There is no doubt that the Edmonton Oilers and their fans were not happy with the way game one went on Wednesday, for the Oilers though they will need to get back out there and prove that they can play their game their way. Tonight has already sent them up for a win as the schedule makers helped out the Oilers.
The Chicago Blackhawks are in Edmonton to face the Oilers tonight one night after facing the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg. That means the Blackhawks should be coming into this game a bit tired. While it is still early in the season and the players' tanks should be full, It is hard to play back-to-back games even for an NHL player.
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lines
Oilers practice lines & pairings on Friday:
— Tony Brar 🚀 (@TonyBrarOTV) October 11, 2024
RNH - McDavid - Hyman
Skinner - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Ryan - Perry
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Dermott
Kulak - Emberson
Stecher
Skinner
Pickard#Oilers
After a tough first game, the Edmonton Oilers have made one notable change: switching Travis Dermott and Ty Emberson. While I think it was a whole team loss and not just a defensive loss, this move gives an opportunity for Dermott to play a bigger role and give Emberson some coverage on the third pairing. Hopefully, this move will help the Oilers not give up six goals.
Chicago Blackhawks Projected Lines
Blackhawks lines in practice have Foligno on the first line and Reichel still out:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 10, 2024
Foligno-Bedard-Teravainen
Hall-Kurashev-Bertuzzi
Mikheyev-Dickinson-Anderson
Maroon-Donato-Athanasiou
(Reichel-Smith)
Martinez-Jones
Vlasic-Brodie
Allan-Murphy
(Kaiser-Phillips)
The Blackhawks are coming off a 2-1 OT loss to the Winnipeg Jets. A game that I thought would have been much more in the Jets' favour. What this shows is that the Edmonton Oilers may not have as easy of a game ahead of them. If the Blackhawks can push the Jets that close to a loss, then they can definitely do that to the Oilers.
Not Quite A Must Win, But Close
While there is no chance that game two of the regular season would be a must win, for the Oilers and their mental state a win could do this team wonders. Starting the season 0-2 would be less than ideal for this team. A win would hopefully give this team some momentum and get them rolling on their way to a good start to the season.