Oilers Gameday – @ Canucks

The Oilers open a four game road trip tonight in Vancouver against the Canucks in the second meeting of the season between the teams. Edmonton is in the second half of back to back contests, while Vancouver has not played since Monday night, a 2-0 win over Carolina.

Edmonton is in the second half of back-to-backs, as the team hosted the Boston Bruins last night. Edmonton battled back and played arguably their best two periods of the season in the second and third of that game. A lot of people are upset with the Oilers first, which was pretty bad, but I’m looking at the positives. They battled back and dominated a better Bruins team for 40 minutes.

Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk, who was pulled after 20 minutes and three goals last night, is expected to be back in net. Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is on the trip and could return next week. Center Boyd Gordon will return to the lineup tonight after battling a shoulder problem, while defender Martin Marincin has left the squad and been assigned to the AHL’s OKC Barons.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers hosted the Boston Bruins last night at Rexall Place in a game which got out of hand early. Dennis Seidenberg opened the scoring with a fluke goal from the blue-line at 10:25. It was a floater of a shot and had no business going in, and broke Edmonton’s back. Jarome Iginla would blast home a one-timer at 16:11, and Brad Marchand would score short-handed at 18:17 to put the B’s up 3-0.

In the second however, the tide changed. Edmonton came out flying and Luke Gazdic had a great scrap with Milan Lucic. David Perron would get Edmonton on the board with a shot through traffic at 3:25. The Oilers would dominate the Bruins the rest of the period, and get rewarded again with Perron’s second of the night at 17:27 to make it 3-2.

In the third, the Oilers kept the pressure up and dominated again, nearly tying it on multiple occasions. Bruins goalie Chad Johnson would stand strong, and Jarome Iginla would add an empty net goal with under a minute left to seal a 4-2 win. It was an awesome effort from Edmonton, and if they build off that, Thursday night will be a step in the right direction.

Vancouver: The Canucks are well rested, and haven’t played since hosting Carolina on Monday night. Eddie Lack was sensational in the game, stopping all 31 Hurricane shots and making some highlight reel saves. The Canucks opened the scoring 3:35 in thanks to a Chris Tanev goal that would be enough.

Justin Peters would keep the Canes in it stopping every shot he faced in the second and third, but Lack wouldn’t record a blemish. Jannik Hansen would pot home an empty net goal and the Nucks would win 2-0.

Last Meeting:

To put it politely, the Edmonton Oilers were schooled back in October. The Oilers opened the scoring just 1:58 in with a Jeff Petry goal, but things would get ugly from this point on. Brad Richardson would tie things up with a SHG at 3:42, and the Nucks would take a lead at 18:27 thanks to a Dan Hamhuis floater that beat Devan Dubnyk. Jannik Hansen would make it 3-1 less than 20 seconds later.

In the second, Daniel Sedin would make it 4-1 with a PPG at the 7:21 mark, and Ryan Kesler would make it 5-1 13:56 in to the period. The Kesler goal would chase Dubnyk, and make way for Jason Labarbera to enter the game. Boyd Gordon would make it 5-2 late in the period.

In the third, Edmonton finally starting applying some pressure, but simply could not beat Roberto Luongo. The Oilers would yank the goalie, which would lead to a Jason Garrison EN goal that would seal the 6-2 Canuck win.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: The pressure is on. Goalie Devan Dubnyk gets back in between the pipes after a tough 20 minutes last night. Dubnyk was yanked after giving up three goals, two which can be pinned on him, in one period. Tonight he gets a chance to bounce back against a big rival. Dubnyk is playing for his career right now, and must start turning his game around, tonight is a perfect chance to do just that. Every time we count DD out, he has a good game, and I’m banking on that tonight.

Vancouver: Canuck forward Ryan Kesler is finally healthy and is back to himself again. He’s extremely dangerous and one of the best second line centers in the game today. He’s been a thorn in Edmonton’s side since he came into the league, and usually plays great games against the orange and blue. As much as it pains me to say it, I expect Kesler’s success to continue tonight and recommend watching him closely tonight.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lineup:

Taylor Hall – Mark Arcobello- Ales Hemsky

David Perron – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Jesse Joensuu – Boyd Gordon – Nail Yakupov

Luke Gazdic – Sam Gagner – Ryan Jones

Andrew Ference – Philip Larsen

Nick Schultz – Justin Schultz

Anton Belov – Jeff Petry

Devan Dubnyk

Vancouver Canucks Lineup:

Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Jannik Hansen

Chris Higgins – Ryan Kesler – Mike Santorelli

David Booth – Brad Richardson – Zack Kassian

Jeremy Welsh – Zac Dalpe – Dale Weise

Ryan Stanton – Kevin Bieksa

Dan Hamhuis – Chris Tanev

Andrew Alberts – Jason Garrison

Roberto Luongo