Oilers Preseason Gameday – @ Canucks

The Edmonton Oilers will play their third preseason game of the year tonight out on the Pacific coast against the Canucks. Edmonton’s lineup won’t be as strong as the one that took to the ice at Rogers Place on Monday, but Connor McDavid will make his debut and Kris Versteeg gets a push after a strong outing in Edmonton.

Vancouver returns home after opening up the preseason last night in San Jose. The team also made a number of cuts earlier today, including former Oilers’ pick Marco Roy and top prospect Cole Cassels.

Jonas Gustavsson, who was perfect in Calgary on Monday night, will start and play forty minutes for the club. Nick Ellis is expected to play the third period for Edmonton, which would be his preseason debut (two starts in rookie play).

The Lineup:

Edmonton’s forward group tonight will be a strong one, but it’s defensive unit will be a bit weaker. In fact, looking at the pairings we are expected to see tonight, I’d say only two of the rearguards dressing will be on the opening night roster. Those two? Darnell Nurse and Brandon Davidson.

Without further ado, here are tonight’s lines for Edmonton:

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Patrick Maroon – Drake Caggiula – Kris Versteeg

Benoit Pouliot – Jere Sallinen – Anton Slepyshev

Taylor Beck – Jujhar Khaira – Tyler Pitlick

Darnell Nurse – Brandon Davidson

Griffin Reinhart – Dillon Simpson

Joey LaLeggia – David Musil

Jonas Gustavsson (two periods) and Nick Ellis (third period)

While the Canucks haven’t posted a full lineup as of this writing, we can expect to see some new names in their lineup. According to Canucks.com, Erik Gudbranson, Olli Juolevi and Troy Stretcher will all make their Canuck debuts tonight. Alex Edler and Ben Hutton are also expected to be in the lineup for Vancouver.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Everyone will be watching the top line tonight, but I’m interested in Edmonton’s second unit just as much. Drake Caggiula continues to get a strong push with skilled wingers. Can he handle the rigors of center against an NHL defense tonight? He was strong against Calgary on Monday, but this Vancouver group is stronger than the one that visited the Oil Monday. Another strong outing could have Caggiula pushing for an NHL job.

Vancouver: Olli Juolevi is the future of the Vancouver blue-line. Tonight, he’ll make his Vancouver debut against a strong group of forwards from Edmonton. I’m interested in seeing how the mobile defender handles his first true test in professional hockey.

Other Tidbits To Watch:

I, like everyone else, am intrigued by the debut of the Lucic-McDavid-Eberle line for the Oilers. We know, thanks to a late season look in 2015-16, that Eberle can finish off those amazing McDavid passes. Can Lucic, who is a better player than Oiler fans realize, keep up with these two? I’m interested to see how they mesh.

Kris Versteeg, as I mentioned above, is also getting a nice push tonight. His footspeed doesn’t look like an issue at all and I thought he played well on Monday night. I’ll have my eyes on him tonight as he closes in on a contract with the club.

After playing 28:01 on Monday, what kind of workload will Darnell Nurse have tonight? I’d label him as the second best defender in this group behind Davidson, so I’m expecting over 20 minutes again tonight for the young defender.

After going a perfect 10-10 on Monday night, Jonas Gustavsson makes his second bid to win the backup job. Vancouver isn’t an overly strong hockey team, but another solid outing would be nice for the veteran netminder.

Prediction:

An inexperienced defensive group going up against a solid forward group isn’t good news for Vancouver tonight. McDavid is already going at full speed thanks to the World Cup, and most of Edmonton’s lineup already has a game under it’s belt. I expect the Oilers to have a strong outing and push the pace of play against this group of Canucks.

I’ll say Edmonton wins this one 4-1 with goals from Lucic, Caggiula, LaLeggia and Pitlick.