The Oilers are back in action tonight in Philadelphia, where we’ll get to see Connor McDavid test his mettle against the Flyers rookie phenom Shayne Gostisbehere. (In case you’ve been living under a rock, Gostisbehere has been tearing it up out east, and had a 15-game point streak snapped last month – that point streak is the longest by a rookie defenceman in NHL history.
Last Game
The Oilers won in Buffalo on Tuesday night, in what was the first Connor v Jack showdown (of many, I’m sure). Connor McDavid scored 22 seconds into the first period, and again in overtime (the call of which I heard on CHED and let me tell you, Jack Michaels was PUMPED), and from what I could tell he played a heck of a game. I didn’t get a chance to watch it (and I forgot to PVR it), but it sounds like the Oilers put together a pretty solid effort. One thing I am hearing (even this morning) was that Jordan Eberle’s defensive weaknesses are now being exposed, and that he was directly responsible for the Sabres’ lone goal on Tuesday. I don’t know if that’s true, but on more than one occasion this season I’ve thought that Eberle has looked…..lazy? I’m not sure that’s the right word, but it jumps out at me sometimes.
Keys to the Game
- Stay out of the box
- Get the puck to Connor
- Force the Flyers to take dumb penalties
- Get the puck to Connor
- Loosen up a bit out there – lots of missed passes and weak shot attempts lately
- Score more goals than the other guys
- Strap rockets to their skates (except Connor and Taylor Hall, because they zoom without rockets)
Players to Watch
New Oiler Pat Maroon makes his debut tonight, and from what I’ve seen from him, he’s excited to be here (in what is probably a bit more of a significant role than what he played in Anaheim). A bit of a raw deal for him, coming to this team from the Ducks, but I hope he makes the best of it and is a solid addition to the bottom 6. (Plus he’s only 4 letters away from being Patrick Marleau, so that’s something.)
Watch Connor. He’s good at hockey.
Watch Taylor Hall. He’s also good at hockey.
Projected Lineups
Edmonton
Nail Yakupov – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Zack Kassian
Patrick Maroon – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski
Matt Hendricks – Anton Lander – Adam Cracknell
Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Adam Pardy – Brandon Davidson
Darnell Nurse – Adam Clendening
Cam Tal-Bot
Philadephia
Brayden Schenn – Claude Giroux – Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl Sean Couturier – Sam Gagner
Scott Laughton – Nick Cousins – Matt Read
Chris VandeVelde – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Ryan White
Andrew MacDonald – Shayne Gostisbehere
Nick Schultz – Mark Streit
Brandon Manning – Radko Gudas
Steve Mason
Final Thoughts
The World Cup of Hockey takes place this fall in Toronto, with a format I don’t understand and a bunch of teams I can’t imagine anyone cheering for. Each team named their initial 16-man rosters yesterday (with the other 7 to be added by the June 1 deadline), and 4 Oilers made the cut: Lauri Korpikoski (Finland), Leon Draisaitl & Andrej Sekera (Team Europe) and Connor McDavid (Team North America).
There’s a lot of whining around the twitter machine about other Oilers being excluded from their respective rosters, namely Taylor Hall from the team Canada roster and Ryan-Nugent Hopkins from the North America list. With Nuge, I get it. he’s hurt right now, and it doesn’t make sense to include him in that initial grouping. With Peter Chiarelli as the GM, and Todd McLellan as the coach, I can’t imagine that Nuge won’t get a bunch of closer looks before the season’s out. If he ends up playing for Canada at the World Championships, I’m sure he’ll get consideration from that too.
Taylor Hall is an interesting case, not least because he’s my favourite and can do no wrong. I think he’ll probably get another look down the stretch and at the World Championships. (Don’t forget, last spring he and Eberle played on a line with Sidney Crosby and they both had a great tournament.) People on twitter thought I’d be upset about Hall’s exclusion from the list, but as a buddy of mine said to me yesterday, I’d almost prefer if he wasn’t on the team so that he doesn’t run the risk of getting hurt and not being in the lineup for opening night at the new arena.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love the opportunity to see Taylor Hall on my teevee even more than I already do, but if he’s left off the roster (which would be a mistake because he’s very good at hockey especially considering that he’s on a garbage team), I probably won’t be too upset.
As an aside, look how happy Connor is to be in this god-awful jersey:
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