Oilers Gameday – @ Tampa Bay

The Oilers continue their road trip in Florida with a visit to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning tonight. Not only are they looking for a win, they’re looking to build on a 2-game win streak (which feels unprecedented, given how long it’s been since they’ve strung two together).

This might be the last time the Oilers face Steve Stamkos in TB, as there are trade rumours swirling around him. Obviously we’ll have to wait and see, but it’ll be interesting coming down the stretch.

Last Games

Edmonton

The Oilers won last night in Sunrise, off a 3-pt night from Taylor Hall (who I wrote about here, using more than just my undying love to talk about how great he is). Hall scored 2 goals, Eberle had one and Teddy Purcell piotted the empty-net goal to lead the Oil to a 4-2 victory over the Panthers.

Matt Hendricks fought Erik Gudbranson, as part of Florida’s retribution for Aaron Ekblad’s injury. The sparse Panthers’ crowd was pumped up after Hendricks was soundly defeated, but NHL All-Star Taylor Hall quieted everyone down with a beautiful breakaway goal.

Top ? Taylor. #EDMvsFLApic.twitter.com/ZWZBuBMZEF

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 19, 2016

He followed that up with a goal from the high slot, and capped off his night with an assist on Purcell’s empty-net goal to make it 4-2.

My friend Kelsey summed it up best:

Purcell got the empty net from TH because he is a selfless angel

— Kelsey Styre (@kelseystyre) January 19, 2016

On the downside, looks like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is out for 6-8 weeks as a result of a broken hand suffered on a blocked shot. Of course, the Oilers have no depth at centre until McDavid is back (Feb 2nd, according to the team), which means that they have Draisaitl, Letestu, Lander & Hendricks down the middle.

Oilers Twitter went a little nuts, but this probably says it best:

The Oilers just lost Nuge, leaving Letestu as the #2, and Spector is still pushing to trade him in the summer. #Derp#DepthProblems

— baggedmilk (@jsbmbaggedmilk) January 19, 2016

Tampa Bay

The Bolts are riding a 5-game win-streak, so….yeah. they beat Florida 3-1 in the last game out, and will look to sweep the season series against Edmonton. (To be fair, Tampa scored zero goals last game and still won, so maybe the Oilers ARE a better team?)

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

Adjust to new line combos. It’s going to be a big difference for that second line to not have RNH down the middle, especially when you consider the tough minutes he plays against other teams’ top lines.

Try not to direct the puck into their own net. That’d be swell, too.

Tampa Bay

Shoot the puck, apparently. I don’t know – get the puck to Stamkos? Play off the walls and in the middle of the ice? These seem like very pedestrian ideas, but they’re playing a depleted Oilers team, so that might be all it takes.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

Future captain Taylor Hall, king of my heart and everything. His 3-point effort last night was stellar (including that very unselfish pass he made to Purcell for the empty-net goal), and I really hope he capitalizes on that momentum. (Plus, if he plays really well, he’ll be interviewed again and I really enjoy listening to him talk – he’s matured an awful lot from even last season to this one.)

Zack Kassian seems to be fitting into the lineup well. I’m hopeful that this experiment works out; I think he adds a measure of ‘gritensity’ that the team lacks at times.

Tampa Bay

Stamkos. He’s good.

Viktor Hedman – if we trade RNH, and about nine other things, maybe we get him someday. Maybe. Probably not.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot – Matt Hendricks – Jordan Eberle

Zack Kassian – Mark Letestu – Nail Yakupov

Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Brandon Davidson – Justin Schultz

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Anders Nilsson

Tampa Bay

Ondrej Palat – Vladislav Namestnikov– Steven Stamkos

Alex Killorn – Tyler Johnson – Nikita Kucherov

JT Brown – Valtteri Filppula – Ryan Callahan

Cedric Paquette – Brian Boyle – Erik Condra

Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman

Nikita Nestorov – Braydon Coburn

Jason Garrison – Andrej Sustr

Ben Bishop

Final Thoughts

3 more games until the All-Star break, and then we’ll get to see Connor McDavid back in Oiler blue. That’s going to be a good day. Until then, we weather the storm. It’s been 9 years, we can hack it a little while longer, right? Right?

The two periods I watched last night were great. The third, based on my Twitter feed, was a tire fire. However, I say that this is progress. When the season started, they were getting outplayed in first periods. Then, for a while, it was second periods. Now it’s third periods. If my (very sophisticated) math is correct, it should be a few more bad third periods before they get those entirely out of their system, and play a full 60. If that happens to coincide with the return of McDavid, so be it.

Oilers win tonight, 3-1.