Oilers Gameday – Vs. Hurricanes

The Oilers return to Rexall Place tonight looking to build off of some momentum after finally getting their first winning streak of the season on Wednesday night. Tonight, Edmonton gets a visit from a rare opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, who were last at Rexall in December of 2013. The Oilers have won two in a row, beating Tampa Bay and Washington, while Carolina still has yet to find their first win of the season. Edmonton is in game four of a seven game home-stand, while Carolina is in the midst of a western road trip.

The Hurricanes are playing in the second half of back-to-back games, and are without star Jordan Staal, who was injured in a pre-season tilt with the Buffalo Sabres. For Edmonton, both forward Luke Gazdic and goalie Viktor Fasth are week-to-week with injuries.

Ben Scrivens, who was sensational on Wednesday, is expected to start for Edmonton, while Anton Khudobin is expected to start for Carolina.

The Last Game:

Edmonton: The Oilers battled Washington at home on Wednesday night in a game that saw a ton of good offensive chances. After an even start, Edmonton cashed in first as Teddy Purcell found a streaking Justin Schultz in front of the net who deposited the puck past Braden Holtby at the 6:53 mark. John Carlson would tie things up less than four minutes later with a power-play bomb that sent things to the break tied at one.

In the second, Mike Green would score a goal at the 4:50 mark as Andre Burakovsky found the blue-liner up top for the blast. Just twenty seconds later however, Edmonton would answer as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins converted off of an Alex Ovechkin turn-over to tie things up. Later in the period, on an Edmonton power-play, Teddy Purcell found Nikita Nikitin up top who blasted home a one-timer to give the Oilers a lead, 3-2.

The third period was all Washington, who brought tons of pressure and fired 13 shots on Ben Scrivens, who was simply sensational all night long. Scrivens stopped all 13 shots against, which included some grade A chances, and sealed Edmonton’s second win of the season, a 3-2 decision. All in all, the professor made 32 stops on the night.

Carolina: The Canes played in a game last night in Calgary in which they likely would want to forget. The sides played a relatively even first period, but Calgary broke through late, at the 18:18 mark, as defender Dennis Wideman blasted home a shot from the point. In the second, Calgary would get insurance in the form of two goals, one from Jiri Hudler and another from Sean Monahan.

In the third period, Monahan would beat Cam Ward for the second time on the night with a back-handed shot at the 3:23 mark that all but put the game away for the home side. Less than two minutes later, at the 5:15 mark, Lance Bouma tipped home a Josh Jooris shot to give Calgary the 5-0 lead.

Jonas Hiller only had to stop 16 Hurricane shots to claim the shut-out, while Cam Ward stopped only 19 of 24 Calgary shots on net. Overall, Carolina looked like the far lesser team here, and still find themselves winless on the season.

The Last Meeting:

Edmonton and Carolina last met back in March in North Carolina for the final tilt of the two-game season set. The game saw an even start overall. Edmonton struck first as Matt Hendricks found the back of the net off of a Boyd Gordon feed just 6:43 in. After that, Carolina started to push back, and got the game tying goal at the 19:42 mark as Jordan Staal beat Scrivens off of a feed from brother Eric.

The second period saw both goalies make some spectacular saves and shut the door for each team. Ben Scrivens stopped nine Carolina shots, while Khudobin stopped all eleven Edmonton shots fired his way.

The third period saw a desperate Oiler team push hard for the win, and get rewarded with a power-play a little under halfway through the frame. Edmonton didn’t waste their chance, as Justin Schultz sniped home the game winning goal.

Edmonton would hang on and claim a 2-1 victory, sweeping the season series between the teams.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: This is an Oilers team with a lot of skill playing a Carolina team with a weak defense. For Edmonton, tonight’s key to the game is to use their speed and create chances. The Hurricanes defense is just brutal, and likely will have no answer for a swift attack from Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. Create chances, and this game will be Edmonton’s.

Carolina: Edmonton is a mentally weaker team, and if the Hurricanes can get things going early then they could be sitting pretty. Their key to the game is quite simple, take the wind out of Edmonton’s sails early. Use your physical play and slow the game down to get the Oilers a little discouraged and convert on your chances!

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: The clock is ticking for Leon Draisaitl. The big man has just two assists in seven NHL games, and really hasn’t looked that great. That being said, he just played his best game of his young career on Wednesday night, and has started to show some signs that maybe he is ready to play. A good game tonight would go a long way to cementing his spot in Edmonton, and I’ll say he gets NHL goal number one here.

Carolina: The Hurricanes are banged up and missing their top players, so the usual suspects to watch are not options here. So who should we pay attention to? The answer is Jeff Skinner, one of the NHL’s better young goal scorers. Skinner has battled injury the last few seasons, but has still found a way to post solid offensive totals. I’d keep an eye on the young sniper tonight against a weaker Edmonton defense.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Teddy Purcell – Leon Draisaitl – David Perron

Benoit Pouliot – Mark Arcobello – Nail Yakupov

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon – Jesse Joensuu

Nikita Nikitin – Justin Schultz

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Martin Marincin – Mark Fayne

Ben Scrivens

Carolina Hurricanes Lines:

Jiri Tlusty – Victor Rask – Alexander Semin

Jeff Skinner – Riley Nash – Elias Lindholm

Chris Terry – Jay McClement – Zach Boychuk

Brad Malone – Brody Sutter – Patrick Brown

Andrej Sekera – Justin Faulk

Tim Gleason – Ryan Murphy

John-Michael Liles – Ron Hainsey

Anton Khudobin