Coming out of the All-Star break, it was not a good first game last night against the Vegas Golden Knights. They were completely outplayed in every aspect of the game. If I am going to be honest it was a struggle for me not to change the channel on this game. On most nights even being down a few the Edmonton Oilers would still play a solid game. That was not the case last night.
The good news they have a chance to move on quickly. Tonight they are taking on a team that has really struggled this year, the Chicago Blackhawks. Unfortunately I no longer can trust the Edmonton Oilers to win games that they should. In order to win they need to play a good 60 minutes of hockey.
Playing against the Blackhawks the Oilers don’t need to play their best to win. They just need to be average. Like I said a moment ago we can’t assume that they will. The Edmonton Oilers have been unable to put together a string of solid games in a really long time. Hopefully this can be the start of that.
They need to improve on special teams. Both on the powerplay and shorthanded. Last night not only did they not score on the powerplay they actually got scored on. The powerplay seems to be trying to be a little bit too cute. They did a good job on them passing around a spreading out the defenders. The problem was no one wanted to take a shot.
The Edmonton Oilers depth on forward should also be in full display today. The Blackhawks maybe have a line and a half that can score, while the rest if the lineup needs some help. The Oilers, since adding Evander Kane, have been able to ice a solid 3 lines. So, if the top 2 lines struggle tonight hopefully the third line can pick up the slack.
Hopefully this time tomorrow we aren’t talking about firing the coach or trading for who knows what because the Oilers lost. Hopefully we are talking about how this team is now set to go on a run to get them into the playoffs.
Edmonton Oilers Lines
Oilers lines and pairings from practice this afternoon:
— Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports) February 7, 2022
Kane-McDavid-Yamamoto
McLeod-Draisaitl-Kassian
Hyman-RNH-Puljujarvi
Foegele-Shore-Ryan
Perlini-Turris-Benson
Nurse-Bouchard
Keith-Ceci
Lagesson-Barrie
Smith
Oil Kings' Kolby Hay
No Koskinen
Since they just played last night I expect the lineup to start similar to last game. The only change would be Stuart Skinner in for Mike Smith.
Chicago Blackhawks Lines
#Blackhawks lines and pairings:
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 8, 2022
Kubalik-Strome-Kane
DeBrincat-Dach-Hagel
Kurashev-Slavin-Lafferty
Borgstrom-Carpenter-Entwistle
de Haan-S. Jones
McCabe-Murphy
C. Jones-Galvas
*Connolly and Gustafsson are the odd men out
Game #44
Date: 2/9/2022
Opponent: Chicago Blackhawks
Location: Rogers Place, Edmonton
Time: 6:00PM
Live Stream: FuboTV
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Betting Odds: WynnBET
The Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks betting odds on WynnBET have Edmonton as -1.5 point favorites tonight as they are the home team, while the Blackhawks are the underdogs on the road at +1.5. While the moneyline is the set at -180 for the favored Oilers and +160 for Chicago. Tonight’s game is expected to be high-scoring with an over/under of 6.5 goals on the night.