Oilers Gameday – @ Ducks

The Oilers continue their massive four game road trip tonight in Anaheim as they get a date with their division rivals, the Ducks. This will be the first of five meetings between the teams this season, who won’t hook up again until New Year’s Eve night in Edmonton.

The Oilers are without F’s Connor McDavid, Lauri Korpikoski and Rob Klinkhammer along with D Justin Schultz. All four are currently on the IR. D’s Andrew Ference and Brandon Davidson are expected to be healthy scratches. The Ducks will be without F Jiri Sekac and D Simon Despres, both on the IR.

Andres Nilsson is expected to start for Edmonton while Frederik Andersen gets the nod for Anaheim.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers visited the United Center in Chicago on Sunday night in a pretty interesting tilt. The Blackhawks dominated the first period, out-shooting Edmonton 15-5 and outscoring them 2-0 thanks to a pair of Artemi Panarin goals.

The Oilers dominated the middle frame, firing 22 shots on net, but could not solve Corey Crawford and were faced with the daunting task of coming back in the third. Jordan Eberle’s early goal gave hope, but Patrick Kane put things away with a goal at the 13:28 mark.

Andrej Sekera and Artem Anisimov would trade goals in the final two minutes to push us to a 4-2 final in favor of Chicago.

Anaheim: The Ducks hosted Arizona in quite the entertaining game on Monday night. The Ducks scored a fast pair in the first period thanks to Chris Stewart and Ryan Kesler, but after that it was all Arizona.

Anthony Duclair would get the Yotes on the board 2:44 into the middle frame, and then Max Domi would add a pair of goals to give Arizona a lead after forty minutes. Sami Vatanen would score 11:43 into the third to force us to overtime.

OT wouldn’t last long thanks to Ryan Getzlaf’s costly turnover. Mikkel Boedker would be sprung in on a breakaway and score to give Arizona a 4-3 overtime victory.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Ducks last met in Anaheim on April 1st, 2015. The Ducks dominated this tilt early scoring 3:43 in off a Francois Beauchemin shot. They never looked back after that as Nate Thompson added his fifth of the season at the 9:59 mark of the first.

Corey Perry and Simon Despres would each score for the Ducks in the second, while Andrew Cogliano would put salt in the wound in the final frame. All Edmonton mustered was a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins goal 17:05 into the second en route to a 5-1 defeat.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: 60 minutes, it’s that simple. The Oilers dominated for 40 minutes against both Pittsburgh and Chicago but lost both games due to terrible starts. The Oilers can’t allow that tonight, they must get a good jump early if they want any hope of winning this game.

Anaheim: Play physical. The Oilers are a smaller, skilled team and still struggle against the big teams out west. If the Ducks can assert themselves physically, and I assume they will try, then they should get these two points rather easily.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Anton Lander is going to get a very solid chance to show something tonight. He’s playing with Jordan Eberle and Teddy Purcell on Edmonton’s second unit. If Lander is ever going to break out this season, now would be the time. I’ll be interested to see how he uses his best linemates of the young season.

Anaheim: The Oilers were dominated by Anaheim last year, and it was an unlikely force that had his way with them. Jakob Silfverberg had four assists in the four games and was a factor by the eye in each tilt. I’ll be watching him closely to see if his impact against Edmonton continues.

Quick Hits:

The Ducks swept all four games away from Edmonton last season. Jakob Silfverberg led the way with four points, while Ryan Getzlaf had three points against Edmonton a year ago. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins led the Oiler attack with two goals in the four tilts. Edmonton’s road record leaves a lot to be desired, they are 2-5-0 away from Rexall this season.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Teddy Purcell – Anton Lander – Jordan Eberle

Benoit Pouliot – Mark Letestu – Nail Yakupov

Luke Gazdic – Andrew Miller – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Oscar Klefbom – Mark Fayne

Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba

Anders Nilsson

Anaheim Ducks Lines:

Patrick Maroon – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry

Carl Haglin – Ryan Kesler – Jakob Silfverberg

Andrew Cogliano – Shawn Horcoff – Max Friberg

Chris Wagner – Mike Santorelli – Chris Stewart

Cam Fowler – Kevin Bieksa

Hampus Lindholm – Josh Manson

Clayton Stoner – Sami Vatanen

Frederik Andersen