Oilers Gameday – @ Flyers

The Edmonton Oilers continue their road trip this afternoon in the city of brotherly love against the Flyers. It’ll be the first of two meetings this season between the sides, with Philly visiting Edmonton in December. Both Edmonton and Philly had high hopes for the season, but both teams have fallen well short of their goals to this point of the season.

Philly fired coach Peter Laviolette just three games into the season, and traded away veteran Max Talbot to Colorado for gritty energy forward Steve Downie. Meanwhile, Edmonton shocked their fanbase on Friday night when they traded heart and soul defender Ladislav Smid to their arch-rival, the Calgary Flames, and signed goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to a one-year contract. Both these moves were designed to shake-up the roster, but we’ll have to wait to see if it works.

The Oilers also welcome back forwards David Perron and Jesse Joensuu to the line-up today, as well as defender Anton Belov.

Both Edmonton and Philly are coming into the game off of losses.

Last Game:

Edmonton: The Oilers played a pretty good road game on Thursday night in Tampa Bay against the Lightning, out-shooting and out-playing and Bolts. The difference? Goaltending, Lightning goalie Ben Bishop stole the show, robbing the Oilers multiple times, while Edmonton goalie Devan Dubnyk leaked two soft goals against.

Steven Stamkos opened the scoring off of a Nail Yakupov turnover, while Taylor Fedun would tie things up moments later. Towards the end of the period, Jordan Eberle had an awful turnover and gave up the puck to Steve Stamkos, who wrapped one around and tucked it five-hole on Dubnyk for a 2-1 lead.

Edmonton dominated the second period, but found themselves down 3-1 late when Tyler Johnson scored a goal after a poor defensive play. Taylor Hall would make it close in the 3rd, while Boyd Gordon nearly tied things up in the final minutes. Tampa added an empty net goal for the 4-2 decision.

Philadelphia: The Flyers were embarrassed, 3-0, on home ice on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils. Adam Henrique scored just 1:57 into the game, and that was all she wrote. The Devils added insurance goals from Cam Janssen and Jaromir Jagr in the 3rd period, while Marty Brodeur made 22 saves in the shut-out.

The Flyers were out-shot, out-hit, out-battled and overall out-played. Flyers owner Ed Snider called the team’s effort on Thursday “embarrassing” and said things haven’t been this bad in his entire 47 year tenure with the team.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Flyers last met in February of 2012 at Rexall Place, in a battle between two teams that were going in different directions at the time. Edmonton fired 30 shots on net and played one of their best games that season, blanking the Flyers 2-0.

Devan Dubnyk stopped all 35 Flyer shots against him, while forwards Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall scored the goals for the Oilers. It was a chippy game with few offensive chances and featured two goalies, Dubnyk and Ilya Bryzgalov, who were on top of their games.

The Oilers and Flyers have had a close fought series the last number of years, with the teams seemingly alternating wins each meeting. The Flyers won the previous meeting in Philly.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Oilers forward Ales Hemsky was rumored to have been traded to the Flyers last night, but is still an Oiler this morning. Hemsky has been the face of the Edmonton franchise since Ryan Smyth first left town in 2007, and has been the only guy who has stuck it out through some very tough times. Hemsky is so skilled and a pleasure to watch as a fan. This could very well be one of the last times we see Ales in an Oilers jersey, so keep an eye on him and cherish every shift of this Oiler great.

Philadelphia: Flyers forward Claude Giroux is under a lot of fire right now. Giroux, the Flyers captain and best player, has struggled mightily this season and has yet to score a goal this season. He’s under all sorts of fire from the fans and media in Philly, and one has to wonder when he’ll break out. He’s one of the game’s best forwards and Oilers fans should sit back and enjoy watching this young star.

Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Expected Lines:

Taylor Hall – Sam Gagner – Ales Hemsky

David Perron – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Jesse Joensuu – Boyd Gordon – Nail Yakupov

Ryan Smyth – Mark Arcobello – Luke Gazdic

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Nick Schultz – Taylor Fedun

Anton Belov – Philip Larsen

Devan Dubnyk

Philadelphia Flyers Expected Lines:

Scott Hartnell – Claude Giroux – Vinny Lecavalier

Jakub Voracek – Brayden Schenn – Wayne Simmonds

Michael Raffl – Sean Couturier – Matt Read

Tye McGinn – Adam Hall – Zac Rinaldo

Kimmo Timonen – Luke Schenn

Nicklas Grossman – Braydon Coburn

Mark Streit – Eric Gustafsson

Steve Mason