{"id":800016,"date":"2018-03-18T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=800016"},"modified":"2018-03-18T10:00:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T14:00:27","slug":"oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers Gameday @ Tampa: Into the Homestretch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Oilers are back in actino today, as they face the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning. After yesterday&#8217;s 4-2 victory against the Panthers, the Oilers are looking to maintain their momentum on this road trip.<\/p>\n<p>The season is all but over, and the players are essentially out there for each other (and next season), but there are still some bright spots. Connor McDavid is probably going to finish the season with 100+ points, despite playing on a mediocre (at best) team and it&#8217;s rare that he doesn&#8217;t do something spectacular in a game.<\/p>\n<h3>Keys to the Game<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Edmonton<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Score first. Score often. Keep the puck with Connor or Leon because there\u2019s not much else to hope for.<\/li>\n<li>Stay out of the box and try not to force the Lightning to take penalties either. The penalty kill is still real bad, and the power play isn\u2019t much better.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>Tampa Bay<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Force the Oilers to take penalties. It\u2019s a strategy that has worked for most other teams in the league this season.<\/li>\n<li>Honestly, keep the Oilers to the perimeter. They can\u2019t seem to get too many pucks through from the outside, so it\u2019s easy to defend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Players to Watch<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Edmonton<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ty Rattie had a great game yesterday, and was the team&#8217;s player of the game. In a postgame interview, he made a point of saying that he was willing to do whatever it takes to stay up with the NHL club. If what he showed yesterday is any indication, he&#8217;ll be up here for the rest of the season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Tampa Bay<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nikita Kucherov is likely going to be a Hart trophy finalist, and has been playing lights out for most of the year. He&#8217;s one of the better players in the league, and is sometimes overlooked because he has other very skilled teammates around him but he&#8217;s definitely been worthy of that MVP discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Projected Lineups<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Edmonton<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Ryan Nugent-Hopkins &#8211; Connor McDavid &#8211; Ty Rattie<br \/>\nMilan Lucic &#8211; Leon Draisaitl &#8211; Jesse Puljujarvi<br \/>\nDrake Caggiula &#8211; Ryan Strome &#8211; Anton Slepyshev<br \/>\nIiro Pakarinen &#8211; Jujhar Khaira &#8211; Zack Kassian<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Darnell Nurse &#8211; Adam Larsson<br \/>\nOscar Klefbom &#8211; Ethan Bear<br \/>\nAndrej Sekera &#8211; Kris Russell<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Cam Talbot<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Tampa Bay\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">JT Miller &#8211; Steven Stamkos &#8211; Nikita Kucherov<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Yanni Gourde &#8211; Brayden Point &#8211; Tyler Johnson<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Alex Killorn &#8211; Anthony Cirelli &#8211; Adam Erne<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Chris Kunitz &#8211; Cory Conacher &#8211; Ryan Callahan<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Victor Hedman &#8211; Jake Dotchin<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Mikhail Sergachev &#8211; Anton Stralman<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Ryan McDonagh &#8211; Dan Girardi<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/p>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p>One of the bigger disappointments this season has been Milan Lucic. He has 5 years left on his contract, and he is at the point where he&#8217;s well into his decline. There&#8217;s no chance of a trade or a buyout (thanks Peter), and his production is more than likely going to keep dropping.<\/p>\n<p>For perspective, Jonathan Willis mentioned this yesterday:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LW Milan Lucic&#8217;s last 35 games:<br \/>\n1 goal, 5 assists, 9 minor penalties<\/p>\n<p>Final 35 games of RD Mark Fayne&#8217;s EDM career:<br \/>\n1 goal, 6 assists, 6 minor penalties<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonathanWillis\/status\/975197146273075200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\">https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The numbers aren&#8217;t great, and one can only hope that his deployment next season is more suited to his actual ability rather than his past skill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oilers are back in actino today, as they face the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning. After yesterday&#8217;s 4-2&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":800018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191955770,1],"tags":[8066,55876485,605041449,287709,57752650],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.2 (Yoast SEO v22.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oilers Gameday @ Tampa: Into the Homestretch - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oilers Gameday @ Tampa: Into the Homestretch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-18T14:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tampa.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"956\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"561\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan Fowler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan Fowler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan Fowler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d65eeb66eb708af81a296c5962317fe7\"},\"headline\":\"Oilers Gameday @ Tampa: Into the Homestretch\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-18T14:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-18T14:00:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\"},\"wordCount\":555,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tampa.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Edmonton Oilers\",\"Nikita Kucherov\",\"oilers pregame\",\"Tampa Bay Lightning\",\"Ty Rattie\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Oilers\",\"Updates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/oilers-gameday-tampa-into-the-homestretch\/\",\"name\":\"Oilers Gameday @ Tampa: Into the Homestretch - 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