Oilers Gameday @ Vancouver: Time To Regroup?

After a dismal effort (on Fan Appreciation Night, no less) on Tuesday, the Oilers are on the road in Vancouver to take on the Canucks.  *Insert witty repartee about how the Oilers just need to do something (literally ANYTHING) in order to best the Canucks*

Tuesday’s game was bad. The Oilers got up 3-0 on the Blue Jackets, and then lost 7-3 because on a night when the organization was saying thank you to its fans, what better way to show appreciation than for the team to do its best impersonation of the Cleveland Browns at the trade deadline.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• It’d be good if more players than just Connor McDavid seemed to want to win?
• For real though, if they could just hold a lead things would be a lot different.

Vancouver

• They need to get a couple goals early and then play the Oilers into a corner. For whatever reason, Edmonton is practically incapable of protecting a lead so if a team can capitalize, they’ll find success.
  (Yes, this is copied and pasted from last game, and it was true then and it’s true now.)

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• Connor McDavid is going to single-handedly pull the team into like…20th place. Of course that’s not enough to make the playoffs, but the kid refuses to quit.

Vancouver

• Unfortunately Brock Boeser (who has been the Canucks best player almost since the beginning of the season) is out, so you’re going to have to watch the Sedins do their weird twin thing and wonder if they’ve ever put on the other guy’s sweater and played a game as the other guy.
• Adam Gaudette makes his NHL debut tonight, after signing an ELC with the Canucks. He spent 3 years at Northeastern University, where he amassed 56-56-112 in 75 games.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Rattie

Caggiula-Draisaitl-Aberg

Lucic-Strome-Puljujarvi

Slepyshev-Khaira-Kassian

Nurse-Larsson

Russell-Bear

Sekera-Benning

Talbot

Vancouver

Goldobin-Horvat-Virtanen

D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Gagner

Motte-Sutter-Gaudette

Boucher-Dowd-Jokinen

Edler-Stecher

Del Zotto-Pouliot

Sautner-Biega

Markstrom

Notes

Without doing a lot of digging, there was some conversation on Twitter the other day about how the Oilers need to find a winger to play with Leon Draisaitl (especially now that RNH has found some success  with Connor). Leon does need someone who can keep up with him, it’s true, and there is a real shortage of highly skilled wingers out there unless a team wanted to, say, offer a pretty average middle pair defenceman on a one-for-one deal.

No one would take that bait though, right?