It’s Saturday morning and we’ve got the first matchup of a back-to-back weekend as the Edmonton Oilers square off against the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens respectively. First up, the boys find themselves in the nation’s capital to face a Senators team whose season hasn’t quite gone as expected.

Remember how much fun we had during the all-Canadian season when the Oilers absolutely ran the show any time they matched up against the Ottawa Senators? Not only did the Oilers secure every single point in that season series but those games against the Sens ended up being point nights for our stars. Outside of the lack of fans, good times were had by everyone cheering for the orange and blue — it was beautiful. Last year, however, the Senators rebounded quite nicely and put up a 2-0-0 record against Edmonton, something we’re hoping to avoid this time around, especially given where we’re at in the season and standings. With every point being more and more important by the day, this morning’s matchup against the Sens teeters closer toward must-win territory… at least in the spiritual sense anyway.

To beat the Senators, however, the Oilers will need to be on top of their game because what we got on Thursday against Philly simply was not good enough. It’s not that they played poorly but the details were off, ya know? Everything was either a foot short or a foot long and the timing was not quite right, and the whole game had the same vibe as when the Oilers lost to Columbus a few weeks back. With a 6-4-0 record over their last 10 games and a four-game winning streak coming in, the Senators are looking more like the squad that had people believing they’d make the playoffs and that has me thinking that anything less than a 60-minute effort is going to leave us all feeling disappointed again. By no means am I saying this isn’t a winnable morning for our boys — the Oilers can beat anyone in this league — but what I am saying is that they had better be ready to play or this could be another wasted opportunity.

Let’s see what the numbers say.

Draisaitl – McDavid – Hyman
Kostin – RNH – Janmark
Foegele – McLeod – Puljujarvi
Holloway – Ryan

Nurse – Ceci
Kulak – Barrie
Broberg – Bouchard
Desharnais

Campbell

In my mind, there is no doubt that the Oilers have the better roster of these two teams but whether or not they can put everything together and win the hockey game. If the Oilers can put together a full 60 minutes then this game should be in the bag, but as we know, having them execute on that can be a tall order at times, an issue they need to eliminate down the stretch. That said, when they’re at their best then there isn’t a team in this league that the Oilers can’t handle, and that will make this morning’s contest an interesting challenge. As for the line combos, there hasn’t been any news regarding who would play where or with who so I’ll have to jump back in and make the edits once news becomes available.

Tkachuk – Stutzle – Joseph
DeBrincat – Greig – Giroux
Brassard – Pinto – Batherson
Motte – Gambrell – Kelly

Chabot – Holden
Sanderson – Hamonic
Brannstrom – Zaitsev

Forsberg

If I’m being honest, I’m a little bit surprised to see where the Senators are at in the standings given the talent they have on their roster. When I look at this team, I see a bunch of players that are more than capable of ruining your night, but I also understand from our endless rebuilds that it sometimes takes more than talent to put everything together. As for tonight’s game, however, the most important thing the Oilers can do is make sure they’re making good choices with the puck because trying to be too cute could result in more goals against than for.

Game Day Prediction: The Oilers haven’t had a very good record in matinees over the years, but the boys respond this morning with a massive 4-2 win.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Connor McDavid scores his 42nd goal of the season, inching his way one step closer to his first 50-goal season.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Vincent Desharnais scores his first NHL goal with a seeing-eye wrister from the point.