After a less than impressive start, the Oilers head to the Saddledome to face the Flames in this season’s first Battle of Alberta. The Flames are at the start of a three game homestand, while the Oilers are on a short two game road trip, that takes them to Calgary and Vancouver. They will then head home for a three game homestand of their own.
The Oilers enter tonight minus Jordan Eberle, who has been out for two weeks with a shoulder injury. The Flames will be without forwards Lance Bouma and Joe Colburne and defensemen TJ Brodie and former Oiler Ladislav Smid.
Cam Talbot gets the start for the Oilers, while Jonas Hiller gets the nod for Calgary.
Last Games:
Edmonton: The Oilers hosted their last, first game at Rexall place on Thursday night with a visit from the St. Louis Blues – the second meeting for these two teams within a week.
Edmonton wasted no time giving the orange-clad crowd something to cheer about as they opened scoring at 1:36 of the first period when Lauri Korpikoski fired a shot (the first one of the game for either team) past Brian Elliott.
Unfortunately for the Oilers, St. Louis was quick to respond. At 3:14, Jori Lehtera pounced on a rebound and made no mistake putting it past Talbot.
At 16:01 of the second period, the Blues took their first lead of the game. The red hot Tarasenko blasted an absolute bullet past Talbot off of an offensive zone draw, marking his 10th point in 10 career games against the Oilers. Thanks to some stellar play by Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, the Oilers managed to head into the second intermission only down by one goal.
At 4:20 of the third and final frame, the Blues were in the midst of a power play after Mark Fayne was called for holding against Alexander Steen. Steen got the ultimate revenge when his shot on net was tipped by Stastny to give the Blues a 3-1 lead.
The Oilers came right back as Taylor Hall, off the draw, cut through the Blues and lifted the puck over Elliot’s blocker in a beauty of an individual effort to score his first of the year to make it 3-2 at 6:37.
Later in the third period, Brouwer found himself on a shorthanded breakaway but an outstanding defensive play by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins kept it a one-goal game. The hope for an Oilers comeback was short lived as Steen scored at 17:51 of the third period to give the Blues a 3 goal lead ultimately sealing the deal.
The Oilers pulled Talbot for the extra attacker but were unable to pull back within one or net the equalizer.
The loss drops the Oilers to 0-4-0 on the season.
Calgary: The Flames visited the thriving metropolis of Winnipeg on Friday night for the two teams’ first meeting of the season. The Flames wasted no time getting down to business, opening the scoring just three-and-a-half minutes into the first period, when a wide open Mikael Backlund shoved home the rebound after a Sam Bennett wraparound try. Shots on goal favoured the Flames 11-8 after a sluggish opening 20 minutes for Winnipeg.
Midway through the first, the Jets found the equalizer when Wheeler’s thigh-high pass to Little took a very fortunate bounce in the crease, striking his right heel and finding it’s way around the pad of Ramo.
From there, it was all Winnipeg. The Jets went on a powerhouse, 8-0 run in shots that fired up the crowd at MTS Centre, but the second period would end in a 1-1 draw.
The Flames managed to hang on, and when it looked as though overtime was inevitable, Dustin Byfuglien went through the legs of Wideman and squeezed a short side shot past Karri Ramo, breaking a 1-1 tie with 1:28 left in the third period.
Calgary challenged the play, hoping to have the goal called back because of a missed offside, but after review the call on the ice was upheld.
Calgary put out the extra attacker, but with 53 seconds left to play, Blake Wheeler added the empty netter to give the Jets a 3-1 win.
The loss moves Calgary to 1-3 on the season thus far.
Last Meeting:
This is the first regular season Battle of Alberta, as the two teams have yet to meet each other in regular season. In the preseason, the Oilers and Flames split their squads in half and sent half to Calgary, and half to Edmonton to play in 2 games simultaneously. The Oilers came away victorious twice winning 3-1 in Calgary and 4-2 in Edmonton.
The Flames swept the Oilers 5-0 in the 2014-15 regular season with a combined score of 21-8.
Keys To The Game:
Edmonton: FIND YOUR POWERPLAY! The Oilers look very lost creating offence in general, but if they can’t generate something with an extra player – then they are in big trouble this season. KEEP UP THE PACE! The Oilers opened their season with back to back games against playoff caliber teams and despite the scoreboard, they’ve played hard and haven’t given up. Edmonton needs to come out playing physical, strong defensively and start putting up points offensively. Back to basics boys!
Calgary: The Oilers always have trouble against the Flames because they are a relentless, hard working team that wins battles. They have a few snipers, a lot of speed and they know how to get under the skin of their opponents. If they stick to their game plan and don’t let the Oilers ride the preseason momentum, they should be able to knock out a win.
Players To Watch:
Edmonton: Right winger Matt Hendricks’ hard work in the Oilers lineup has earned him a spot on the top line with Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I’ll be watching this line very closely to see if the combination of finesse from Nuge, breakneck speed from Hall and gritty play from Hendricks turns into a formula for success.
Calgary: Captain Mark Giordano is rounding back into form after missing the final six weeks of the regular season and each of Calgary’s 11 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after undergoing surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon. Giordano is catching up quickly and I expect him to come out flying against the Oilers for the first Battle of Alberta.
Quick Hits:
Flames D-man Dougie Hamilton was part of two separate trade proposals in both Edmonton and Calgary through the offseason, yet chose to go with the Flames scenario (that was arguably the worse of the two deals), leaving people to speculate that it was a dig to Oilers new General Manager, and former Bruins boss Peter Chiarelli. I’ll be watching the 22 year old defenseman closely tonight to see if he was worth all the fuss. This is the first Battle of Alberta for the 2015-16 season with a couple of very young, very fast teams. I think for the first time in awhile, you can expect to see an actual battle tonight.
On October 17, 2014 – the Oilers dropped to 0-5 with one of their worst starts in history. Tonight, one year later – to the date, they are in danger of doing it again.
The Lines:
Edmonton Oilers:
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Matt Hendricks
Benoit Pouliot- Connor McDavid – Nail Yakupov
Lauri Korpikoski – Anton Lander – Teddy Purcell
Luke Gazdic – Mark Letestu – Rob Klinkhammer
Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz
Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba
Cam Talbot
Calgary Flames:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Sam Bennett – Mikael Backlund – Micheal Frolik
Michael Ferland – Matt Stajan – David Jones
Mason Raymond – Josh Jooris – Brandon Bollig
Mark Giordano – Dougie Hamilton
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Brett Kulak – Deryk Engelland
Jonas Hiller
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