Oilers Gameday vs Vegas: Back to the Drawing Board, or Something.

The Oilers are back in action tonight as they host the Vegas Golden Knights. They played last night in Calgary, where they took an early lead but got suckered into some penalty trouble, forgot that the game was 3 periods, and lost 4-2.

Good thing it wasn’t a divisional game or anything.

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

• Shoot the puck more than the other team. That seems unreasonably simple, but last night it certainly wasn’t.
• Special teams (especially the penalty kill) are a big question mark because of some injuries, so staying out of the box is maybe the most important thing the Oilers need to do tonight.

Vegas

•  Force the Oilers into the box (see above). For whatever reason, the Oilers seem unable to deal with roster adjustments, so forcing them to take penalties will be a big first step in beating them.
• Cam Talbot is back in net, so maybe play hard enough to chase him? I don’t know.

Players to Watch

Edmonton

• McDavid is always fun. The best is watching him take that first stride and then accelerate through it. Unreal.
• It’s been a while since Talbot has seen any action, so look for him to prove why he’s the starting goaltender.

Vegas

• Max Pacioretty is in Vegas now, and he hasn’t had the start he wanted, so look for him to have a big game because of course he will.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Drake Caggiula – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl

Alex Chiasson – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Ty Rattie

Milan Lucic – Ryan Strome Spooner – Cooper Marody

Jujhar Khaira – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Darnell Nurse – Matt Benning

Kevin Gravel – Kris Russell

Cam Talbot

Vegas

Jonathan Marchessault – William Karlsson – Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty – Cody Eakin – Alex Tuch

Tomas Nosek – Ryan Carpenter – Tomas Hyka

Will Carrier – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Ryan Reaves

Shea Theodore – Nate Schmidt

Colin Miller – Brayden McNabb

Deryk Engelland – Nick Holden

Marc-Andre Fleury

Notes

Tomorrow I’m only going to write 2/3 of a pregame, because, well….

— Megan (@mig14) November 18, 2018