Edmonton Oilers Brace for Battle of Alberta vs Calgary Flames
By Kris Hansen
The Edmonton Oilers are winless to start the season facing some tough competition along the way: St.Louis twice, Dallas and Nashville. While we do not have a win yet, there has been some positives. Believe it or not, there’s going to be some much needed patience.
Patience
BUT THE OILERS HAVENT MADE THE PLAYOFFS IN NINE YEARS WE’VE BEEN PATIENT ENOUGH!
Yeah but when you have nine years worth of bad becoming good will not just simply happen over night. Unlike past regime, you have to have some faith in Chiarelli and McLellan. They know what they are doing. McLellan is constantly tweaking the line ups trying to make it gel.
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For example, our dreadful power play: two new pairings. Our very own Kurt wrote about the power play. There’s far too much fire power and past success with this coaching staff for this special teams unit to be as dreadful as it’s been. It’s great to see some suffling, most notably the splitting of McDavid with Nugent-Hopkins and Hall.
That said, it’s on some players to start stepping up here. It’s still very early in a young season but the fanbase will be down right sour if we lose against Calgary tonight with an 0-5 record. Players like Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom and Mark Fayne have to be better. Especially those veteran guys like Sekera and Fayne, who should be bringing stability on the back end, have failed in that regard. As Lowetide has suggested, maybe moving Sekera and Klefbom together would be better.
Even though being 0-4 is not really great, it’s still very early in the season. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles just recorded their first wins. Columbus, who many thought would be a playoff bound team when healthy, have been a complete tire fire in net and on the back end. Even my Stanley Cup pick Anaheim lacks a victory but have 3 losses and an overtime loss.
Point is: I do not think many of those teams are really panicking right now. Maybe Columbus but not the other three. With that said, neither should we.
Keys to the Game
1. Talbot needs to be on yet again
Talbot has been our best player, hands down. While winless, he has given the Oilers that confidence in net that has been oh so sorely missing these last few years. He, amongst others, will have their first taste of the Battle of Alberta. The Flames rank 24th in shots per game right now. Their offence is ranked 23rd, slightly ahead of the Oilers, for goals per game. Regardless, cannot take them lightly.
2. Putting the Power back in Power Play
Seriously. We need the Power Play to step up. Badly. It has a woeful 7.1% success rate right now while Calgary’s has a 20%, which is pretty good. However, the Penalty kill is great: Edmonton’s is ranked 3rd in the league with 92.3 % while Calgary’s is a middling 83.3%
3. Exorcise those Demons (in Calgary and in Prime Time)
The Oilers have been dreadful when it comes to games in the Prime Time on Saturday night and even more so against Calgary. However, it’s time to get rid of those demons. Calgary has not been great so far this year with only one win. Their come from behind magic is not working like it used to. They are getting out shot and out possessed in their games. Something has to give.
Player’s to Watch
Edmonton: Taylor Hall
Hall was our most dangerous player in our season home opener against St. Louis on Thursday Night while tallying his first goal of the season. It would have been easy to say Connor McDavid and his first game against the Flames, but let’s be real: everyone else will be hyping that up.
Hall is also, to my utter dismay, the new whipping boy of the team, which I feel is completely unneeded. There were people who were saying that he played great when it was too late. I just hope he has a great game to stick it to those people.
Calgary: Johnny Gaudreau
He’s easily Calgary’s most dangerous forward and he’s a treat to watch. Shifty, crafty, fast. He’s just a thrill on the ice. He does not look like a flash in the pan as he has a whopping five points (one goal, four assists) in four games played. He’s the catalyst of the Flames Offence and he could have some easy pickings against our less than stellar crew on the blue line.
PS: I totally have his rookie card. He would be so much more likeable if he wasn’t a darned Flame.
Projected Lines
Here are our projected lines for tonight.
Edmonton Oilers
Forwards:
Defenders:
Goaltenders:
Calgary Flames
Forwards:
Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler
Bennett-Backlund-Ferland
Jones-Stajan-Frolik
Bollig-Jooris-Raymond
Defenders:
Giordano-Hamilton
Russell-Wideman
Kulak-Engelland
Goaltenders:
Ramo
Hiller
Oil Prediction
I think the Oilers win this one. Let’s say 3-1. Hall, Yakupov, Pouliot score. McDavid gets a helper. One of the goals will be on the Power Play too.