After a disappointing loss in Detroit, the @Edmonton Oilers don’t have any time to mope around as they’ll get right back to work tonight against the @Columbus Blue Jackets. It’s the first time this season that the team has played in back-to-back games, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they’re able to bounce back after a tough outing on night one.

I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that the Oilers have to be better in all areas if they’re planning to beat the Blue Jackets tonight, and, perhaps even more so, they’re going to have to find a way to do it for 60 minutes. Against Detroit, the boys basically coasted their way through the first 45+ minutes until they finally found a sense of urgency and cranked up the intensity for the finish. In Columbus, the Oilers are facing an opponent that lost a sizeable chunk of their roster in the offseason — there’s no doubt that losing Panarin, Duchene, and Bobrovsky would hurt any team — but that doesn’t mean that this is going to be a gimme game by any stretch either. As we saw last night, just because you’d probably expect a win doesn’t mean jack shit in the NHL for what actually happens, especially when you’ve only got one line that’s a legitimate threat to score on any given shift.

In 13 games played so far, the Oilers have scored 38 goals, with 26 of them coming from only three players. I don’t think I have to explain why that’s a problem for the 100th time, Gregor walked through the numbers a few days ago, so I’ll just quickly remind everyone that there are five effing guys playing on the bottom two lines that have yet to score a goal. Does everyone remember? Good, let’s move on. On the flip side, the Blue Jackets have 30 goals spread throughout their lineup — Pierre-Luc Dubois leads the team with only seven points (5G, 2A) — so I’ll be watching to see whether or not their depth scoring factors in on the outcome. I know that CBJ isn’t scoring a whole lot but the goals they are getting come from a bunch of guys and that’ll make tonight’s line matchups that much more intriguing. Maybe scary is a better word choice?

Either way, the Oilers have to do whatever it takes to get their secondary offence going and I don’t care if that means going to visit some kind of witchdoctor or dabbling in other mediums of dark arts, it just has to happen. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather not sit through another game and wonder whether or not we’ll even have a goal to celebrate. There has to be more finish than this in these guys somewhere, and I plan on spending the next few hours before puck drop summoning demons in the off chance that it’ll help them find it. It could help? Maybe? At least, I’m doing my part.

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

Nurse – Bear
Klefbom – Russell
Manning – Benning

Smith

I’ll be looking forward to seeing how Mike Smith looks after getting the hook against the Panthers on Sunday. From the little we know about him so far, you’d have to imagine that he’ll be highly motivated to put in a bounce back performance.

Dave Tippett said in his pre-game presser that there would be some changes to the line combinations but didn’t elaborate on what that would look like. He mentioned that a couple of injured guys are getting closer to coming back and I’ll be interested to see what that means come puck drop. As of this moment, no defined trios have been announced so I’ve got last night’s combos in as a placeholder while we wait, but I’ll be sure to jump in and update the lines as news becomes available.

I don’t know what Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has to do to score a goal but I’m starting to think that we should collectively make some kind of sacrifice in his honour. Would a chicken be enough? Does it have to be an animal? Should we overwater a fern or something?

Foligno – Dubois – Atkinson
Nyquist – Wennberg – Bjorkstrand
Milano – Jenner – Anderson
Lilja – Nash – Bemstrom

Werenski – Jones
Nutivaara – Savard
Gavrikov – Kukan

Korpisalo

Game Day Prediction: Mike Smith puts in a strong performance and the Oilers steal a 2-1 win.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: @Connor McDavid and @Leon Draisaitl hook up for another goal.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Gregor is dealing with a plumber this morning so he asked me to remind everyone that today is the four-week anniversary of the date that I won our $20 bet about Mike Smith being the opening night starter. I thought that it was a weird request that he wanted me to put this in the GDB predictions, but I do appreciate that he remembered our big day. That’s friendship, everybody.