The Edmonton Oilers lost a defensive game 2 last night, as much as it would have been nice to steal both games from the Stars in Dallas getting one game in my opinion is good enough. As the saying goes, you aren’t in trouble till you lose a game at home and the Stars have already lost a game at home.
For this advantage to stay an advantage the Oilers need to take care of business at home at Rogers Place. So far this postseason the Oilers have won 4 games at home while only losing 2 in Edmonton. Although the Oilers have lost one of their first two home games of a series both times, if they are able to change that fate and win both games this time it would put them in an excellent spot to move on to the Cup finals.
Unfortunately, for the Oilers the Dallas Stars so far this playoffs have been just as good on the road as the Oilers have been at home winning 5 games while only losing once while away from Dallas. These next two games which would be exciting anyway will also pin a good home team against an excellent road team.
Most of the pressure will be on the Dallas Stars as they will need to now win at least one game on the road if they hope to move on. The Oilers have already accomplished their road win in game one. It will be interesting to see how the team's gameplay will differ from the first two games.
With home ice comes the last change. This will give Kris Knoblauch and the rest of the Oilers coaching staff the ability to match lines better. It will allow Knoblauch to put out Connor McDavid against some weaker players if the opportunity arises. The way McDavid has looked in this series could really move the needle in favour of the Oilers.
The series has a break today but will continue tomorrow night. There are a few question marks heading into game 3. The health of Adam Henrique and Roope Hintz, both of these players look like they should be ready to go in this coming game, but we won’t know for sure till puck drop. Both of these players should improve their respective teams, which will only make the games better.