Oilers Gameday – Vs. Lightning

OILERS (15-12-5) vs. LIGHTNING (15-14-2)

TV: 8:00 p.m. MT; Televised on CBC & Sportsnet 360

After a much needed three day break, the Edmonton Oilers play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tonight marks the first of two meetings against the high octane Lightning. Last time these two teams met was on January 29th, when Tampa Bay toppled the Oilers by a score of 6-4.

The Oilers are coming off the heels of a disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier in the week. As I wrote earlier in the week, the Oilers have now gotten over what I feel is the toughest stretch of the Oilers season.

This season, the Lightning are a measly 1-6 agasint the Western Conference.

KEYS TO THE GAME

Edmonton

• JWB. Just win, baby. That’s all that matters.
• Come out strong. It’s something the team hasn’t done much of, so it would be nice to see a strong start to tonights game to set the tempo.

Tampa Bay

• The Lightning have lost four of their last five games. I’m sure they’ll be looking for a W.
• As I mentioned earlier, they are looking for their second win against the West this season. In order to do that, they need to take away any confidence the Oilers muster.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Edmonton

• Andrej Sekera is set to play in his 600th NHL game tonight. I think he is going to pot a goal an assist tonight.
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins won 11 of 15 faceoffs (73%) vs Columbus last week and has won 62.2% of his draws in his last three games. He continues his faceoff success winning 75% of his draws tonight.

Tampa Bay

• Nikita Kucherov leads TB in goals and points. He has missed the last two due to injury and if he draws into the lineup tonight he will be looking for a big game.
• Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman had a tough performance against the Canucks last night. The Lightnings top pair will be looking for a bounce back tonight.

LINEUPS

Edmonton

Milan Lucic – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle

Drake Caggiula – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Tyler Pitlick

Patrick Maroon – Leon Draisaitl – Taylor Beck

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell

Brandon Davidson – Matt Benning

Cam Talbot

Tampa Bay

Cory Conacher – Tyler Johnson – Erik Condra

Brian Boyle – Valtteri Filppula – Jonathan Drouin

Alex Killorn – Vladislav Namestikov – Brayden Point

Joel Vermin – Cedric Paquette – J.T. Brown

Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman

Jason Garrison – Andrej Sustr

Brayden Coburn – Nikita Nesterov

Ben Bishop
Lineups (subject to change) courtesy The Daily Faceoff.

PREDICTION

Oilers win 3-0, Sekera 1G 1A, McDavid 2G.

OILERS RIG LIVE4MS

Our 4th annual fundraiser for the MS Society of Alberta is set for January 21, 2017 at The Pint Downtown, at 6:30pm

It’s a Battle of Alberta on HNIC, with the Oilers in Calgary. Puck drop is 8:00pm.

We’ll have a great lineup of silent auction items, as well as raffles throughout the night. We might even have tshirts for sale (but we’ll let you know as we get closer to the date).

All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.

See you there!