Oilers Gameday – Vs. Flyers

The Oilers return to the ice tonight for a massive game against the Philadelphia Flyers in the first of two meetings between the sides on the year. This is game three of a four game homestand for Edmonton, while the Flyers are in game three of a road trip.

The Oilers will get F Matt Hendricks and D Griffin Reinhart back tonight, but are still without F Jordan Eberle, F Rob Klinkhammer and D Justin Schultz. The Flyers will be without F Sean Couturier and F Pierre-Edouard Bellemere who are on the IR currently.

The Oilers will be healthy scratching Mark Fayne for the second consecutive game tonight, along with D Andrew Ference.

Anders Nilsson will start for the Oilers while Michal Neuvirth starts for the Flyers.

Last Games:

Edmonton: The Oilers hosted Calgary on Saturday night in what can only be described as an extremely emotional tilt. The Flames dominated the first period, getting a pair of Michael Frolik goals and a Brandon Bollig tally to take a 3-1 lead to the room after Taylor Hall put the Oil on the board.

Brandon Davidson and TJ Brodie would trade markers in the middle frame, setting up a wild third period. Teddy Purcell and Leon Draisaitl would score to bring Edmonton even, but Frolik would complete his hat-trick with nine seconds left by beating Cam Talbot from a terrible angle to give the Flames a 5-4 victory.

Philadelphia: The Flyers were in Vancouver last night to battle the Canucks. Vancouver got going early as Jannik Hansen beat Steve Mason just 1:08 in. In the middle frame, Claude Giroux scored a beautiful goal to tie things up, but the Canucks would take charge after that.

Bo Horvat would snag his second of the season 10:10 into the middle frame, while Jake Virtanen and Matt Bartkowski would each add insurance markers to seal Vancouver’s 4-1 victory over the Flyers.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Flyers last met in Edmonton back in March of 2015. This game had a crazy opening period, as the Oil would get a Nugent-Hopkins tally to go up one just 51 seconds in. The Flyers scored three unanswered, two from Claude Giroux and one from Ryan White, before Teddy Purcell and Matt Hendricks each scored to tie the game at three.

Jordan Eberle would get the lone goal of the second period, while Michael Raffl answered with an early third period goal to force OT. In the extra frame, Nikita Nikitin would find Nugent-Hopkins who slid home his second of the game to give Edmonton a 5-4 victory.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: Play calm tonight! The Oilers need to clam things down on the back-end and take their time when moving the puck out of the zone. Don’t panic, just make the smart, high percentage play and let your forwards make the pretty plays to create the goals.

Philadelphia: Pressure the puck. If the Flyers can get in the faces of the Oilers tonight they’ll force a high number of turnovers and in turn get a high number of scoring chances. The Flyers are very capable scoring wise too, this is a dangerous team.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Griffin Reinhart returns to the lineup tonight and not a second too soon. Big Cat has been good for the Oilers this season and has provided them with a big presence who is solid defensively and who can play physical. I’ll be interested to see how he fares in his return to the lineup after injury.

Philadelphia: Jakub Voracek is a man about to break out. While he’s struggling to score goals, he’s firing a ton of shots on net and coming awfully close. Edmonton’s weak defense and below-average goaltending could make for a big night for this talented forward.

Quick Hits:

The sides split their season series last year with the home team winning each game. The Flyers have won three of their last four against the Oilers, including a shootout victory in Edmonton in December of 2013. This is the first of two meetings between the sides, they’ll meet again in March in Philadelphia. Connor McDavid won the NHL’s rookie of the month for October thanks to a 12 point output in 12 games. Taylor Hall leads Edmonton with 13 points in 12 games.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Leon Draisaitl

Benoit Pouliot – Connor McDavid – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Teddy Purcell

Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Griffin Reinhart – Eric Gryba

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Brandon Davidson – Oscar Klefbom

Anders Nilsson

Philadelphia Flyers Lines:

Michael Raffl – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek

Matt Read – Scott Laughton – Wayne Simmonds

Sam Gagner – Brayden Schenn – Vincent Lecavalier

Chris VandeVelde – Ryan White – R.J. Umberger

Michael Del Zotto – Mark Streit

Nick Schultz – Luke Schenn

Brandon Manning – Radko Gudas

Michal Neuvirth.