Oilers Gameday – @ Coyotes

So the Oilers are playing 0.500 hockey in January. In fairness, they should have won both games against the Florida teams last week. But they didn’t, and here they are – in Arizona to play the Coyotes (who they haven’t beat in regulation since 2011 when Dustin Penner still played here).

It’s been an interesting week, and seeing the way that Oilers Twitter erupted into a heightened version of its usual tire fire after the loss to Florida wasn’t altogether surprising. Much like New York clubs Booooooooof and SPICY, that game had everything: goals, goals called back, fights, big hits, good saves – and it was really fun to watch. I just wish we’d ended up on the other side of that W, that’s for sure.

 

Last Games

Edmonton

They lost 2-1.

Taylor Hall got pancaked by Erik Gudbranson at one point, and Mark Spector went off on the team for not responding and beating Gudbranson into the ground immediately. (The retribution came later, in the form of Matt Hendricks’ big hit on Aaron Ekblad, and subsequent fight with….someone? Shaw? Anyway….. Hendricks was suspended 3 games for the hit (which if you watch it seems reasonable considering that he had full view of Ekblad’s numbers from beyond the hash marks as he barrelled towards him. )

I know we don’t want the Oilers to play mean, but it was nice to see some hits and some fights and a little bit of tenacity out there.

The Coach’s Challenge is hot garbage, though. Taylor Hall scored a beauty goal to make it 2-1, but it was called back because Teddy Purcell was approximately an inch offside. It wasn’t called by the linesman, and it slowed the game down considerably. I get that there needs to be consistency and whatnot….but there was something about that call that irked me (and no, it wasn’t that Hall had a goal called back).

Phoenix Arizona

The Coyotes beat Nashville on Saturday night by a score of 4-0. They’re 2nd in the Pacific, AND have the Oilers’ number (I think they’re 16-0-3 in the last 19….). I wonder what would have happened if the Oilers hadn’t given up on Tobias Rieder, or had drafted Shane Doan…. *sigh*

 

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

Stay onside, apparently. Power play needs to get going. Hall needs some support from the back-end. I’d love it if Draisaitl loosened his grip on his stick a bit – it’s been a long while since he’s scored and I think it’d do him a lot of good to pot one tonight.

Arizona

Like I said, the Coyotes are 2nd in the Pacific Division (21-16-4) and are probably going to make the playoffs. they’ve been playing well of late, maybe on the back of All-Star John Scott (Probably not…)

What they need to do is get the puck to Domi and Duclair. That seems to be working well, thus far.

 

Players to Watch

Edmonton

NHL All-Star Taylor Hall (sorry Dad). He’s pretty good at the hockey thing. And I feel like he’s going to break out a bit tonight. It’s time, that’s for sure. Besides, he has 20 points (8G, 12A) in 19 career games against the Coyotes.

Also, the Oilers are dressing 7D, so watch the pairings. Should be interesting. That they’re dressing 7D on a team that has maaaaaybe 2 legit NHL D-men says an awful lot about Todd McLellan’s opnion of Luke Gazdic, I think.

 

Arizona

Domi. He’s great. I like how he plays with reckless abandon and is highly skilled. Hey wait… it’s almost like he plays a lot like Taylor Hall. *shrug*

 

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Taylor Hall – Leon DDraisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Lauri Korpikoski – Mark Letestu – Iiro Pakarinen

Rob Klinkhammer – Anton Lander – Brad Hunt

Andrej Sekera – Brandon Davidson

Darnell Nurse – Justin Schultz

Mark Fayne – Erik Gryba

Anders Nilsson

Arizona

Max Domi – Antoine Vermette – Mikkel Boedker

Tobias Rieder – Martin Hanzal – Anthony Duclair

Jordan Martinook – Brad Richardson – Shane Doan

Kyle Chipchura – Boyd Gordon – Viktor Tikhonov

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Connor McGregor Murphy

Klas Dahlbeek –
Zbynek Michalek

Nicklass Grossman – Michael Stone

Louis Domingue

Final Thoughts

I wrote yesterday about needing patience.

I knew as I hit “Publish” that there would be at least one person out there who patently disagreed with me, and I was ready for it. But no matter how much I write, or how much I talk about hockey and try to establish myself as someone with a modicum of authority on the subject, it still stings a bit when someone defaults to a sexist remark to “get the point across”.

So shout out to Al for having no sense of humour and doing his best to belittle me. (It didn’t work, but thanks for reminding me that we’ve got a long way to go….)

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