For the first time in ten days the Edmonton Oilers are playing a hockey game. The Ottawa Senators are in town to try and beat the Edmonton Oilers for the first time in a long time. In 9 meetings last season the Oilers won every game. Hopefully the Edmonton Oilers can keep the trend going. The Ottawa Senators are not just going to give the Oilers the win though. Here are 3 keys to an Edmonton Oilers victory.
1. Solid Goaltending
With Mike Smith being out again for at least another week, Stuart Skinner will be getting the start tonight. With a SV% of 0.916 and a GAA of 2.70, Skinner has been statistically the Edmonton Oilers best goalie so far this season.
If the Oilers want to change the way things are going it starts between the pipes. In the Oilers last 5 James they have averaged 4.2 goals against. As much as the Edmonton Oilers have the ability to score 5 goals it is not something they should need to get if they want to win.
I believe that if the Oilers can keep the goals down to around 2 or 3 they should win. What doesn’t help is during this slide they also haven’t been able to score many goals. In the last 5 games they have averaged 2.4 goals per game.
2. Have a Solid Start
The Edmonton Oilers have had a real tough time scoring the first goal of the game this season. When they do score first they have won every game, this is why it is important for this team to score the first goal.
It looks like Dave Tippett will have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line tonight. I think he is looking to wake both of them up. When these two have success, the Edmonton Oilers have success. Hopefully having these two players on the same line will get the team fulling and rolling quickly.
3. Special Teams
As always with the Edmonton Oilers, special teams will very important. The Oilers powerplay is still the #1 powerplay in the league. The Oilers currently have a powerplay percentage of 30.21%. With such a high percentage on the powerplay the Oilers need it to be producing if they want to win games.
The penalty kill on the other hand has not been very good in comparison to what it was early on in the season. Killing only 70% of their penalties the Oilers either need to get better at killing penalties or to stop taking them all together. I think if the Oilers win the special teams battle tonight they win the game.
This is a very important game for the Edmonton Oilers to win. If they can’t start putting together winning streaks their season may be lost sooner rather than later. I expect the Edmonton Oilers to come out with the win tonight, but with season’s team nothing is a lock.