GDB 64.0: Back at it after a long bus ride (5pm MT, SNW)

Photo credit:Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

1 year ago

There’s nothing quite like wrapping up a good home-and-home series with Winnipeg Jets to kick off our Saturday night, amirite? Of course I am. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s game day.

Be sure to check out NHL lines site Betway for the latest Oilers game day odds!

Even though I think it’s incredibly rude of the NHL schedule makers to give the Oilers and Jets a home-and-home series on back-to-back days given that Winnipeg doesn’t have an airport, I’m still intrigued to see how this series wraps up after a spicy start on night one. Not only are the points vital for both sides for their respective playoff pushes, but we’ll also see who got the most rest on their 14-hour bus ride back to Winnipeg. And after a tough matchup at Rogers Place to kick off the weekend, the team that’s able to get themselves going the quickest could grab an advantage as the Oilers did on night one and I’d love nothing more than to see our boys get that job done. As much as it was fun to watch the Oilers pump six goals passed Hellebuyck and Rittich, you know that the Jets will use the outcome from last night’s game as fuel for revenge. A weekend sweep is absolutely doable, but it’s going to take another 60-minute effort precisely like the one we just watched.

Coming into tonight’s rematch, the key for the Oilers will be to get another quick start while also avoiding any big mistakes that always seem to wind up in the back of our net. In round one of this home-and-home, the Oilers did a fantastic job of pushing the pace early and their speed and skill gave the Jets fits all over the ice. I don’t know that Edmonton will be able to build themselves another five-goal lead, but finding a way to put the hammer down early has to be at the top of their to-do list. I mean, despite the Jets being able to settle in a little bit, they struggled immensely to handle the Oilers’ attack that was coming from all angles, and I would love nothing more than another episode of that same all gas no brakes approach. That said, I also know, despite their struggles, the Jets are a very good hockey club and that the last thing we can do is count our chickens or expect them to look as sloppy as they did at Rogers Place. If anything, I’m expecting Winnipeg to come into this game with plenty of fire as the last thing any NHL team wants to do is get lit up for six goals and look awful while they were at it.

Let’s see what the numbers say…

THE NUMBERS

	OILERS	JETS
RECORD	34-21-8	35-25-2
WIN/LOSS STREAK	W2	L5
Last 10 Games	4-3-3	3-6-1
GOALS FOR	243	190
GOALS AGAINST	209	171
POWER PLAY%	31.4	21.4
PENALTY KILL%	75.3	84.2
AVG. SHOTS/FOR	33.5	30.0
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST	31.5	31.1
TEAM SAVE%	.913	.924
CORSI FOR%	51.95	50.73
PDO	1.001	1.005
TEAM SHOOTING%	8.88	8.07
EXPECTED GOALS FOR%	53.57	50.14

Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (Sv%, CF%, PDO, Shooting%, xGF% all at 5×5)

GDB PRESENTED BY BETWAY

LINEUPS…

Oilers

RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Draisaitl – Yamamoto
Foegele – Mcleod – Janmark
Kostin – Ryan

Nurse – Ceci
Ekholm – Bouchard
Kulak – Broberg
Desharnais

Campbell

Outside of Jack Campbell getting the start, I was curious to see whether or not Nick Bjugstad would be getting into his first game as an Oiler after being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. If he comes into the lineup, we could see the Oilers go with a 12/6 configuration for the first time in a minute. But seeing as the Oilers were by far the better team last night and it really wasn’t close, I can’t see Woody making many changes unless someone got banged up or something, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens closer to puck drop.

Jets

Connor – Scheifele – Wheeler
Niederreiter – Lowry – Ehlers
Barron – Stenlund – Kuhlman
Maenalanen – Gustafsson – Gagner

Morrissey – Demelo
Dillon – Pionk
Samberg – Schmidt

Hellebuyck

I don’t know what happened to the Winnipeg Jets over the last couple of months but they’ve completely fallen off a cliff from the red hot start they had to kick off the season. With a record of 3-6-1 in their last 10 games, the Jets are swirling the toilet bowl right now and I would love nothing more than to see the Oilers issue them their sixth straight loss.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

From Jetsnation.ca:

Cheveldayoff got things done that will make the Jets forward group better this season and next. But one of the things that I think Jets fans were left feeling disappointed by was the fact that he didn’t go and get another defenceman. A top-four defenceman would have put the Jets over in the West. Cheveldayoff also talked about the fact the core of the Jets is a group he believes in. That’s fine and all but we’ve seen this core do the same thing over and over since 2019. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again.
The way the Jets have been getting shelled lately should have screamed to Cheveldayoff there needs to be a solid defender added to the Jets’ back end to give Hellebuyck support. The Jets also could have used another right shot forward as well and they didn’t get one. Maybe because there was so much noise around this deadline and mixed in with the fact it feels like the Jets window is this year and maybe next year fans feel a little deflated by this deadline.
We didn’t get the big shiny toy we wanted but there were some additions and they will help the Jets over the last 20 games of the season and hopefully well into the playoffs. Maybe I’ll come back to this trade deadline in the summer and have totally different thoughts.

TONIGHT…

Photoshop: Tom Kostiuk

Game Day Prediction: The Oilers put in a solid 60-minute effort and pick up a big 4-2 win.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Connor McDavid can’t stop scoring goals, and he picks up another one that inches the captain even closer to 60 on the year.

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

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