The Oilers are back in action this afternoon (*fart noise*) in Boston to take on the Bruins. After getting annihilated by the Blues last Tuesday and beating the Wings on Wednesday the Oil got shitcanned again in Buffalo, losing 3-1 in what was a very lacklustre effort.
Blah blah blah – there’s nothing good to say. It’s not even fun to try and spin these defeats into moral victories anymore, because there nothing good to take from them.
*insert Todd McLellan’s postgame from Friday here*
Pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?
Keys to the Game
Edmonton
- JWB
- For real. They just need to win. And then maybe win another one. And then a third one. There’s nothing I can say that these PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES don’t already know, but my god it’s hard to watch them flounder around like a 13 year old on a first date.
Boston
- Force the Oilers to take penalties, because their penalty kill is still atrocious. (Sound familiar? It is.)
- Keeping McDavid to the outside and not giving him room to wheel is pretty effective.
- Take advantage of matchups.
Players to Watch
Edmonton
- Not a single one, though I imagine that when Peter Chiarelli offered Leon Draisaitl $8.5m per year to play centre, the third line isn’t exactly what anyone envisioned.
Boston
- Charlie McAvoy’s kind of fun to watch, and hen gets lots of minutes on the top pair with Chara.
- You can’t not enjoy watching Patrice Bergeron who is quite possibly the actual best player in the league year over year.
Projected Lineups
Edmonton
Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Mike Cammalleri
Patrick Maroon – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Anton Slepyshev
Drake Caggiula – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Strome
Iiro Pakarinen – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson
Oscar Klefbom – Matt Benning
Yohann Auvitu – Kris Russell
Cam Talbot
Boston
Danton Heinen – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Frank Vatrano
Tim Schaller – Sean Kuraly – Jordan Swarz
Noel Acciari – Riley Nash – Matt Beleskey
Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvouy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
Notes
The mainstream media in Edmonton is at it again.
In an article published on Sportsnet yesterday, Jordan Eberle talked about his season so far in Brooklyn and commented on how difficult it can be to play in Edmonton.
He talked a little bit about how his playoff performance wasn’t up to his own standard, but also about how reading about yourself and how bad you are on a daily basis is defeating.
Obviously the first criticism of that comment came from members of Edmonton’s local hockey media, one of whom commented that they’d immediately trade a mentally weak player like Eberle if he can’t handle the criticism of his play. The irony of course is that this particular media member is notorious for blocking people on twitter who point out when he’s made an incorrect statement or disagree with his opinion.
It turned into a whole thing again, because time is a flat circle on Oilers twitter, and there is no end in sight in the Great MSM/Blogger War.
The thing that I find so interesting is that there’s an appearance of legitimacy attached to guys who cover the team professionally because they have access. The bloggers who don’t have access do their best to fill in the gaps in coverage and often do so in their free time without compensation. Yet the expertise of these writers is always called into question because of lack of access, even though much of the work produced in the blogging community is far superior (in both content and form) than much of what’s published in the media.
Every time this battle flares up again, I often think that the MSM guys (and in Edmonton, it’s all guys) are threatened by the bloggers in the same way that factory workers would have been threatened by full mechanization. At some point they’re going to have to accept that someone else is doing their job better than they are for a fraction of the price, and if they want to stay relevant and retain access they’re going to have to embrace the change in discourse.
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