Oilers Gameday – @ Los Angeles

The slumping Oilers are back in action tonight in Los Angeles to take on the similarly slumping Kings. Tonight marks the first visit back to LA for new Oilers LW Milan Lucic, brought in to add some grit and swagger to the lineup. According to Lucic, “It’ll be cool. It’ll be a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun last year being in L.A. and being a King. Even before I was a King, I always had a lot of fun going into the Staples Center … those are the games that you circle on the calendar.”

If Lucic is glad to play against his former team, that’s great. Maybe the prospect of playing against his friends will help to turn things around, both for him and for the Oilers.

From the LA Times today: “Both sides haven’t been the same. Lucic, much like the Oilers, has struggled to find consistency lately, while the Kings struggle to fill the offensive hole left by Lucic and his 20 goals. It was also his hulking presence around the net and in the corners, along with his affable personality off the ice, that made him a great fit.”

We have yet to see that great fit on-ice in Edmonton.

KEYS TO THE GAME

Edmonton

• Not let LA get the first goal. I mentioned it on Sunday, but spotting the opposition an early lead is more or less counter-productive. The Oilers did it again on Tuesday against the Ducks, and while that first Anaheim goal didn’t come within the first 3 minutes, it was still before the first Oilers goal.
• Stop trying to be cute – In the last couple games, anyway, there have been many attempts at fancy plays, and not many pucks in the net. They need to shoot the puck more, full stop.

Los Angeles

• Get the first goal. The Oilers are hapless, it seems, when scored on first it would do the Kings a world of good to get on the board first.
• Keep Connor McDavid to the outside. He’s been snakebit of late, and part of it is because he doesn’t get in close.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Edmonton

• Connor’s better. He’s so good, and I hope tonight is the night he breaks out and scores a hatty. (Now that I’ve said it, he won’t, but I do want to see that).
• Milan Lucic. He talked a big talk this morning about how excited he is to play in LA again, so maybe he’ll mean it.

Los Angeles

• Whenever I watch the Kings, I’m impressed with Tyler Toffoli. I’m not sure if it’s because he reminds of Jeff Skinner or because he’s good at hockey, but I like watching him play.
• I haven’t, however, watched the Kings without Anze Kopitar, and so I’m interested to know what that team looks like without their best player in the lineup.

LINEUPS

Edmonton

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jesse Puljujarvi

Milan Lucic – Leon Draisaitl – Anton Slepyshev

Zack Kassian – Mark Letestu – Tyler Pitlick

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Andrej Sekera – Matt Benning

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Cam Tal-Bot

Los Angeles

Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli

Dwight King – Trevor Lewis – Jordan Nolan

Dustin Brown – Nic Dowd – Devin Setoguchi

Kyle Clifford – Nick Shore – Teddy Purcell

Derek Forbort – Drew Doughty

Jake Muzzin – Alec Martinez

Kevin Gravel – Tom Gilbert

Peter Budaj

Lineups (subject to change) courtesy The Daily Faceoff (and some twitter sleuthing).

NOTES

• This is gut check time for the Oilers. Tonight’s game, against a divisional rival, is hugely important and it would be a shame to see them throw it away. They need a big game from their big name players, and it would be nice to see RNH break out of his slump tonight.
• Cam Talbot has been , for the most part, lights out, and I’d really like to see the guys in front of him reward him for that. Without Talbot in net, this team is well under .500
• According to IneffectiveMath, the Oilers aren’t going to make the playoffs. (I’m just the messenger…)

PREDICTION

No score predictions here, because I’m always wrong. I’ll livetweet the game @TheOilersRig, though, so you can follow along there.

I will make this prediction though: one of the teams is leaving the rink with a 5-game losing streak, and I hope it’s not the Oilers.

OILERS RIG LIVE4MS

Our 4th annual fundraiser for the MS Society of Alberta is set for January 21, 2017 at The Pint Downtown, at 6:30pm

It’s a Battle of Alberta on HNIC, with the Oilers in Calgary. Puck drop is 8:00pm.

We’ll have a great lineup of silent auction items, as well as raffles throughout the night. We might even have tshirts for sale (but we’ll let you know as we get closer to the date).

All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.

See you there!