The Oilers and Kings have landed in Vernon, BC for a pre-season edition of Kraft Hockeyville. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s game day.
With the regular season less than two weeks away the Oilers are inching closer towards finalizing their roster and icing the squad that we’ll see at opening night at Rogers Place. Todd McLellan hasn’t wasted any time making cuts, this year, and that means that the Oilers should be icing a competitive roster throughout the remainder of the pre-season. McLellan obviously wants his team to start building chemistry right away, and having them all play together for as long as possible will surely benefit.
Despite the Kings not having all of their offensive weapons (or starting goalie) in the lineup they will still have weapons that can hurt the Oilers on the scoreboard. The Oilers are icing a very young defense tonight and it will interesting to see how they handle the Kings first line. Darnell Nurse and Brendan Davidson look like they’ll be in for some tough assignments tonight, and the Oilers will need them to be at their best if they want to get back in the win column.
LINEUPS
Oilers
Kings
Zatkoff
QUICK HITS
- Worried about the chemistry between Lucic, McDavid, and Jordan Eberle? Todd McLellan doesn’t really care. “There’s a buzz in our city about whether (Lucic and Eberle) are the right linemates. It’s too soon to tell.”
To be fair, those three have less than two weeks of playing with each other and it will take some time to figure out what the other is doing out there. That said, Connor and Ebs played together last year so you’d expect them to figure it out sooner than later.
- The Oilers reduced their lineup to 36 players on Saturday and that means more NHL players in the lineup. I wonder how the defense will handle the Kings, because it’s a very young group back there.
- It will be interesting to watch the game tonight as the Vernon arena only holds 2000 people. I’m curious what Sportsnet has set up to make it look like an actual broadcast. It will be cool to have a professional pre-season game in such a small arena. I dig it.
- Ol’ Tommy Gilbert leads the Kings with four pre-season points, and I wonder if the former Oiler curse will show up again tonight. The curse has two chances to make an impact with Gilbert and Teddy Purcell in the lineup.
- Drake Caggiula currently leads the Oilers with 12 shots on a goal and two goals in three pre-season games. I’ll be looking for the Drake to keep firing away tonight.
- Nail Yakupov gets into his first pre-season game after sitting out with a lower-body injury.
- The penalty kill got torched for five goals against Winnipeg, and will have to be better than that if the Oilers have any hopes of winning. Brutal numbers early, but there’s still time to work that pre-season rust off.
TONIGHT
GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers rebound from their two previous losses, beating the Kings 4-2.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Milan Lucic looks to prove that he’s an Oiler by challenging several of his former teammates to a fight. None are willing to oblige so Milan goes with the tried and true stinky glove to the face trick.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Drake Caggiula scores another pre-season tally and follows it up with the Hotline Bling dance at centre ice.
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There’s only 2000 people going to be at the Vernon arena WHAT?
It would be WAY cooler if that NAPA promo was activated at the NAPA store with a secret Oilers Nation hand shake like this:
https://youtu.be/F5fxu0zKkFA
Gagner for Clifford looks like a steal now, hindsight being 100 and all that.
Lots of big boys in LA’s lineup, let’s see if they can keep up.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Gilbert and Eberle come together in the corner. No hit is thrown.
Not so obvious game day prediction, Ebs floats around (as usual) but this time McLellan calls him out after the game. Oiler Nation goes crazy saying “leave alone the Ebs, no need to be a meano”
I miss Earnest!!
Not sure where you came up with that 2000 capacity. The arena holds 3500. Unless something to do with the broadcast eliminating major amounts of seating.
Obvious game day prediction.
Ebs skates around watching mcdavid do all the work, goes to a soft area and snipes one.
Than he spends the rest of the game skating around gingerly without a care in the world.
Things to be excited about;
1) Lucic’s foot speed, ability to keep up with McDavid
2) the defense… it is “visually better” according to the coach.
3) back up goalie….
Things to be excited about in Calgary :
1) New air fresheners in the Saddledome
2) The hope that JG may still actually want to play in Calgary
3) Lauri Korpikoski
regarding #2….me thinks T-Mac has been watching too many old videos of Mac-T. Craig used the same phrase on the Oilers as a team a few years ago as the team continued to suck.
Jay’s to host the American League Wildcard game. Man do baseball players celebrate making the Wildcard game like they won the World Series.
There are still miles to go IMO.
If only we could clone Sanchez about 3-4 times.
Sanchez pitched a beaut today.
To be fair, 16 baseball teams don’t make the playoffs.
I get that celebrate they earned it but champagne should for when you win the Championship not make the playoffs.
They have not won a thing…..yet.
It’s actually 20 teams that don’t make the playoffs. And there are no brttman points either. And it’s 162 games seasons. Only wins count here.
Baseball is more boring than reading the yellow pages and it’s 162 games long?
Oh man, why?
If you understand the nuances of the game baseball is far from boring.
In the case of the Blue Jays, the pure randomness of the decisions made by John Gibbons is a study on the effects of concussions over term.
Quite fascinating really.
As for the Oilers. The complete lack of physical response to transgressions is familiar and remains puketastic.
Now that is some funny stuff.
Guaranteed win night for the Oilers.
That Kings lineup looks raunchy, even the Oilers can’t screw this one up…can they?
i’m sure the Lames would.
Have you not been paying attention during the Katz era? Of course they can screw it up.Just look at their defence being dressed tonight.AHL caliber.
