December 27, 2015 /

Oilers vs Flames Preview – Are the Oilers about to make a trade?

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TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (15-18-3) at Calgary Flames (16-16-2

Location: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

Time: 7:00 PM MT

Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

After falling at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, news broke about a potential deal involving the Oilers and Canadiens. In last night’s Sportsnet Headlines, Elliotte Friedman spoke about said deal:

“(Canadiens general manager) Marc Bergevin has seemed confident that he could make a trade here and there’s a number of teams (that) are doing background on Kassian to see if (he’s) somebody they’re interested in acquiring” – transcript

The rumours were then linked to the Oilers, as Jim Matheson speculated on the deal:

Our website’s own BLH wrote an article about it last night here.

Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reported this just earlier:

Could this deal make sense? I think so. Kassian is a low risk, middle-high reward type of a player. He has shown in the past he can produce decent numbers, potting 29 points in 2013-2014 with Vancouver. Oddly enough, his advanced stats are not horrible.

1.5 Points per 60 minutes of ice time, 51.6 Corsi For %, 12.5 minutes of ice time per game and a -8 penalty difference. Again, not horrible.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next day or so. If the off-ice issues in Kassian’s life have been solved, maybe he is a player that could turn into something.

Tonight however, the Oilers need to prepare to get two points out of a matchup with the Calgary Flames as they would allow us to advance past them in the standings.

Like the Oilers, the Flames have been one of the hottest teams in the league. They have gone 8-2 in their last ten, and have won ten straight at home. They look to set a franchise record 11 straight wins at home which was set in 2006.

Jujhar Khaira will draw back into the lineup, Brad Hunt has been recalled from the Bakersfield Condors and Anders Nilsson will start in goal.

The Otherside:

Calgary goes for a franchise-best 11th straight win at home; the Flames haven’t lost at Scotiabank Saddledome since a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 30. The 10 straight home wins tied the team record set in November-December 2006. “Without that game [scoring the tying goal with one second left] against Boston and the game against Dallas [a three-goal third period comeback], and we would still be having a good homestand but we wouldn’t be talking about records,” coach Bob Hartley said Saturday. “We deserve it. We were very opportunistic at the right time.” The Flames hadn’t skated for three days. “We talked during the video session about our situation, the standings, the rest of the season…it’s a tough task since there’s so much hockey to be played,” Hartley said. “You have to be ready for [the Oilers’] offense. They are fast and very skilled. … we will have to be at our best.” Forward Johnny Gaudreau hat a hat trick in a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and has 10 goals and 16 points in 10 games this month.

Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Left Wing Lock:


Oilers (Cam Talbot):
Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell
Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski
Luke Gazdic – Anton Lander – Iiro Pakarinen

Darnell Nurse – Andrej Sekera
Justin Schultz – Mark Fayne
Nikita Nikitin – Eric Gryba

Calgary Flames (Karri Ramo):

Johnny Hockey – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Micheal Ferland – Mikael Backlund – Joe Colborne
Sam Bennett – Markus Granlund – Mason Raymond
Lance Bouma – Matt Stajan – David Jones

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Kris Russell – Dougie Hamilton
Deryk Engelland – Dennis Wideman

Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDG-_Htn8Uc]

CategoriesEdmonton Oilers Zach Laing

Tagsflames Oilers Preview

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