Oilers Gameday – @ Canadiens

The Oilers keep rolling through the east coast tonight as they visit Montreal to battle the Habs. This will be the second and final meeting between the sides this season, and the first meting in Montreal in over a year’s time.

The Oilers will be without F Taylor Hall for about six weeks, while D Nikita Nikitin is likely to miss anywhere from four to eight weeks, F Benoit Pouliot is also on the IR. The Habs will be missing F PA Parenteau, who is currently on the IR.

Viktor Fasth starts for the Oilers, while Dustin Tokarski gets the go for Montreal over stud Carey Price, who has struggled against Edmonton in his career.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers were in Long Island on Tuesday night, and actually played a pretty solid hockey game against the Isles in the second half of a back-to-back slate. The first period saw NY get the advantage on the shot clock 11-8, but a goal trade which saw Ryan Hamilton and Colin McDonald each score sent us to the second tied at one.

In the second, Edmonton began to take the game over, but caught a bad break as Josh Bailey tipped home a Thomas Hickey wrist shot at the 11:27 mark to give the Islanders a lead. Edmonton would fight back however, and draw even on a power-play goal by Anton Lander just over five minutes later.

The Oilers would dominate the third period, and Jordan Eberle would nearly give Edmonton a lead mid-way through the frame. That said, the Oilers had one breakdown that cost them dearly.

Boyd Gordon and Rob Klinkhammer got caught in the o-zone, and paid for it as Casey Cizikas scored down the other end to give the Isles a 3-2 lead they wouldn’t lose. Halak stopped all fifteen third period shots to seal the win by that same 3-2 score.

Montreal: The Habs also played on Tuesday, as they hosted the struggling Flyers at the Bell Centre. Philly got going early, scoring just 51 seconds in as Matt Read beat Carey Price clean. Price would settle in after that however, stopping the next 23 shots sent his way.

The Habs took advantage and worked their way back into the game, peppering Ray Emery with shot after shot. Finally, at the 12:38 mark of the third period, Tomas Plekanec would score to even things up and send the game into overtime, securing a point for each side.

In OT, Montreal would fire an additional five shots on net, and get rewarded for their efforts. David Desharnais would score from a bad angle at the 3:27 mark to give the Habs a 2-1 win and move them back into a top spot in the east.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers hosted Montreal back in October at Rexall Place in a game where Ben Scrivens excelled. Scrivens was on all night, bailing Edmonton out at every corner. The Oilers would take advantage, and score the ice breaker 19:41 into the first thanks to Benoit Pouliot.

Nail Yakupov would add an insurance marker 6:33 into the middle frame, while Taylor Hall would score an empty net goal in the dying minutes to put the game away. Scrivens would stop 29 Montreal shots, earning him his first shut-out of the season, and cementing a 3-0 Oiler win. This was the last time Edmonton was at .500, sporting a 4-4-1 record.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: Attack the net tonight. Tokarski is a decent back-up goalie, but isn’t near the quality of Carey Price, and he hasn’t been getting regular work this season. If Edmonton can make him feel a little uncomfortable and pressure him a little bit, they might be able to get in his head and force some weaker goals in this game.

Montreal: Play your game, that simple. The Habs are one of the NHL’s top dogs, and possess tons of speed and skill. If they come at Edmonton tonight with their normal intensity and structure, they should run over this team. They can’t play down to their competition, something they have done a lot this season.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: G Viktor Fasth was weak in Toronto last Saturday, and was so-so against the Islanders on Tuesday night. With Scrivens out long term, Fasth can really make a case for himself moving forward here. He needs a really solid game, one which he backstops the Oilers. Will that be tonight? I don’t know, but I’ll be watching him closely.

Montreal: D PK Subban is one of the funnest players to watch in the NHL. He’s quick, he’s skilled, has a bomb of a shot, and is decent defensively, he might be the most entertaining defender in the game today. We don’t get to see him much, so I’ll recommend Oiler fans take this chance and keep a close eye on him.

Quick Hits:

The Oilers are 4-0-3 in their last seven trips to the Bell Centre, making this one of their most successful away venues the last few seasons. Overall, Edmonton is 13-4-3 in their last 20 games against the Habs. Montreal D PK Subban has 36 points on the season, putting him third on the team. This is game four of a six game road trip for Edmonton, the trip concludes with dates in Ottawa and Winnipeg.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Teddy Purcell – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Ryan Hamilton – Derek Roy – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Rob Klinkhammer

Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Martin Marincin – Mark Fayne

Viktor Fasth

Montreal Canadiens Lines:

Max Pacioretty – David Desharnais – Dale Weise

Alex Galchenyuk – Tomas Plekanec – Brendan Gallagher

Brandon Prust – Lars Eller – Jiri Sekac

Michael Bournival – Jacob De La Rose – Christian Thomas

Andrei Markov – P.K. Subban

Nathan Beaulieu – Sergei Gonchar

Alexei Emelin – Tom Gilbert

Dustin Tokarski