The oilers special teams have been raunchy. They need to start getting this fixed ASAP. It’s only pre season but man do I want the oilers to make the playoffs this season!
I hope that third line can click. Versteeg playing on the left opens up space for Yak!
I really wish Leon was in camp so Yak could have his projected center but at least he has a center tonight that has some offensive acumen – too bad he’s a professional rookie but likely a better center for Yak than Leon.
Hopefully on Tuesday Yak can line up with the rest of the projected third line in Drai and Maroon.
I’m still rooting for Yak – not sure if he’ll be able to come through, however, Yak gaining some confidence and having a bounce back year would be a material help for team success now and in the future (i.e future vis-a-vis the proper development this season of JP)
I think Maroon is still out with his injury,
Well it did not take Fraser long to take a bone head penalty.
Looks like Greene just took Pakarinen out of the equation for a while.Poor kid that looked nasty.
Nice shot Ebs……..not.
Now that is how too shoot the puck.The goalie should not have let that one in but nice shot anyhow.
What a shot by Jesse…wow..has Yak been on the ice more than once?
That was the only bright spot that period. Brutal brutal. LA looks like a hockey team. They are man handling the oilers AGAIN. Will anything change? I know it’s pre season but man have some pride.
he has. he’s just done his usual nothing.
That was a great shot by JP but, really, one the goalie should have stopped and will be stopped 98 out of 100 times.
Where JP impressed me in the first period was with two board battle wins in the offensive zone. He used his body well on the boards and that is going to be excellent for puck position going forward.
I was excited to see what Matt Benning can do but he didn’t do much in the 1st – Osterle, on the other hand, looked pretty good to my eye.
Is it just me, or has Yak turned it up in the second?
it’s just you.
Figures. Shows my expertise at hockey analysis.
What a cheap shot on Davidson. Pearson should be looking at a suspension.
Looks like a concussion not good.
Well if Shaws suspension is any indication doubt he misses any games in the reg. season
That’s the second game in a row where someone has gone after one of our defenceman with a head shot. I guess the strategy for playing the Oilers this year is taking out their defence because they have no depth there. How much you wanna bet that’s what the opposing coaches are telling their players? Dirty bastards!
Has anyone noticed in preseason the play seems to die on Lucic’s stick?
Wow what a dirty hit. Bet he gets lots of games suspension. He better. Hope Davidson’ OK
Top line looking pretty good at times
Definitely, and McDavid scored a beauty goal too, it’s a shame the whistle blew because of the injury,I think he beat the goalie before the whistle.
dirty headshot on Davidson, ensuing play ref blows whistle half second before unreal goal by mcdavid. Oilers subsequently out chanced on 5 min power play.
Classic
Well , as the game gets heavier Jesse looking like he is pretty effective dealing with it on two lines . Yakupov looks lost out there accomplishing nothing . Cagguila struggling with size and physicality of L.A..
Lucic wasn’t even in the zone yet on that goal.
Nice to see Eberle one-time the puck instead of dusting it off first.
Oesterle has looked good by my eye tonight. Moves the puck well but his size still concerns me.
Ya he did play a decent game. He’s not big, but at
6ft and 182# he is in size with the likes of Tyson Barrie,Letang, Doughty,Gostisbhere,Daley, etc. I think he should make the team.Better player than Gryba.!
You just compared Oesterle with Doughty????
Oh boy
Actually, he was just comparing their size. It’s called reading comprehension, look into it.
And why wild he compare size without attempting (poorly) to look for a similarity?
I’m also 6 foot tall and 180 #. Actually I would venture that’s more or less close to the average size and weight of North Americans (but I won’t look it up).
It’s called “inference “, by drawing a similarity to size he was trying to say “cause Oesterle has the size of Doughty, he has something similar to Doughty, in an aspect he is as good as Doughty”
Yes, as stupid as it sounds…. But “inference” is too complicated for you to understand….
Really dude? So, by your rationale, you are comparing yourself to Doughty too. So does that mean you should strap on some skates and head to an NHL training camp?
This all started when someone suggested (and I don’t remember who) that Oesterle was a bit undersized. And the other poster just compared him to some other established NHL veterans to demonstrate that it shouldn’t be a problem, not to suggest he was going to win a Norris.
Anyway, this has become a really stupid argument, so I’m gonna move on.
1. I did not start it, your boyfriend (or whoever compared Doughty with Oesterle) started it, you carried on by defending his point.
2. I am comparing my own size just to “drive home” the fact that size is not a factor to compare! Actually the NHL D’s that buddy boy compared to Oesterle, shouldn’t share a sentence together, not now, not ever.
Not even if they have the same size.
But I get it, “reading comprehension ” (as you kindly pointed out) is not your forte . Even though you probably have the same size as the ones that do.
Cheers!
Yeah, that’s right. Reading comprehension and yours sucks!
If you’re trying to get into a battle of wits, you’re coming in unarmed.
He was comparing size, not ability and you know it. You just won’t admit that you’re mistaken.
The conversation was about size,not ability…
pay attention!
Ya he did play a decent game. He’s not big, but at
6ft and 182# he is in size with the likes of Tyson Barrie,Letang, Doughty,Gostisbhere,Daley, etc. I think he should make the team.Better player than Gryba.!
Jordan Eberle is a great hockey player! Haha troll proof statement, schlubs!
~I swear, if Chris the Intern does an Injury Report this week I’m going to hunt him down and force feed him a Vegemite and Liverwurst sandwich.