The Edmonton Oilers are facing the Arizona Coyotes tonight after losing last night to the Dallas Stars. The Oilers played in my opinion one of their worse games of the season last night. Asides from Ryan Mcleod‘s goal on a two on one the Oilers didn’t force Jake Oettinger to make any difficult saves.
The Oilers are going to have to work harder today than they did last night if they want to start setting a high standard. The Arizona Coyotes are a good team to have a reset against. They are currently the worse team in the league and it’s not much of an argument to be had about it.
No matter how bad a team is you still have to win the game. Here are three keys to an Edmonton Oiler victory.
Play a Full 60 Minutes
In the last couple of games the Edmonton Oilers have fallen behind early. Most of the time they have been able to play themselves back into the game and most of the time they have actually won the game. This is not something that is sustainable all season. They need to start scoring the first goal.
A team like the Coyotes get there wins by staying in games. If the Oilers get a quick goal and can take the wind out of their sails and the Coyotes confidence level should drop. Once they lose that the Oilers should run away with this game
Left Side Defence
The Edmonton Oilers are missing their three top left defenceman. Darnell Nurse, Duncan Keith, and Slater Koekkoek are out due to injury. Kris Russell, Philip Broberg and William Lagesson are in.
Kris Russell is a veteran who Tippett can trust. We know what we are getting with Russell, nothing extraordinary, but also nothing that leaves you face-palming yourself. He is the definition of a reliable d-man.
Philip Broberg played a fairly solid first couple of games. There were a couple of mistakes made, but every rookie is going to make mistakes. It’s the size of the mistakes that matter and there weren’t any large mistakes by Broberg so far.
William Lagesson is the player who has the most to gain tonight. After having a down year last season and other young defenceman coming up through the Oiler system, Lagesson needs to play like his career depends on it. In a way it does. He may not have much of a future with the Oiler cause of the depth, but he could be useful for another NHL team without depth.
Mikko Koskinen
Mikko Koskinen will get the start tonight. Koskinen needs to have a solid start to the game today. Just like an early goal for can help your team succeed an early goal against can kill the swagger of your team.
If Koskinen is able to have a solid start and settle in to a groove, the Oilers will win this game. With all the defensive injuries Mikko Koskinen may be asked to make more saves than normal today. Having a couple games off should help. Koskinen struggles when he doesn’t get much rest.
If the Edmonton Oilers want to be considered a Pacific Divsion threat they need to win this game. The Oilers still have not lost two games straight. I do not think they will lose tonight so that streak will continue. I think Koskinen will also have a good showing, silencing some of his critics.
Overall this should be a good game to watch if you are an Edmonton Oilers fan or if you have Oiler players in your hockey pool.