Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

Leon Draisaitl had himself a nice birthday, didn’t he?

#29 had his best game of the season so far on his 29th birthday. He scored a tying goal, assisted on a tying goal, and scored the winning goal in Overtime. Per a tweet from the Sportsnet Twitter account, he is the 11th player in NHL history to score an OT goal in the regular season on his birthday. I didn’t even realize it was his birthday until I saw it on social media, and I just happened to be wearing my Draisaitl shirt. I’m going to stop writing the word birthday for the rest of this article, starting now.

As it was alluded to in the telecast, this road game against the Red Wings was reminiscent of last season’s game in their arena. Calvin Pickard also started that game, and it also ended with an Oilers OT goal. Special shoutout to Corey Perry for entering his second fight of the season. The 39-year-old can still throw a few punches. It was in a later response to a not-so-nice hit on Derek Ryan. I wasn’t the biggest fan of bringing him back for another year, I’d have preferred his money being saved for another need, possibly at the Trade Deadline. But if he can start contributing even a tiny bit of offense to the 4th line, I’ll welcome this toughness that he’s bringing to the team. I’m glad he’s aged back a few years.

Edmonton has a 4-1-1 record since starting the season 0-3. They’re at .500 now in the standings, but there’s still way more work to do. The keys to the game are…

Pass Carefully: The first goal allowed against Detroit was behind Edmonton’s own net, with Darnell Nurse passing the puck to Brett Kulak, who was then stuck in the corner and turned it over. I’ve liked some of Nurse’s games this season, but he sometimes looks like he’s playing a game of Hot Potato. If you have time to skate out with the puck, do so. Don’t be so quick to get rid of it, especially not in the defensive zone.

Back-To-Back: I had this as one of my keys to yesterday’s game, but there’s a reason it bares repeating. I said that the Red Wings were coming off a back-to-back themselves. But they looked like the more rested group in the first period last night, and the Oilers looked like they were watching the game instead of playing it. Now that they’re the ones on a back-to-back, will they play like they’re fatigued, or will they start the game mentally on time?

Marching Jacket: 24 year old Columbus forward Kirill Marchenko has 9 points through 7 games so far in his third NHL season. Each season with the Blue Jackets has projected his point production improving. Younger players can cool off from time to time, but he’ll look to keep his rhythm going tonight against a top heavy forward group that may’ve finally started getting their own rhythm going.