Oilers Gameday – @ Coyotes

The Oilers hit the desert tonight to battle the Arizona Coyotes in game three of a four game road trip for the club. This will be the first of five meetings between the teams on the season, they won’t meet next until January 2nd in Edmonton. This is the second half of a back-to-back for the Oilers.

The Oilers will be without F’s Connor McDavid, Lauri Korpikoski and Rob Klinkhammer along with D Justin Schultz. All four players are currently on the IR. F Benoit Pouliot is sick and won’t play tonight, while D’s Andrew Ference and Brandon Davidson are expected to be healthy scratches. The Coyotes enter tonight with a healthy roster and no one on the IR.

Anders Nilsson will start for the Oilers, while Mike Smith gets the nod for Arizona.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers were in Anaheim last night for quite the entertaining tilt. The Oilers started slow again and as a result the Ducks took advantage. Anaheim out-shot Edmonton 15-8 and outscored them 1-0 thanks to Corey Perry’s goal 10:09 in.

Edmonton hunkered down and controlled the second period, tying things up at the 4:23 mark with Leon Draisaitl’s fourth of the season. The sides would trade two goals a piece in the final frame with the Ducks making the first strike in each event.

Shawn Horcoff would be answered by Oscar Klefbom, then Corey Perry was answered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to send us to overtime. In OT, Teddy Purcell was sprung in on a one-on-one and beat Andersen top shelf to give Edmonton a big 4-3 victory.

Arizona: The Coyotes last battled the Kings in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The Kings came out firing and took an early lead thanks to Dustin Brown’s first of the season at the 5:54 mark. The Yotes would answer just under six minutes later with a Martin Hanzal goal.

The sides would again trade goals in the middle frame, as Tyler Toffoli scored a power-play marker five minutes before Hanzal would deposit his second of the night. This set up quite the third period.

The Kings pushed, but Mike Smith stood tall while Brad Richardson found the back of the net 11:47 in to give the Coyotes a lead they would not lose en route to a 3-2 victory over the Kings.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Coyotes last met back in December of 2014 in Edmonton. Arizona got out to an early lead and simply did not look back. Sam Gagner opened the scoring 1:44 in and that would be all she wrote. Martin Erat and Justin Schultz would trade goals later in the frame.

Keith Yandle would add the insurance 7:54 into the middle frame, while Brandon Gormley and Gagner would put salt in the would in the third period to seal Arizona’s 5-1 victory over Edmonton.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: The Oilers need to get out to a fast start against these Coyotes. Arizona is a slow starting team too, meaning the Oilers have a chance to really set the tone if they can show up on time. Get a good jump on these guys early and the Oil will have a good chance to snag this victory.

Arizona: Play your game tonight. I know the Oilers are a skilled team with defensive issues and would likely benefit from an end to end game too, but the Coyotes have the guns to go roll with Edmonton. They’ve had success playing this way so far and shouldn’t deter from that tonight.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Leon Draisaitl has been a man this year, plain and simple. Dr. Drai already has four goals during this recall and he was key at both ends of the rink in last night’s win over the Ducks. I’ll be very interested to see what he can do tonight against a lesser defensive team in the Coyotes.

Arizona: How can’t you be excited to watch Max Domi play? Outside of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, Domi is the top rookie in the NHL. He’s got the skill, the speed and the smarts to be a terrific player. His hot start only adds to the hype, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing him up close for the first time tonight.

Quick Hits:

The Coyotes swept the season series from Edmonton last season, going 5-0-0. Edmonton mustered only a single point in the series, losing in overtime back on December 16th in Arizona, their last visit to the desert. Teddy Purcell’s overtime winner on Wednesday night was his first as an Oiler. Coyotes F Tobias Rieder was an Oilers draft pick in 2011, he scored two goals against them last year.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Teddy Purcell – Anton Lander – Jordan Eberle

Anton Slepyshev – Mark Letestu – Nail Yakupov

Luke Gazdic – Andrew Miller – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Oscar Klefbom – Mark Fayne

Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba

Anders Nilsson

Arizona Coyotes Lines:

Tobias Rieder – Martin Hanzal – Anthony Duclair

Max Domi – Antoine Vermette – Mikkel Boedker

Jordan Martinook – Brad Richardson – Shane Doan

John Scott – Boyd Gordon – Kyle Chipchura

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Michael Stone

Klas Dahlback – Zbynek Michalek

Stefan Elliott – Connor Murphy

Mike Smith