Edmonton Oilers Look to Soar Past Detroit Red Wings

Well. I’m afraid my prediction of the Edmonton Oilers getting six points this road trip is on the skids already. There were some people who were very optimistic and heck, I felt mine was quite optimistic.

They played great against Washington but lost 1-0. They played typical Edmonton Oilers Hockey against the Carolina Hurricanes and got spanked 4-1. The Hurricanes are not a good hockey team, yet the Oilers managed to play worse.

Next two games: The Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins, back to back.

Keys to the Game

Special Teams Battle: The Oilers’ Power Play has been woeful these last few games. Coming into Carolina, they were 1 for 19. That’s awful. Especially for a team that’s supposed to have some great goal scoring. It will be tough: The Red Wings have a great penalty kill that is ranked fifth in the league. However, their Power Play is ranked 22nd. It’ll be a battle.
Scoring: Pretty simple: You win hockey games by out scoring the other team. The Oilers have managed one goal in two goals between them. Offence needs to wake up. Specifically looking at the second line of Pouliot Nugent-Hopkins and especially Jordan Eberle. The Oilers are yet again, a one line team. Shut down the Hall-Draisaitl line and you practically win the game.
Goaltending. Whoever plays in net needs to have a solid game. Goaltending has been an achielles heel, yet again, for the Edmonton Oilers. Cam Talbot looked pretty good in his last game against Detroit, but that seems like years ago. I just hope who ever plays in net can just carry the team here.

Players to Watch

Detroit Red Wings: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk is back in Detroit. He’s easily one of the most dangerous players in the NHL when healthy. Health has been an issue these last couple of seasons. He’s started a bit slowly this season with “only” three points in seven games. Against a weak Oilers defence and iffy goaltending, Datsyuk could make the Edmonton Oilers look very foolish. Honorable Mention include Henrik Zetterberg who is putting up a very respectable season with 18 points in 22 games.

Edmonton Oilers: Jordan Eberle. Eberle recently said that he’s looking for his offensive mojo to return to him. I’d hope he finds it soon because boy do the Edmonton Oilers ever need their goal scoring back and really quick. As I said above, the offence needs to start producing beyond one line. I’m harping on Eberle here because he has not been too impressive this season. Like Datsyuk, he returned from an injury that took away some time at the start of the season. Like Datsyuk, he has three points but in nine games. It would be great for Eberle to break out of his slump here.

Projected Line Ups

Edmonton Oilers

Taylor Hall–Leon Draisaitl–Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot–Ryan Nugent-Hopkins–Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks–Mark Letestu–Iiro Pakarinen

Lauri Korpikoski–Anton Lander-Jujhar Khaira

Andrej Sekera–Darnell Nurse

Oscar Klefbom–Mark Fayne

Brandon Davidson–Eric Gryba

Talbot

Detroit Red Wings

Abdelkader-Zetterberg-Larkin

Richards-Datsyuk-Pulkkinen

Tatar-Sheanen-Nyquist

Miller-Glendening-Helm

Kronwall-Green

DeKeyser-Ericsson

Smith-Marchenko

Howard

Final Notes

This is Jujhar Khaira’s first NHL game (potentially). He was called up yesterday with the injury to Nail Yakupov, who will be out 2-4 weeks.
Connor McDavid is expected to be back in Mid to Late January
Anton Lander still has no points this season.
Justin Abdelkader‘s contract extension is ugly. It will be among the league’s worst. Very ugly for a guy who rode a very high shooting percentage the year before.
On paper, the Red Wings’ forwards look deep. They have three forward lines that could score. That’s something the Oilers should mimic, but instead we have people wanting to trade Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
The Red Wings have a nice tandem of goalies with Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard. Mrazek has played 13 games and has a .931 save percentage, while Howard has played 1o and has a respectable .917 save percentage.
Cam Talbot is getting the start over Anders Nilsson, which will be his first return to the ice in a while. Let’s hope he can show that he is ready to be a starter.

More from Oil On Whyte

I predict that the Oilers will lose 4-2. Hall and Draisaitl will score, but the offence still cannot get it going. Love to be wrong, but that last game put me in a sour mindset for tonight’s game.

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