday, Dec 23rd. If the winner lives in the Edmonton area, I will deliver this thing to their house on Christmas Eve.
Please fill out the form below to place a bid.
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