Oilers Gameday – Vs. Blue Jackets

The Oilers return to the ice tonight to host the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second and final meeting between the sides this season. This is Columbus’ first visit to Edmonton in over a year and a half, and is the second meeting between the sides in less than a week. This starts a western road trip for Columbus.

The Oilers will be without F’s Taylor Hall and Matt Fraser, who are both injured. D Nikita Nikitin is a gametime decision, while F Luke Gazdic is currently questionable with illness. A recall of F Andrew Miller is possible before tonight’s game. The Jackets will be without F’s Matt Calvert, David Clarkson, Boone Jenner, Jeremy Morin and Jack Skille, as all are on the IR.

Ben Scrivens starts for Edmonton, while Sergei Bobrovsky starts for Columbus.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night in a blow-out victory for the home team. Edmonton got going just 53 seconds in as Benoit Pouliot blasted a shot over the shoulder of Jonathan Bernier. Jordan Eberle picked up his 19th of the season on a quick shot on the power-play at the 7:16 mark, while Pouliot would add his second of the night just 52 seconds later to put Edmonton up 3-0.

Anton Lander would add a power-play marker at the 10:59 mark, while James Van Riemsdyk would get the Leafs on the board three minutes later as he tipped home a Dion Phaneuf shot.

The Leafs would actually play decent hockey the rest of the night, but it mattered not as Ben Scrivens played a great final 45 minutes to seal Edmonton’s 4-1 victory, which snapped a seven game losing skid.

Columbus: The Jackets hosted Carolina on Sunday afternoon in a closely fought back-and-forth tilt. The first period saw both teams get their chances, but only one convert. The Jackets took a lead with just one second left thanks to a Nick Foligno power-play marker.

Carolina wouldn’t be denied by the goal however, as Justin Faulk and Ron Hainsey would each score in the first ten minutes of the second period to give Carolina a lead. The Jackets would tie it with a Scott Hartnell goal at the 12:27 mark, but it was short lived. Carolina battled back, and regained the lead for good at the 14 minute mark with a Brad Malone goal.

Anton Khudobin would stop all eleven Columbus shots in the third period, giving Carolina a nice little 3-2 victory on the road.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Jackets met last Friday night in a wild affair at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets controlled the first period, getting goals in the first and final minutes thanks to Marko Dano and Cam Atkinson. Edmonton finally stayed out of the penalty box in the second period, and got chances of their own, converting on two compliments Jordan Eberle and Derek Roy to tie the game.

Artem Anisimov would restore Columbus’ lead at the 16:51 mark of the second, but Andrew Ference would once again tie things in the final minute of the period to send us to the third period tied. Nail Yakupov and Scott Hartnell would trade goals in the third to send us to overtime, which actually solved nothing.

The shoot-out was quite useless as well until the the fifth round, when Alex Wennberg beat Ben Scrivens to seal a 5-4 victory for the Blue Jackets on home ice.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: A full sixty minute effort tonight is key. Edmonton dominated stretches on Friday night, but got complacent at times in that meeting. If Edmonton can get the engine going right away and keep plugging away all night, I’m confident they will win this hockey game.

Columbus: Stay out of the penalty box!! The Oilers power-play has been the best in the NHL since the All-Star break, and it completely dominated Columbus on Friday. The Jackets’ PK is weak as is, and can’t allow Edmonton to fire away at will again.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: F Nail Yakupov just keeps on chugging, and will once again get a chance to do some damage tonight. Yakupov has been clicking on all cylinders lately, and looked very good last Friday against the Jackets. If he brings that kind of effort again tonight, another impactful performance will be the result.

Columbus: F Marko Dano is really emerging as a solid young scoring threat for Columbus. While he doesn’t possess elite talent, Dano seems like a perfectly good complimentary piece moving forward. That could be very good news for a Blue Jackets’ team desperately trying to turn things around.

Quick Hits:

Jordan Eberle has a remarkable 11 points in his last five games, and is up to 55 points on the season. The Oilers’ power-play has been the NHL’s best unit since the All-Star game back in late January. Edmonton won the last meeting between the sides at Rexall Place by a dominating 7-0 margin. Blue Jackets’ F Scott Hartnell scored his 20th goal of the season this past weekend.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Teddy Purcell – Derek Roy – Nail Yakupov

Ryan Hamilton – Anton Lander – Andrew Miller

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Rob Klinkhammer

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Martin Marincin – Mark Fayne

Andrew Ference – Nikita Nikitin

Ben Scrivens

Columbus Blue Jackets Lines:

Brandon Dubinsky – Ryan Johansen – Cam Atkinson

Nick Foligno – Artem Anisimov – Rene Bourque

Scott Hartnell – Alexander Wennberg – Marko Dano

Corey Tropp – Mark Letestu – Jared Boll

Jack Johnson – David Savard

Fedor Tyutin – Ryan Murray

Kevin Connauton – Dalton Prout

Sergei Bobrovsky