Oilers Gameday – Vs. Blues

After a tough start to the season, the Oilers return home tonight to battle the St. Louis Blues in the second of three meetings on the season. The Blues are in the second game of a western Canadian road trip, while the Oilers are in a pit-stop at home before heading back out on the road.

The Oilers enter tonight minus Jordan Eberle, who has been out for two weeks with a shoulder injury. The Blues will be without Kevin Shattenkirk and Robby Fabbri, who scored the game winner in last week’s meeting.

Cam Talbot gets the start for the Oilers, while Brian Elliott gets the nod for St. Louis.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers were in Dallas on Tuesday night for a game that ended up being a nightmare. Dallas dominated Edmonton in the first period and took a 1-0 lead when Jason Spezza opened the scoring on a weird shot at the 17:48 mark.

Dallas extended their lead with a Jamie Benn goal at the 2:42 mark on a pretty shot that beat Nilsson. Edmonton would respond with a solid ten minutes and two quick goals, one on an Oscar Klefbom shot at 10:55 and another off of a McDavid tip-in at the 12:18 mark.

Dallas would take over in the third period, however, and completely dominate the Oilers. They would get rewarded at the 15:30 mark as Jason Spezza beat Nilsson with a quick shot from the slot. He’d also add an empty net goal to seal the 4-2 Dallas victory.

St. Louis: The Blues were in Calgary on Tuesday night. The Flames opened the scoring just 1:14 in thanks to a Mason Raymond tally, but after that things would tighten up. The Blues tied things thanks to a Scottie Upshall goal late, but Jiri Hudler would make things 2-1 after twenty minutes.

The Blues would dominate from that point on, and put home three goals in the middle frame. Troy Brouwer tied things up 2:49 in, while Colten Parayko, an Alberta boy, would score the first two goals of his NHL career at the 4:47 and 19:28 marks to put the Blues up 4-2.

David Jones would get the Flames within one early in the final frame, but Brian Elliott would seal the deal to give St. Louis a 4-3 win on the road.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Blues met last Thursday night in St. Louis for the season opener on both sides. The Blues dominated the first ten minutes of the game, but Edmonton hung in there and battled back, eventually scoring the first goal on the power-play thanks to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

The Blues would turn things around in the middle frame, as Vladimir Tarasenko would capitalize on a bad Oiler line change to tie things at one a piece. St. Louis would push and take control in the third, getting goals from Robby Fabbri and Troy Brouwer to take the contest by a 3-1 score.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: Show up and play your game. The Oilers had a lot of passengers out there on Tuesday night, and that is flat out unacceptable. If Edmonton wants to beat teams like the Blues, they will need to play 60 full minutes and play within their system. They did that last week and nearly won.

St. Louis: Just like last week, the Blues need to play a physical game against Edmonton and push the smaller and skilled Oilers around so to speak. If they can do that, they should limit this cold offense and take another two points.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: D Andrej Sekera was brought in this summer to be a stabilizing force on Edmonton’s blue-line. So far, that has not been the case. The veteran has struggled mightily, and was exposed badly in Dallas on Tuesday. I’ll be watching him tonight to see if the turnaround begins.

St. Louis: Colton Parayko is quite the story. He was overlooked in the WHL but blossomed late and is now in the Blues’ top-four on defense. The Alberta boy makes his first trip to Edmonton tonight and I’ll be very interested to see how he handles this game. He appears like a solid young player.

Quick Hits:

Tonight will be Connor McDavid’s first official home game as a member of the Edmonton Oilers. Like Wayne Gretzky before him, the highly touted McDavid scored his first NHL goal in his third NHL game, Tuesday in Dallas. Blues F Robby Fabbri suffered a concussion last Saturday and is out indefinitely. He scored the game winner last Thursday against Edmonton. The Blues have won nine in a row against Edmonton.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Benoit Pouliot – Connor McDavid – Nail Yakupov

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Matt Hendricks

Lauri Korpikoski – Anton Lander – Teddy Purcell

Luke Gazdic – Mark Letestu – Anton Slepyshev

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

St. Louis Blues Lines:

Alex Steen – Paul Stastny – Vladimir Tarasenko

Dmitrij Jaskin – David Backes – Troy Brouwer

Scottie Upshall – Jori Lehtera – Jaden Schwartz

Steve Ott – Kyle Brodziak – Ryan Reaves

Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo

Carl Gunnarsson – Colton Parayko

Robert Bortuzzo – Joel Edmundson

Brian Elliott