Oilers Gameday – @ Avalanche

After a solid three out of four points earlier this week, the Oilers return to the ice tonight in Colorado in the first of three meetings against the Avalanche. The lineup got a bit of a change as well, as the team traded F David Perron to Pittsburgh on Friday morning.

Oilers F Benoit Pouliot will return to the lineup tonight, while F Leon Draisaitl will be a healthy scratch. The Avalanche are without D Ryan Wilson, F Patrick Bordeleau and F Jamie McGinn tonight, all of whom are on the IR.

Ben Scrivens will start for the Oilers, while Semyon Varlamov will get the go for the Avs.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers rang in 2015 with a solid effort in Calgary on Wednesday night. The Oilers opened the scoring with a Matt Fraser goal on the power-play 16:06 into the game, while Ben Scrivens shut the Flames down.

The second period saw Jordan Eberle put Edmonton up two goals with a goal 10:28 into the frame, but Calgary would answer back at the 18:01 mark with a Joe Colborne power-play marker.

Calgary would tie things up 4:28 into the third period with a Lance Bouma goal, starting a wild final twenty minutes. Andrew Ference would snap home just his second goal of the season about half-way through the frame, but Colborne would tie the game late and force OT with a late goal of his own.

OT was over before Edmonton could even get going, as Calgary set up and never left the Edmonton zone. Josh Jooris scored his ninth of the season 1:08 in to give the Flames a comeback 4-3 win, their fourth in a row.

Colorado: The Avs hosted Philly on Wednesday night in back and forth tilt that saw each time strike in quick spurts. The Flyers opened things up with a Jakub Voracek goal at the 10:14 mark of the first period, beating Varlamov with a quick shot.

The Avalanche would tie things up in the second period with a goal from Nate Guenin at 10:47 and then get the go-ahead goal from Borna Rendulic just under three minutes later.

Philly wasn’t going to lay down and die and just 2:52 into the third period, Vincent Lecavalier would tie things up for the Flyers. Halfway through the period, Claude Giroux popped in a powerplay goal to give the Flyers the lead again, however, the lead would dissolve only 3 minutes later when Jarome Iginla potted a powerplay goal of his own to knot the game at three and eventually send the game into overtime.

In OT, after a few good chances from both teams, it looked as though they would be heading towards a shootout but hero of the day Ryan O’Reilly fired one into the back of the net with only 19 seconds left to go in the frame to give the Avs the win.

Last Meeting:

This will be the first time the Oilers and Avs face off this season. In the 2013-2014 season, the Oilers started strong with a 8-2 win, lead by a Taylor Hall hatty. After that, it was all downhill with the Avs taking the season series 2-1.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: Play a full 60 minute game. The Oilers have had too many leads squashed in the past couple of games. They need to find a way to play hard the entire game and keep their foot on the gas.

Colorado: Keep up the momentum. The Avs are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games and are working hard to climb out of the basement of the Central Division. This stretch could prove to be critical in the outcome of their season.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Oilers forward Benoit Pouliot has returned from the IRL after breaking his foot and will replace David Perron who, as mentioned, was traded earlier today. New Oilers Matt Fraser and Derek Roy are looking to make an impact with their play and energy so watch for some early fire from the two of them.

Colorado: Croatian-born rookie, Borna Rendulic scored his first NHL goal against Philly on Wednesday and will be looking to continue that momentum into tonight’s game. Avs coach Patrick Roy has shuffled his lineup for tonight’s game and is looking to jump start Nathan Mackinnon, so keep your eye out for him as well.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Benoit Pouliot – Derek Roy – Teddy Purcell

Matt Fraser – Anton Lander – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Luke Gazdic

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Nikita Nikitin – Justin Schultz

Oscar Klefbom – Mark Fayne

Ben Scrivens

Colorado Avalanche Lines:

Gabriel Landeskog – Matt Duchene – Daniel Briere

Alex Tanguay – Ryan O’Reilly – Jarome Iginla

Max Talbot – John Mitchell – Nathan Mackinnon

Cody McLeod – Marc-Andre Cliche – Borna Rendulic

Jan Hejda – Erik Johnson

Nate Guenin – Tyson Barrie

Brad Stuart – Nick Holden

Semyon Varlamov