Welcome, friends, to another early edition of the GDB. Today, our beloved Oilers look to end their early season skid with a much-needed win against the New York Rangers. Could an afternoon affair against a rebuilding team be just what the doctor ordered? We’re only a couple hours from finding out.

Apparently, the NHL schedule makers wanted to make the start of this season as difficult as humanly possible for our boys. Anyone else feel that way? I mean, I’m no tinfoil hat guy but if you look at the schedule it’s almost like someone at head office was trolling us a little bit. For the second consecutive Saturday, here we are getting ready for an 11 am start (yeah, I know they were in Sweden last week — you know what I mean), with the added bonus being that we’ve already landed in must-win territory. Right now, the vibe around the Oilers is markedly dark and that’s after only a pair of loses so getting out of New York with two points is not only crucial for the team as it helps ease the pressure, but also for the fans that need something to feel good about.

Is this the start to the season that we hoped for? Of course not, don’t be stupid, but I don’t think we can let ourselves slip into the headspace where we’re writing this season off already — it’s still really early. Yeah, there’s plenty of work to do, certainly more than we would have hoped, but this two-game hole is not insurmountable and the Oilers can get themselves back on track with a win today. Sure, the upcoming games look ugly but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, the boys need to take things one step at a time and get themselves in the win column. They have a good chance to make that happen today, but there are no guarantees in this world and if Edmonton is going to walk away from MSG with a victory then they’re going to need to come out guns blazing for all 60 minutes. Just because the Rangers are rebuilding and a shadow of the team they once were doesn’t mean that anyone should take them lightly, as the Sharks found out on Thursday night.

Coming into today’s matchup, the Rangers are riding a five-game winning streak against the Oilers with three of those wins coming at MSG. If they hope to buck that trend, the McCrew is going to have to make sure they have their defensive zone assignments locked in, something that was too often exploited by the Bruins on Thursday, and get themselves into the dirty areas of the ice at the other end. The Oilers are having a hard time scoring and I’d like to see them throwing elbows in the paint to try and get a greasy one. Even though the Rangers aren’t what they used to be, they still have some offensive weapons that will burn you if given the chance so the Oilers will need more than one goal. A guy like Mats Zuccarello has torched the Oilers for 12 points in 10 career meetings so the visitors have to be paying attention if they’re going to close this thing out with two points.

If they can shut down the Rangers’ top half of the roster then they’re going to be in good shape, but as we all know, that’s always easier said than done. Can we see 60 minutes worth of effort today? That’ll be step one.

Numbers courtesy of Corsica

RNH-McDavid-Rattie
Lucic-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Caggiula-Strome-Puljujärvi
Rieder-Brodziak-Khaira

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Garrison-Bouchard

Talbot

Todd Mclellan said yesterday that the players mentioned in their exit interviews that they’d like more consistency with their linemates, and, with that in mind, the coach has decided to keep the top three lines the same. Now, how long will that last? We shall see.

***UPDATE**** Looks like Kassian and Benning are out for today. Garrison and Brodziak are in.

Kreider-Zibanejad-Fast
Buchnevich-Howden-Zuccarello
Vesey-Hayes-Spooner
Namestnikov-Chytil-Lettieri

Skjei-Shattenkirk
Staal-Pionk
Claesson-Smith

Lundqvist

Even though the Rangers may not have the firepower they once did, no game against them can ever be considered a gimme with Henrik Lundqvist in net. On Thursday night against the Sharks, Lundqvist stopped 41 of 43 shots, stealing a game for New York that they really had no business winning. No matter how bad the Blueshirts are in front of him, handsome Henrik always gives his team a chance to win and that’s a problem the Oilers are going to have to solve. Solve Lundqvist and you can solve the Rangers.

GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers know how important this game is and they come ready to play, beating the Rangers 4-2 to secure their first win of the season.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Despite putting in a much better special teams effort against the Rangers than we saw against the Bruins, the Oilers still give up a power play goal to maintain tradition.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Upon arrival at the Gardens, Oilers management finds out that Billy Joel has been doing a monthly residency at MSG for the past few years and recommends to the Rangers that he should have his own banner raised to the rafters. Ownership doesn’t overly like the concept so the OEG decides to hang one at Rogers Place instead.