The Edmonton Oilers are heading to 7th Heaven with Ottawa Senators tonight. Will the Sens dig in with an injury depleted lineup and squeak out a win or can Leon Draisaitl chalk up another five points and lead the Oilers to another victory to keep the gap between them and the Toronto Maple Leafs at bay?
Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Sens tonight,
- #5 Mike Reilly – Stood out last time with his aggressiveness on Edmonton’s stars. Also because he got gif’d on Draisaitl’s end-to-ender. He’s a player that’s on a lot of trade boards as someone who could help a contender out as a depth option.
- #19 Drake Batherson – Reminds me a little bit of Cam Neely in that he’s a massive unit with a heavy heavy shot and he knows how to get to the soft areas. Plus he likes to throw the body around a bit. Fighting is all but out of hockey now, so we’ll have to reserve that part of the comparison for another time, but he looks like a fantastically developing power forward that’ll be part of the Sens future for a long time.
- #28 Connor Brown – Stood out with his speed and forechecking and was one of the better Senators fancies-wise Wednesday’s meeting. That’s a big thing when a game is as lopsided as that one was.
For Ottawa to have success, maybe play with an empty net. The Oilers seem to be having a tough time scoring when the goalie is pulled. You never know, maybe having that extra skater on the ice will help…
Is bringing John Scott out of retirement completely out of the question?
In all seriousness, I would put Joey Daccord in net. He looked much better than Murray and as long as the Oilers don’t shoot high around his ears, he should be okay. Anything can happen in hockey and all the Sens need is a puncher’s chance.
With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,
- #19 Mikko Koskinen – I don’t know if he’ll actually be the starter, but Edmonton plays again tomorrow night against the Canucks and I can only assume that Tippett would want Smith going in that one. Koski needs to show that he’s not the next Cam Talbot and that he can instill confidence into his teammates when his name is called. Conversely, his teammates need to show him that they’ve got his back when he lets in a tough one. E.L.E (Everybody Love Everybody).
- #14 Devin Shore – He’s been solid in his appearances this year. Had a fantastic neutral zone pick-off that lead to a beautiful 2v1 goal with JJ Khaira. In the past, he’s had a couple of 30pt campaigns, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he goes on a little bit of a tear.
- #84 William Lagesson – Wild Bill is back and the Oilers may have the Swedish version of famed dynasty pairing Jeff Beukeboom and Steve Smith! I will say this though, the Swedes might not be as good as fighting as Beukeboom and Smith, but they’ve got better hands.
Three Keys to Success For the Oilers
- Find a Way to Get the Second Line Going
There’s enough offensive talent to go around twice over on Edmonton’s second line. Ennis, Nuge, and Pulju are fine offensive hockey players, but they’re getting taken to the woodshed as a group. I just wonder if it’s time to get Leon back to centering his own line and RNH and Puljujarvi back up with Connor. The scoring needs to get spread out a bit more, I feel.
- Puck Possession
Did you see that 25 pass Tiki Taka goal Edmonton scored last time? I’ve not seen anything like that since the old Russian national teams from the early 80s.
More often that not this year, the Oilers have been losers of the possession game which is down to a couple of things in my mind. One, they were getting outplayed and two, they were leading the game and the score effects were in full force.
More specifically though, faceoffs won. This has been Edmonton’s Achilles’ heel for years and I’m hoping that Ken Holland finds a way to address it before the trade deadline this year. Gaetan Haas, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jujhar Khaira, and Connor McDavid are not really excelling here, although JJ and Connor have improved I feel. Nuge and Haas simply don’t have it on the draw and this leads to Draisaitl being forced to take more faceoffs than he should be.
- Give As Much As You Take
I feel like tonight’s game is going to have more of a playoff atmosphere to it. Brady Tkachuk is getting tired of being embarrassed and a couple of Sens went down the other night. We saw Mike Reilly try to take on McDavid too… So, if that’s the case and the game is going to go a little bit old school, I’m hoping the Oilers give it back with one caveat, do it early and don’t let it drag on.
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