Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

Brett Kulak is on pace for a 21 goal season. I just thought that was a fun thing to say.

The way the second period ended brought flashbacks of last year’s second round, when the Oilers had a 3-0 nothing lead in the third period of Game 7 against the Canucks and nearly blew it. On Saturday night, they would go up 3-0 in the second period this time. Vancouver would cut the lead to just 1 goal, like they did a season ago. But then Edmonton exploded with 4 goals in the third period and that was all she wrote. In a 7 goal excursion, there were 8 points tallied by our team’s bottom six. It was nice to finally see them have a game that big. They won’t equal that much all the time, but even a quarter of that on a nightly basis would be most welcome. The man advantage is slowly, but surely, coming along. The first goal was just a couple of seconds away from counting as a powerplay goal. What mattered was they built momentum off of it, leading to a go-ahead goal. Just get that penalty kill up and running, and then they’ll really be in business.

Just like their opponents tonight, the Oilers are one win away from placing themselves in a Wild Card spot. Their back at Rogers Place for two games, and then head out to Eastern Canada for half a week. The keys to the game are…

Long Island Hurtin’: The Islanders have Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, Anthony Duclair, Mike Reilly, and Alexander Romanov all on Injured Reserve. Their Twitter page tweeted that Romanov skated with his team in practice, so maybe he will jump back into their lineup. But take advantage of a broken-down roster.

Calm: When Saturday’s game was out of reach for the Canucks, they scored in the final minute on a PP. There was a mistake made by Edmonton in front of their net and Stuart Skinner was dissatisfied. It meant that Skinner’s save percentage in the game wasn’t .900, but that one moment was still a turnoff for me. Don’t worry about the individual stats. Just play the game and try to collect the W.

Anniversary: It was officially a year ago today that Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey took over behind the bench for Edmonton. Coincidentally, their first games as Oilers bench boss were also against the New York Islanders. They wouldn’t mind a nice anniversary gift on the ice tonight.