Oilers Gameday - @ Vancouver - The Sports Daily

After a three day break, the NHL is back in action today, and the Oilers are in Vancouver to take on the Jake Virtanen-less Canucks.

I hope the Oilers are ready for this game, because after today’s Team Canada loss in the WJHC, I need some good sports news.

Last Games

Edmonton

The Oilers won on Monday night against Winnipeg, which is surprising because they were hot garbage. I think they got outshot by a margin of about a billion to one, so kudos to Cam Talbot for keeping the Oil in the game.

Vancouver

I don’t know, but they did it without Jake Virtanen because he’s in Finland with Team Canada. And they apparently had a million penalties, which seems about right for a Canucks team that has Alex Burrows on it.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

Not let Vancouver get more than 30 shots. It is unreasonable to expect that a team can win game after game while also giving up a million shots a game. And score a power play goal or seven, which shouldn’t be hard since the Canucks spend a lot of time in the box.

Vancouver

Stay out of the box. Get lots of shots on net. Stay sharp against the Oilers top line.

But mostly – stay out of the box.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

Taylor Hall, obviously. Last game, Drew Remenda said that Leon Draisaitl spends a lot of his time on the ice looking for Taylor Hall. I laughed, and then tweeted what might by the best thing I’ve ever said about Hall

Leon Draisaitl and I are the same in that we are both always looking for Taylor Hall. @kelseystyre

— Megan (@mig14) December 22, 2015

This should come as no surprise to anyone, so I’m just going to leave this here.

Vancouver

The Sedins, probably? Though I know they’re not quite as good as they were that year Vancouver didn’t win the Cup, they’re still kind of amazing to watch. Also, look for Alex Burrows to be human trash out there, because that’s what he does.

Lineups

Edmonton

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski

Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Justin Schultz – Mark Fayne

Nikita Nikitin – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Vancouver

Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Jannik Hansen

Chris Higgins – Jared McCann – Alex Burrows

Sven Baertschi – Bo Horvat – Radim Vrbata

Brandon Prust – Adam Cracknell – Derek Dorsett

Alexander Edler – Chris Tanev

Matt Bartkowski – Alex Biega

Ben Hutton – Yannick Weber

Jacob Markstrom

Final Thoughts

The Oilers are legitimately in the hunt. In late December. This is somewhat unprecedented, and I don’t know what to do with my hands. I know the wins haven’t been pretty, but I will take the 2 points any way we can get them.

That said – it’s okay if some fans are skeptical about the team’s successes, or if they’re not convinced that the Oilers are getting better. I mean, those people are probably (going to be) wrong, but as it stands right now there isn’t a ton of empirical evidence to support the conclusion that the Oil ARE in fact better than they’ve been in a long while. That’s not to say they aren’t better sometimes, but it’s often hard to tell.

Some people are happy with the progress, some are not; the people who are not as pleased are known as realists. Some other “fans” are just malcontents who thrive on others’ misery and should probably be strapped to a rocket and fired into the sun.

The point is this is our team, for better or for worse, and the best part of cheering for them (in my mind) is the community it brings. When we win the Stanley Cup (sometime before 2027, I hope), we should still all be here.

Seriously. Be nice to each other. We all hate this goddamn team, so we might as well enjoy each other’s company while we do.

— Megan (@mig14) December 22, 2015