Oilers Gameday – Calgary Rematch

The Edmonton Oilers head south down highway two for a rematch with the Calgary Flames. The Oilers are coming off a 7-4 victory against the Flames during the first ever NHL game in Rogers Place.

While the Oilers owned the scoreboard, the Flames owned the shot clock and the special teams, so the Oilers must bring a better effort to the Saddledome if they want to ruin Calgary’s homecoming.

The long dubbed “Battle Of Alberta” has lost a little bit of its spark, but Wednesday’s game started to emulate what we expect will be a great renewed and intensified BOA. Players like Matthew Tkachuk, Zack Kassian, Troy Brouwer, Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon are relatively new to the BOA, and they have injected the spirit of the BOA back to its 80’s roots.

Brian Elliott was a train wreck on Wednesday’s game, and he looked more like Jonas Hiller than the Brian Elliott that stood on his head in the 2016 playoffs for the St.Louis Blues. While Cam Talbot seemed shaky, he settled in and actually had an above .900 save percentage despite allowing four goals.

KEYS TO THE GAME:

Edmonton: The Oilers should be able to carry the offensive momentum, but if they want to beat Calgary for the second time they will need to figure out their power play. The Oilers couldn’t get much of anything going and gave up two shorthanded goals. The smiling Fin, Jesse Puljujarvi scored a late one on the power play off a broken play to give the orange and blue a 1-for-6 record. If the Oilers can get the power play rolling, they should be a much more effective club.

Calgary: In a word; goaltending. The Flames didn’t play a perfect game either but every time they seemed to be gaining momentum, Brian Elliott would get beat. Brian Elliott is a good NHL goaltender, and while he doesn’t have the St.Louis defense in front of him, he is still at least an average or above average NHL netminder. He can’t be as bad as he was on Wednesday, and his play improving alone could be the difference maker.

PLAYERS TO WATCH:

Edmonton: While we already know to watch Connor McDavid, the guy everybody should keep an eye on is Zack Kassian. Kassian had a whale of a game on Wednesday, scoring a goal, throwing his body, picking up the pace, and getting involved in the scrums, Kassian earned a promotion to the second line. Kassian has skill and has played on a skill line earlier in his career. He wants to stay in Edmonton for the rest of his career, and performances like the previous game will only help lead him to a long-term contract.

Calgary: He may be a target now considering he injured Brandon Davidson, but Matthew Tkachuk will be looking to get on the scoreboard in his second NHL game. Tkachuk is a pain in the a** but he has a lot of skill and he’ll be looking to add his name to the impressive list of players to have scored their first NHL goal in the first week of the season.

THE LINES:

The Oilers placed Brandon Davidson on the injured reserve (familiar news) and in return recalled D Eric Gryba from Bakersfield before he could even book a plane ticket. Gryba will get right into game action paired with Darnell Nurse.

Anton Länder will also draw into the lineup with Anton Slepyshev coming out. The Anton’s are both on the bubble between NHL and AHL and Lander will have to show he can be of value.

The Flames tryout defenseman Nicklas Grossmann had a terrible outing in his debut, and may draw out of the lineup in favour of one of Jyrki Jokipakka or Brett Kulak.

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Zack Kassian
Patrick Maroon – Leon Draisaitl – Jesse Puljujarvi
Tyler Pitlick – Mark Letestu – Anton Lander

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell
Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Calgary Flames Lines:

Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Kris Versteeg
Matthew Tkachuk – Sam Bennett – Troy Brouwer
Micheal Ferland – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Lance Bouma – Matt Stajan – Alex Chiasson

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Jyrki Jokipakka – Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Wideman – Deryk Engelland

Brian Elliott

GAME NOTES:

Oiler fans are still waiting to see college standout and free agent signing Drake Caggiula in a regular season game. Caggiula remains out with a hip injury, and the Oilers will not rush him into the lineup.

Adam Larsson didn’t skate with the team yesterday making Oil Country hold its breath before it was revealed that Larsson was given a maintenance day. He played a hard solid defensive game and likely earned the break. Love what I’ve seen of him so far.

Milan Lucic has never been known to be an effective power play player, but he saw over five minutes of power play ice time. I expect Jay Woodcroft to change his power play combos and Lucic may be forgotten.

PREDICTION:

I’m the biggest optimist you’ll meet in Oil Country, and even though the Oilers won by scoring seven on Wednesday, their game had a lot of holes in it. Brian Elliott won’t be as bad as he was in the previous game, and that will be the difference maker.

Calgary will come out with fire in their eyes, and they will start strong an stake themselves to a two-goal lead before the Oilers fight back. In the end they will come up short in a 4-3 shootout loss. Connor McDavid is good for two more points and Lucic will score his first as an Oiler. McDavid and Pouliot score the other goals. Matthew Tkachuk scores his first NHL goal tonight, while Gaudreau and Versteeg bury the others. Johnny hockey wins it in the shootout.

I’ll be tweeting and hopefully tweeting how wrong I was in my prediction!

Hockey is back and it feels so good!