One night after a thrilling New England Patriots Super Bowl win that STILL has me smiling, the Oilers return to the ice to conclude a two game road trip in San Jose against the Sharks. This will be the third meeting between the sides this season.
Oilers F Taylor Hall, who has missed the last three games, is questionable, while D Nikita Nikitin is out for at least four weeks. The Sharks will be without F Mike Brown, F Tommy Wingles, and D Justin Braun tonight.
Viktor Fasth gets the start for Edmonton, while Antti Niemi goes for the Sharks.
Last Games:
Edmonton: The Oilers were in Calgary on Saturday night, and for forty minutes played a terrific hockey game. Jordan Eberle and Benoit Pouliot each scored in the first, while Ben Scrivens stopped 21 shots to keep Edmonton in charge, up by a pair, after forty minutes.
The Flames, as they have all year long, came out blazing in the final frame. Calgary stuck it to Edmonton, with chance after chance being fired on net. It only took 2:56 for Paul Byron to get Calgary on the board, and it took less than four more minutes for Lance Bouma to tie things up.
Sean Monahan would score a power-play marker to put the Flames on top, then Bouma would put the game away with his second of the night, capping off an unreal comeback to give the Flames a 4-2 victory.
San Jose: The Sharks hosted the Blackhawks on Saturday night in a closely contested contest between two powerhouses. The Sharks would get going early, firing some chances on Corey Crawford in the first few minutes and getting rewarded with a Melker Karlsson goal 5:09 in.
The sides would go scoreless through the entire second period, setting up a physical and tight final twenty. The Hawks got their chances, but Antti Niemi held strong, stopping all seven shots thrown his way while Joe Thornton would add the insurance marker to give San Jose a 2-0 win on home ice.
Last Meeting:
The Oilers and Sharks last met in December in the Shark tank for a game that turned out to be pretty thrilling. Edmonton struck first, 14:43 in, as Boyd Gordon netted his fifth of the season.
The Sharks answered back in the second period, as James Sheppard and Logan Couture both scored less than eight minutes in. The Oilers would get a Steve Pinizzotto goal to tie things up less than a minute after Couture’s marker, then get a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins goal to take a lead into the third period.
The Oilers played a strong third, but had a 40 second window of a break down where the Sharks scored two goals, compliments Matt Tennyson and Barclay Goodrow. That’s all San Jose would need, as Niemi would shut the door and seal the wild 4-3 win for San Jose.
Keys To The Game:
Edmonton: Live and let die. The Oilers played a miserable final twenty minutes on Saturday, but need to just forget about it. Get it out of your system, and move forward to tonight. If Edmonton dwells on that collapse and tries to avoid doing it again, they’ll beat themselves. Focus on this one.
San Jose: Play your power game. The Oilers struggle badly against teams that play a big and heavy game, and the Sharks do just that. If San Jose starts using their bodies and skill tonight, they’ll run over the Oilers with absolute ease.
Players To Watch:
Edmonton: Oilers D Justin Schultz has played better recently, and is starting to find some chemistry with Oscar Klefbom. Can he keep that up, can he do it against an elite team like the Sharks? This is a huge test for him tonight, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on Jultz.
San Jose: Sharks F Logan Couture has dominated the Oilers during the course of his career. He’s hot right now, and is making things look easy. I’ll say he finds the net at least once tonight, and is a difference maker in this game.
Quick Hits:
Oilers F Taylor Hall is a gametime decision tonight, he took the morning skate earlier on Monday. The Oil are expected to place Nikita Nikitin on the IR at some point this week and recall a defender from the AHL. Sharks F Joe Thornton has scored 11 goals this season for his team, while G Antti Niemi is 10-1-1 against Edmonton in his last 12 starts.
The Lines:
Edmonton Oilers Lines:
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot – Derek Roy – Nail Yakupov
Matt Fraser – Anton Lander – Teddy Purcell
Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Rob Klinkhammer
Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz
Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry
Keith Aulie – Mark Fayne
Viktor Fasth
San Jose Sharks Lines:
Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Matt Neito
Tomas Hertl – James Sheppard – Barclay Goodrow
Tye McGinn – Andrew Desjardins – John Scott
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Brendan Dillon – Matt Tennyson
Matt Irwin – Scott Hannan
Antti Niemi
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