Presents have been opened, the eggnog has been consumed by your passed out uncle and Oilers hockey is back.
Tonight, the Oilers take on the Canucks at Rogers Place and well, hopefully the Oilers asked Santa for some Ws before the Christmas break. Edmonton has dropped three straight games and with the Sharks and Jets coming to town before the new year, things are not getting any easier.
Vancouver comes into tonight’s affair winners of two straight and looking for a third on their World Jrs road trip. The Canucks sit just a point back of the Oilers for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, 2018-19 has been an up and down year but Travis Green’s men are certainly not out of things.
Keys To The Game
Vancouver: If the Oilers go back to Koskinen tonight as funny as it still looks you gotta shoot high on him. This is a 6’7 goalie who still gives up stuff over his shoulder, exploit that as much as possible.
Edmonton: No puck watching vs Petterson, Horvat and Boeser, those young guns will make you pay for it.
Players To Watch
Vancouver: If you take your eyes off of Elias Pettersson for a second he’ll break your ankles and put another tally on the scoresheet, he has to be kept in check tonight.
Edmonton: Milan Lucic STILL has not scored since the first game of the season. The goal drought for him surely has to end before the calendar flips to 2019. Right?
The Projected Lines
Vancouver
Loui Eriksson-Bo Horvat-Jake Virtanen
Nikolay Goldobin-Elias Pettersson-Brock Boeser
Josh Leivo-Adam Gaudette-Markus Granlund
Antoine Roussel-Jay Beagle-Tyler Motte
Alexander Edler-Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton-Erik Gudbranson
Derrick Pouliot-Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Edmonton
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Connor McDavid-Jesse Puljujarvi
Tobias Rieder-Leon Draisaitl-Alex Chiasson
Drake Caggiula-Kyle Brodziak-Zack Kassian
Milan Lucic-Ryan Spooner-Ty Rattie
Darnell Nurse-Adam Larsson
Kevin Gravel-Caleb Jones
Jason Garrison-Matt Benning
Mikko Koskinen
Prediction
Edmonton gets off the slide with a 3-0 win with goals coming from Lucic, Adam Larsson and the empty netter from Alex Chiasson.
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