Oilers Gameday @ Chicago: Afternoon Delight………?

Who are we even kidding? The Oilers aren’t going to win an afternoon game in Chicago, especially after the 5-1 drubbing yesterday at the hands of the Dallas Stars. It’s bad enough the Oilers play two afternoon games in a row, but they also had to travel and played both of their goalies in Saturday’s effort.

In order to hit the 95 point threshold that will likely be the playoff cutoff, they need to win (in regulation) 28 of 40 games. Considering they’ve only won 18 of 42, 28 of 40 is a LONG shot.

There are only so many ways to say that the season has been disappointing.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• Score a goddamned goal. Or two. Or even three. Playing from behind every game gets old.
• Stay out of the stupid penalty box.
• Don’t leave the goalie (whoever it is) out to dry.

Chicago

• Score first and often and chase the goalie.
• Force the Oilers to take a penalty or seven
• That’s it. That’s all a team needs to do.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• Patrick Maroon should make his return to the lineup after his 2-game suspension. He can’t make things worse, so maybe that’s the spark they need.
• Leon Draisaitl scored his first powerplay goal of the season yesterday, so maybe that could continue.

Chicago

• Patrick Sharp. Not for any particular reason, but he’s rather nice to watch.
• Ale DeBrincat is very good and he will light up the league for years to come.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Jesse Puljujarvi

Milan Lucic – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Mike Cammalleri

Drake Caggiula – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Strome

Jujhar Khaira – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson

Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell

Oscar Klefbom – Brandon Davidson

Chicago

Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Vince Hinostroza

Ryan Hartman – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane

Patrick Sharp – David Kampf – Alex DeBrincat

Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – Richard Panik

Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle

Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook

Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta

Jeff Glass

Notes

This season is futile. It’s at the point where a major shakeup is needed, but there’s no way of knowing whether or not it’ll work.

Instead of worrying about it, just think about how good Rasmus Dahlin is going to look in an Oilers jersey.