Oilers Gameday – Vs. Coyotes

Nine. 9. N I N E. That is how many games the Oilers have lost in a row. It’s been ugly, it’s been sad, it’s been pathetic. Edmonton played decent last Thursday in Nashville, and tried fighting against the Blues, but neither effort resulted in wins. Tonight, Edmonton makes a quick stop at home to battle Arizona, who has already beaten them twice this season, including once during this losing skid.

Edmonton shuffled the deck a little on Sunday, waiving forward Jesse Joensuu and sending defender Martin Marincin to the AHL while recalling forward Tyler Pitlick. The Oilers are without Matt Hendricks right now, who is battling a leg injury, and will insert Tyler Pitlick into the lineup tonight.

Viktor Fasth starts for Edmonton, while Mike Smith gets the nod for Arizona.

The Last Games:

The Oilers last played on Friday against the Blues, and submitted a solid 20 minutes of play. That said, it was far from good enough. TJ Oshie opened the scoring at the 11:35 mark, the lone goal of the first frame. Edmonton tied things up with a David Perron tally at the 5:51 mark of the second, while Nikita Nikitin gave Edmonton a late lead off of a great Taylor Hall feed. The second was a great 20 minutes from the Oilers, who actually carried the play.

The third period was all Blues however. St. Louis pushed back, and retook control of the game in a big way. The Blues tied things just 31 seconds into the frame with a Kevin Shattenkirk bomb, but couldn’t hold off a quick strike by Mark Arcobello to give Edmonton the lead back. The Blues tied things for good with a Alex Pietrangelo goal late, and then stepped on the gas and ended things for the Oilers.

In an OT dominated by the Blues, Vlad Tarasenko got a golden chance which he converted to give the Blues a 4-3 OT win.

The Coyotes last played on Saturday at home against the Flames, but never really found themselves in the game. Calgary outplayed the Yotes all night, and got solid goaltending to totally shut-down Arizona’s attack. The Flames opened the scoring early in the second thanks to a TJ Brodie goal, which would be the deciding marker.

Johnny Gaudreau and Jiri Hudler each added insurance markers, while Kari Ramo stopped all 26 shots to give the Flames a 3-0 win over Arizona.

The Last Meeting:

Edmonton and Arizona last met at Rexall Place in early November in a tilt that saw both Devan Dubnyk and Sam Gagner return to Edmonton. The Oilers actually were the better team in this game, but just couldn’t solve their old goalie. The Yotes opened the scoring in the first period, as Brandon Gormley blasted a puck home on the power-play late in the frame.

The Yotes added the insurance early in the third, as Mikkel Boedker found a way to beat Scrivens, all but putting the game away. Taylor Hall would get Edmonton within one, but it was simply a stat padder in Arizona’s 2-1 win.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: TRAFFIC! Mike Smith has struggled this season, both with seeing puck and confidence wise. The Oilers need to get into his head tonight, and crash the net and make Smith move. If the Oilers provide some traffic and use a net front presence tonight, they might be able to solve a guy that has owned them over the years.

Arizona: The Coyotes have found a way to beat Edmonton recently, and it’s been due to their defensive play. Arizona’s key to tonight’s game is very simple, keep Edmonton to the outside. Mike Smith is good enough where if he sees the shots, he is going to stop them. The Oilers don’t have a bomb from the point either. If the Yotes make them use the perimeter, this will be an easy win.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Taylor Hall has dominated the Coyotes this season, and is clearly frustrated with how this last stretch has gone. He is Edmonton’s best player, and he knows how to create offense against this team. Something tells me we see a little bit more of that tonight.

Arizona: Sam Gagner didn’t score last meeting, but the Yotes center is starting to figure it out, and we know all about Gagner’s streaky scoring stretches. Edmonton struggles against purely offensive players, and is due to be burnt by a former player this season. Gagner is the first to score against his old mates.

Quick Facts:

The Oilers have lost nine in a row, four off the franchise record of 13 games in a row. Edmonton is 0-11-3 against the west this season, the only team in the NHL to not win a game against their own conference. Arizona won each of the first two meetings between the teams, once in October and once again in November at Rexall Place.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Nail Yakupov – Mark Arcobello – Teddy Purcell

David Perron – Leon Draisaitl – Tyler Pitlick

Luke Gazdic – Boyd Gordon – Steve Pinizzotto

Andrew Ference – Mark Fayne

Oscar Klefbom – Jeff Petry

Nikita Nikitin – Justin Schultz

Viktor Fasth

Arizona Coyotes Lines:

Lauri Korpikoski – Antoine Vermette – Mikkel Boedker

Tobias Rieder – Martin Hanzel – Shane Doan

Brendan Shinnimin – Sam Gagner – Martin Erat

Brandon McMillan – Joe Vitale – B.J. Crombeen

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Zbynek Michalek

Keith Yandle – Michael Stone

David Schlemko – Connor Murphy

Mike Smith