Oilers Gameday – SS Vs. Flames

ITS HERE!!!!!! All kidding aside, this is a very exciting day, it is the pre-season opener for the Edmonton Oilers. The Oil will host Calgary tonight at Rexall Place in the first half of a split squad tilt, with the other half taking place in Calgary. Both games start at 7:00 pm MT and both will be streamed online, so watching both will be tough.

For the gameday threads, I’ll be doing things a little differently for the pre-season than the regular season, these blogs will be much more Oiler focused, with the regular season going back to the normal format used last season.

@ Calgary:

Player To Watch:

For me, the player I’m most looking forward to seeing in this game is Griffin Reinhart, one of Edmonton’s massive additions to the blue-line this summer. Reinhart is a player who, to be quite honest, I wasn’t sold on when the deal went down. I’m interested to see how he handles his first game in an Oiler jersey and getting a better look at him at the pro level.

Reinhart will be paired up with Joey LaLeggia, meaning he’s got a spot on a hybrid pairing if you will, one that features one puck-mover and one shut-down type. I’d bet we see that a lot with McLellan.

Story To Watch:

Oscar Klefbom and Justin Schultz will be paired together as the team’s top pairing in Calgary. They were a unit last year together and actually had some success playing against lesser opponents and getting a light zonestarts assignment. Their possession stats were solid and they complemented each other quite well.

I like these two as a second pairing moving forward, so I’ll be interested to see how they look tonight.

Training Camp Battle To Watch:

I think it’s fair to say that both goalies will play tonight in Calgary, meaning it’ll be intense in the crease. Both Ben Scrivens and Anders Nilsson are slated for this game and both of these guys are fighting for that backup job behind Cam Talbot.

Scrivens has a better track record and should be considered the favorite, but Nilsson is coming off of a great season in the KHL and is hungry to re-establish himself in North America. This is the first real test for both guys, it should be quite the battle.

Oilers Lines:

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski

Anton Slepyshev – Bogdan Yakimov – Rob Klinkhammer

Braden Christoffer – Jujhar Khaira – Phil McRae

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Joey LaLeggia – Griffin Reinhart

Ben Scrivens (starting)

Anders Nilsson

@ Edmonton:

Player To Watch:

This is obvious, it’s Connor McDavid. This will be McDavid’s first ever professional hockey game, which means two things to me. One, and most importantly, it’s the dawn of a new era in Edmonton. We’ve talked about how good this kid is all off-season and now we can finally see him in Edmonton as an Oiler.

Secondly, it’s McDavid’s first chance to adapt to the professional game and to build chemistry with some likely linemates for the regular season. Listen, I’m just excited to see this kid play.

Story To Watch:

The talk all summer has been about McDavid and his potential linemates. Personally, I’ve been in favor of McDavid lining up with Taylor Hall and Teddy Purcell, and that’s exactly what we will see tonight. Can Hall, a dynamic scorer already, get to the next level with a superstar like McDavid? What about the veteran Purcell, who is in a contract year?

Training Camp Battle To Watch:

Leon Draisaitl was supposed to be part of the immediate solution right out of the gate last year, but early season struggles found the big German back in the WHL. After finishing his season in Kelowna, Leon returns to Edmonton hungrier than ever and looking better than ever.

He’ll be in tough to make the team, but playing with Anton Lander and Nail Yakupov is a pretty darn good starting point for him. He’s in a battle to win a skilled spot and gets a huge chance to show something tonight. Well worth watching if you ask me.

Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Connor McDavid – Teddy Purcell

Leon Draisaitl – Anton Lander – Nail Yakupov

Ryan Hamilton – Andrew Miller – Tyler Pitlick

Kale Kessy – Kyle Platzer – Mathew Ford

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Andrew Ference – Nikita Nikitin

Brad Hunt – Brandon Davidson

Cam Talbot (starter)

Laurent Brossoit