Oilers Gameday – vs Rangers

Well the Oilers have once again found themselves in the midst of a losing streak. Right now that streak sits at 3 games with losses this week against the San Jose Sharks and back to backs against the Anaheim Ducks. Tonight the hapless Oilers find themselves up against a New York Rangers team that seems to be finding their way.

Last Games and Last Meeting:

The Oilers played Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks, a game that saw the home team come out flat and barely hang on to a 4-2 loss. Starting goalie Viktor Fasth was pulled early in the second after his team forgot to hockey in front of him and they allowed 2 quick goals to go down 3-0. Fasth subsequently let the players in front on him know what he thought of their poor play. After the little incident the Ducks checked out and allowed the Oilers to feel good about themselves for 20 minutes, scoring 2 goals in the 3rd period before allowing an empty netter to put it away.

The Rangers played the late game on HNIC last night against the Vancouver Canucks and laid down a beating of epic proportions, this game was put away early in the first as the Rangers jumped out to an early 2 goal lead and never looked back. Lundqvist was good when he needed to be. If the same Rangers team shows up tonight then the Oilers are in big big trouble.

The last meeting between these two teams saw the Oilers win, the last win before the infamous 11 game losing streak in which we saw the organization do absolutely nothing to change the future of this team.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: NOT SUCK, that’s pretty much it. Play a strong game in front of tonights goaltender, battle for pucks and get traffic in front of the Rangers net. Who am I kidding though, none of those things are likely to happen. Did I mention the Oilers called up Brad Hunt.

New York: Play half as good as they played last night. The last time the Oilers played a team on the second half of a back to back they won. The chances of the Oilers winning twice in one week are pretty low, but they’ll be rested so the Rangers will need to come out hard early to get a mentally weak opponent to fold like a dirty shirt.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, easily the most consistent player on the team this year he’s shown the ability to play with an edge, its something that needs to continue and an example the rest of the players need to take heed of. Did I mention the Oilers called up Brad Hunt.

Anaheim: Rick Nash, Nash has found his goal scoring touch this season as he now sits second in the league with 18 goals. (he’s behind only Tyler Seguin…UGH). Martin St. Louis is the other player to watch here for the Rangers, over his great career he’s scored 12 points in 18 games vs the Oil.

Quick Hits:

Did I mention the Oilers called up Brad Hunt?

Not sure if Hunt get’s in the line up or not but the other day Reid Wilkins from 630 CHED was hinting that Mark Fayne may be a bit banged up and maybe he slides in there, most likely a game time decision.

The Oilers have also made a few lineup changes, Teddy Purcell has moved up to the first line with RNH and Hall, Pitlick is now down with Arco and Perron. On the PP units we are going to see Matt Hendricks in as the net front presence (UGH) and Pitlick in the same role on the 2nd unit.

I haven’t seen a starting goalie offficially announced yet for the Oilers, but my guess is Scrivens. Although if it were me I’d go with Fasth again.

The Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Teddy Purcell

Nail Yakupov – Leon Draisaitl – Jordan Eberle

David Perron – Mark Arcobello – Tyler Pitlick

Luke Gazdic – Matt Hendricks – Steve Pinizzotto

Oscar Klefbom – Mark Fayne

Andrew Ference – Jeff Petry

Brandon Davidson – Justin Schultz

Ben Scrivens

New York Rangers Lines:

Rick Nash – Derrick Brassard – Mats Zuccarello

J.T Miller – Derrick Stepan – Marty St. Louis

Carl Hagelin – Kevin Hayes – Lee Stempniak

Chris Kreider – Dominic Moore – Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonough – Dan Girardi

Eric Staal – Dan Boyle

John Moore – Kevin Klein

Cam Talbot

Thanks for Reading.