Oilers Gameday – vs Calgary

Battle of Alberta tonight!

Calgary’s in town, looking to dismantle the Oilers yet again. I really hope that *someone* staples Johnny Gaudreau to the boards at some point. Nothing to take him out of the game, but enough to send a message.

Last Games

Edmonton

Shootout loss in San Jose. Not a terrible game by any stretch, but not the best finish. Taylor Hall has been snakebit, it seems, and can’t buy a goal. Neither can Nuge. But hey! Yak is back, baby! He scored a beauty goal in the 2nd, and hit the post (or possibly the crossbar) in the 3rd, and had a hell of a game. He was on the ice for about 11 minutes (which caused much grumbling on Oilers Twitter), but he looked pretty good.

Zack Kassian made his Oilers debut. I noticed that he looked tired (probably a function of not having played for 9 months). but he didn’t look out of place. I think I’l be okay with him out there.

Calgary

They probably won. (Actually now that I think about it, they did. And Sam Bennett had 4 goals. And wow. Someone should also hit him hard.)

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

I don’t know. Win?

They’ve shown us this season that they’re capable of playing well (Florida. That 1-0 loss to Washington. That game against Tampa), but they don’t do it consistently enough. Also, if the top 2 lines could get going, that’d be swell (Taylor, I believe in you, I do, but throw me a bone here).

Calgary

Get the puck to Bennett, apparently. Who knew that the kid who couldn’t do a pull-up last year could score 4 in a game? *shrugs* Still glad we got Draisaitl.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

#4 in your program, #1 in my heart – Taylor Hall. (I’ve been working on another piece that I might be able to post tomorrow that uses math and not just emotion to talk about how good he is. Because he is really REALLY good.)

Calgary

None of them. I refuse to acknowledge that there’s talent down there.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Iiro Pakarinen

Benoit Pouliot – Leon Draisaitl – Jordan Eberle

Teddy Purcell – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Lauri Korpikoski – Anton Lander – Nail Yakupov

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne

Darnell Nurse – Justin Schultz

Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Calgary

Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Micheal Ferland

Sam Bennett – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik

Mason Raymond – Markus Granlund – David Jones

Josh Jooris – Matt Stajan – Joe Colborne

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie

Kris Russell – Dougie Hamilton

Deryk Engelland – Dennis Wideman

Karri Ramo

Final Thoughts

The NHL is quickly turning into the NFL, at least in terms of not letting anyone have any fun ever.

John Scott was voted (by fans) as the captain of the Pacific team at this year’s All-Star game. Yes, THAT John Scott. Bob McKenzie reported that both the NHL and the Coyotes organization asked John to step down. He didn’t; why would he? It’s not like John Scott doesn’t know that he’s not as good as, say, Taylor Hall. But he was rolling with it and having fun with it, and even Jaromir Jagr quipped about being worried he’d have to fight Scott during the game. It should have been fun, and that should have been that.

Yesterday, however, John Scott was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, and then assigned to their farm team in St John’s. He won’t be called up prior to the break, rendering him ineligible for the game. (As if that’s not bad enough, Scott and his wife are expecting twins right away, and he’s been exiled to Newfoundland – which is a really hard place to travel from.)

There’s a bunch of people out there on the Twitter who were talking about Scott’s inclusion as something that was, at its core, threatening the integrity of the All-Star Game. Excuse me? Is this for the same game where they let players draft their own teams live on television, and gave a car to the guy who got picked last because even the NHL acknowledged that was a crappy thing to do. Is this the same All-Star Game where there were 29 goals scored in 2015? There is no integrity in the All-Star Game.

They changed the format this year to make it a 3-on-3 divisional tournament instead of just a game.

It’s a gimmick, and I’m pretty sure that more people would have tuned in if Scott had been there. The NHL should be ashamed.

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