Good morning, Nation! It’s a matinee Sunday and you know what that means — an excuse to play hooky from life and drink beers in the honour of daytime sports! Today, we’re getting ready for a Sunday Funday battle between the @Edmonton Oilers and the @Florida Panthers, as the teams face off for the first of two meetings this season.

How’s everybody feeling after an up and down week for the boys? Last weekend, the Oilers finished off a close one against the Detroit Red Wings, extending their record to 7-1-1, before going on to lose a pair of games without even managing to put up a single goal on the board. Obviously, it goes without saying that getting shutout twice in a week is like taking the first steps in a long walk down the short path to disaster, but it did give the team an opportunity to work through some adversity. It gave them a chance to prove that this hot start to the season isn’t just some fluke, and that the haters expecting them to crash and burn are wrong. After falling behind to the Capitals on Thursday night, the Oilers (specifically Connor and Leon) came roaring back in the third period with one of the most impressive stretches we’ve seen in a while and it gave us all some hope that things will be alright again. I mean, no one expected the road to the playoffs to be a cakewalk, right?

If the Oilers are truly going to turn haters into believers and keep making noise in the standings, they’re going to need to get a much more consistent effort than we’ve seen from over the past three games, and I mean that for all 20 guys in the lineup. Not only do we need the big guns to keep firing like warlords, but now would also be the perfect time for anyone in the bottom-six to come through with a goal or two. The fact that we’re talking about the offensive-less black hole that is the bottom six again this season is a tough pill to swallow, and a glaring hole that needs to be filled if the team is going to be successful. Now, to their credit, those two lines are holding their own defensively in most situations and that’s already an upgrade on what we got last season, but the point of hockey is to score more goals than the other team and it would make a world of difference if these guys were able to join in.

Will the Panthers be the team that allows the secondary scoring floodgates to open? We’re only a few short hours away from finding out.

Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (fancies at 5×5)

Draisaitl – McDavid – Kassian
Chiasson – RNH – Neal
Khaira – Sheahan – P.Russell
Jurco – Granlund – Gagner

Nurse – Bear
Klefbom – Russell
Manning – Benning

Smith

Seeing as the Oilers beat the Capitals on Thursday night, I wasn’t expecting Dave Tippett to tinker with the lines too much so the only change is that @Tomas Jurco comes back in to replace @Josh Archibald who is on the shelf with a broken foot. In net, @Mikko Koskinen set a franchise record by winning his first five games of the season and I wasn’t overly surprised to see him back between the pipes — I hope the big man can keep proving us all wrong. To this point, Koskinen has been rock solid for the Oilers and I can’t even begin to describe how important that level of stability is for this hockey team.

Jack Michael confirmed that it is indeed Mike Smith that gets the start this afternoon and I have to say that I’m a little bit surprised. It’s not that Smith has played poorly, he’s actually been great, but I thought Koskinen had a good enough night against the Capitals to merit another start.

Huberdeau – Barkov- Dadonov
Hoffman – Boyle – Connolly
Vatrano – Malgin – Pysyk
Hunt – Acciari – Sceviour

Weegar – Ekblad
Stillman – Stralman
Yandle – Brown

Bobrovsky

Looking at the Panthers lineup, there are plenty of offensive threats here that will torch the Oilers if they’re not careful. That first line of @Jonathan Huberdeau, @Aleksander Barkov, and @Evgenii Dadonov can be an absolute menace for the opposition so the Oilers’ defensive group will have to be at the top of their game to make sure they stay off the board. In other news, when did they start playing @Mark Pysyk as a forward? Alright.

Game Day Prediction: The Oilers continue the fine work they started in the third period against the @Washington Capitals and skate away to a 4-3 victory.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Coffee and Baileys. It’s on the docket.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: All four of Florida’s fans tune in to watch today’s game and it’s their highest TV viewing totals since making the Cup Finals back in 1996.

Find out why so many people are using Dominion Lending Centres #1 broker in Canada. We are paid by the banks on the size of the mortgage, not the interest rate, so we try to get you as low as rate as we can. Whether it is a purchase, renewal or refinance, contact us to see what we can do to help!