Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

A Playoff type of game in early December, that’s pretty cool.

Edmonton failed to sweep their three game road trip, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. In the first two periods, both the Oilers and Golden Knights were playing a tight defensive game. Then the third period made it possibly the most entertaining 1-0 game I’ve ever sat through. The Oil outshot the home team 16-2 in the final 20 minutes, but could never solve Adin Hill. You just get goalie-d sometimes, it happens. Stuart Skinner let in a goal he’d like to have back after Leon Draisaitl made a bad play he’d like to have back in the offensive zone. It’s a shame because that overshadows some of the good saves that Skinner made to keep his team in the game. Per a tweet from Sportsnet Stats, it was the fifth NHL game and first in 80 years to have 0 penalty minutes and only 1 goal or fewer.

Starting tonight, Edmonton will play 8 of their last 9 games before the Christmas break at home. Not every opponent during this stretch is an easy home run. But way less travel time means way less fatigue. With this many upcoming games at Rogers Place this month, they can start making some real ground in the standings if they play responsibly. The keys to the game are…

Make Them Dirty: Between November 9th and tonight, the Oilers have allowed only 1 powerplay goal. In that same time frame, the Blue Jackets have allowed 14. Play-by-play man Jack Michaels stated on Tuesday’s broadcast that Edmonton and Vegas have drawn the second and third least amount of penalties in the whole league. With the Oilers getting slightly better with the man advantage, they should force Columbus to take a penalty here and there, then capitalize.

Opponent’s Audition?: I read a headline a couple of weeks ago that Edmonton might have interest in trading for defenseman Ivan Proverov. It takes more than one game to notice a player’s worth and value. But this’ll be the last night we watch him play when it’s against out own team. Let’s pay attention to what might make him a good asset for Stan Bowman to go after.

Celebrate Mr. 1000: Before the opening puck drop, Connor McDavid will be honoured for putting up his 1000th NHL point last month. Having that brief celebration tonight reminds me of the game in his rookie season against this same team when he came back from his infamous collarbone injury and wound up scoring a typical Mcdavid goal and still one of the best in his career thus far. After going pointless on Tuesday, will this add some fuel to his fire?