logo

Game Notes: Edmonton Oilers @ Montreal Canadiens

alt
Photo credit:© Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Lewis
1 year ago
Following Saturday’s win over the Ottawa Senators, the Edmonton Oilers will conclude their four-game Eastern Conference road trip with a Sunday afternoon game in Montreal with the Canadiens.
1. If the Oilers can take care of business against the Habs, they’ll extend their streak of consecutive games without a loss in regulation time to 12. Also, if they win and the Vegas Golden Knights lose to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon, the Oilers will jump into sole possession of the top spot in the Pacific Division. Edmonton is currently one point back of the Golden Knights and the two teams have both played 53 games.
2. Edmonton hosted Montreal back in December and the Oilers won by a score of 5-3. Montreal opened the scoring but the Oilers flipped things around in the second period with three power-play goals. Defenceman Joel Edmundson took a five-minute cross-checking penalty while Kirby Dach was already in the penalty box and the Oilers buried a couple of goals during the ensuing opportunity.
3. The Habs got off to a decent start this season but have started to fall off over the past month. When they played in Edmonton back in early December, they had a respectable 12-11-1 record. Since then, Montreal has gone 8-16-3.
A big part of that decline has come because the Habs have been hammered hard by various injuries. Sean Monahan has been out since December with a foot injury, Cole Caufield is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, and Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kaiden Guhle, and Jake Evans are currently on the Injured Reserve.
4. Montreal won their first game out of the All-Star break by a score of 4-3 over the New York Islanders. The win was their first while wearing their controversial blue Reverse Retro jerseys, which head coach Martin St. Louis referred to as an affront to the team’s history…
“I think the hockey gods, I mean this is an historical franchise (and) the guys who wore those jerseys 50 years ago, red and white, are looking down and saying: ‘What are you guys doing?’ We probably get what we deserve, based on how historical this franchise is. I don’t know what next year will bring, but I hope it’s not those jerseys.”
5. Scheduling games on Super Bowl Sunday is somewhat puzzling for the NHL but at least the games are being played in the morning. Speaking of that, matinee games have forever been a problem for the Oilers, but that hasn’t been the case while on the road this season. They beat the Sens yesterday afternoon in Ottawa, highlighted by a very fast start, and they also beat the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers in afternoon games.
The matinee curse is still a problem for the Oilers at home, though, as they suffered listless losses to the Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, and St. Louis Blues in games that started at 2:00 PM local time. The Oilers have three more matinee games left to play after this one in Montreal this season and, thankfully, all of them are on the road.

Check out these posts...