Oilers Gameday – Vs. Sharks

The Oilers return to the ice tonight to battle their division rivals, the San Jose Sharks, for the first time this season in the fourth game of a five game homestand for Edmonton. It’ll be the second of a Western Canada road trip for the Sharks and the second half of a back-to-back set. Edmonton has been off since Sunday night.

The Oilers will be without F’s Connor McDavid, Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov and Rob Klinkhammer along with D Andrew Ference, all of whom are on the IR. D Mark Fayne, who was placed on waivers, and F Ryan Hamilton are expected to be the healthy scratches tonight. The Sharks, meanwhile, will be without F Ben Smith, who is on the IR.

Anders Nilsson starts for the Oilers while Martin Jones gets the nod for the Sharks.

Last Game:

Edmonton: The Oilers hosted Buffalo on Sunday night in a tilt that featured some offensive flare. Buffalo struck first, just 6:58 in, as Jack Eichel fired a backhand past Anders Nilsson, but it was all Edmonton after that. Teddy Purcell tied things under three minutes later, tipping home a Taylor Hall shot, while Jordan Eberle and Hall would each score late to put Edmonton up 3-1 after twenty.

The Sabres would take advantage of an Edmonton blunder at the 13:22 mark of the middle frame as Ryan O’Reilly would sneak past the defense and beat Nilsson for a power-play marker that brought us to 3-2. Luke Gazdic restored Edmonton’s two goal lead four minutes later by crashing the net and stuffing home a rebound.

The Sabres pushed in the final twenty minutes, but Nilsson stood tall, making 16 saves to preserve the Oilers 4-2 victory.

San Jose: The Sharks were in Calgary last night to battle the Flames. The sides traded goals early, with Calgary scoring compliments Markus Granlund just 1:45 in. The Sharks answered with a Chris Tierney goal three minutes later, but Sean Monahan’s power-play marker restored Calgary’s lead at 8:07.

Joe Thornton would score his fourth of the season at 11:02 to tie things on the man advantage, but the Flames would take things over from that point, controlling the play and scoring chances. Michael Frolik put the Flames ahead 2:27 into the second, while Mikael Backlund added insurance six minutes later.

Karri Ramo would stand tall by saving nine Sharks shots in the final frame to preserve the 4-2 Calgary win.

Last Meeting:

The Oilers and Sharks last met in Edmonton back in April of 2015, the second to last game of the season. San Jose dominated this tilt, but Laurent Brossoit stole the show in his first NHL game. Nail Yakupov opened the scoring 12:30 into the middle frame with his 13th of the season, but Edmonton failed to do much after.

Patrick Marleau finally broke through 10:32 into the third period, while Bryan Lerg put San Jose on top seven minutes later. Matt Nieto would add insurance as the Sharks topped Edmonton by a final of 3-1.

Keys To The Game:

Edmonton: A quick start is massive for Edmonton tonight. The Sharks are playing bad hockey and have no momentum right now, while Edmonton is extremely confident and playing well. Get up early and the Sharks might fold in the second half of a back-to-back.

San Jose: Assert yourself with physical play. The Sharks are still a bigger and stronger team than Edmonton, meaning their physical advantage is still a thing. Use that tonight and the Sharks will likely get two much needed points.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Justin Schultz is coming off of arguably his best game of the season against Buffalo. Schultz looked confident and played his game against the skilled Sabres. I’ll be interested to see how he does against a much more physical opponent tonight in San Jose.

San Jose: Brent Burns was a favorite of Todd McLellan’s in San Jose and it’s easy to see why. He’s big, he’s fast and he is very skilled. Burns is arguably the best player in San Jose and I’m interested to see how he handles Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl tonight.

Quick Hits:

The Oilers are looking for their first four game winning streak of the season, they previously won three in a row back in October. After his multi-point night on Sunday, Taylor Hall is once again at a point-per-game pace, having scored 28 points in 28 games. Joe Pavelski leads the San Jose attack with 25 points in 26 contests.

Lines:

Edmonton Oilers Lines:

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Jujhar Khaira – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski

Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera

Oscar Klefbom – Justin Schultz

Brandon Davidson – Eric Gryba

Anders Nilsson

San Jose Sharks Lines:

Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Joel Ward

Matt Nieto – Tomas Hertl – Tommy Wingles

Dainius Zubrus – Chris Tierney – Joonas Donskoi

Paul Martin – Brent Burns

Brendan Dillon – Justin Braun

Mirco Mueller – Matt Tennyson

Martin Jones