GDB 35.0: Montrealllll Aboard the Oilers Bandwagon (5pm MT, SNW)

Photo credit:Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

3 years ago

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope everyone is refreshed and relaxed after the weekend because we’ve got a big week of Oilers hockey coming up, starting with the first of three matchups against the Montreal Canadiens.

As we make our way through the back half of this shortened season, the Oilers are starting to heat up and gel together as a team and it’s been a lot of fun to watch that progression happen since their tough start back in January. After a rough 3-6 start to the campaign, the Oilers are 18-7 since turning the ship around and it’s beginning to get a whole lot more difficult for the haters to discount what’s going on around here. For me, it’s been fun to watch the mental gymnastics that opposing fan bases are doing to try and knock us down a peg with examples ranging from “they can only beat the Senators” to “Connor and Leon do everything” to “let’s see what happens when they play the Jets” and everything in between. Not only are the Oilers clearing those challenges as they come along right now, but they actually seem to be getting better and better as it’s happening, which makes me excited about what’s to come in the weeks and months ahead.

That said, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves because there is still a whole lot of highway left to cover before Clinchmas rolls around.

Early in the season, the Habs hit the ground running like the Stanley Cup was awarded in January, which prompted many to think that Marc Bergevin had built a team that would contend for the division. On the Real Life Podcast, I said that the Canadiens were fake news before the season started and I understandably took some heat for that take when they started off like a house on fire. In the time since, however, Montreal has cooled off considerably and if it wasn’t for their impressive collection of Bettman’s loser points, we’d be talking about a team that’s on the outside looking in rather than one that’s hanging on for dear life. Combine Montreal’s inconsistencies with the fact that the Oilers are rolling right now and I’m thinking we could be in line for a pretty fun week provided that the boys can keep cranking out quality efforts as we saw against in the series sweep against the Jets. It’s a simple dream but I think it’s a good one.

Let’s see what the numbers say…

THE NUMBERS

	OILERS	CANADIENS
RECORD	21-13-0	14-8-9
WIN/LOSS STREAK	W3	W1
LAST 10 GAMES	7-3-0	4-2-4
GOALS FOR	116	100
GOALS AGAINST	97	87
POWER PLAY%	27.0	23.8
PENALTY KILL%	76.0	76.4
AVG. SHOTS/FOR	31.3	33.2
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST	31.0	28.8
TEAM SAVE%	.918	.931
CORSI FOR%	49.73	55.51
PDO	1.011	1.010
TEAM SHOOTING%	9.33	7.94
EXPECTED GOALS FOR%	51.62	54.94

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

Vs. Montreal (2021) — 3GP: 1-2-0 — 5GF, 8GA

LINEUPS…

Oilers

Draisaitl – McDavid – Puljujarvi
Kahun – RNH – Archibald
Ennis – Haas – Kassian
Shore – Khaira – Chiasson

Nurse – Barrie
Lagesson – Larsson
Russell – Bear

Smith

Dave Tippett will be reuniting McDrai on the first line against Montreal, telling me that he has absolutely no interest in giving the Habs any time to get settled in. Putting the two best players on earth together on the first line is the kind of uppercut that can end a game quickly if they’re able to land something early, and I’ll be looking for the Dynamic Duo to power our boys forward.

Birthday boy, Mike Smith, will get the start as he looks for his 12th win of the season and second straight victory over Montreal. Smith shut out the Habs when these teams last met on February 11th, stopping all 38 shots they fired his way.

Canadiens

Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Suzuki – Anderson
Lehkonen – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Byron – Evans – Perry

Edmundson – Weber
Kulak – Petry
Mete – Romanov

Price

Earlier this morning, it was announced that Tyler Toffoli will likely miss the entire series against the Oilers with a lower-body injury, which is obviously a lucky break for the boys as the former King and Canuck currently leads their team in scoring.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

From Habs Eyes on the Prize:

The Montreal Canadiens walked away from Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with two points, both of them extremely well-earned despite it going to the shootout. Nick Suzuki had a beautiful snipe for his second goal in as many nights, and Victor Mete’s speed brought a new dimension to the Habs’ defence that they were sorely lacking. Yet at the end of the night, the Canadiens’ veterans had been the ones who helped to push the team over the finish line.
Across the board it was an impressive showing by the entire Canadiens team, but it looked a lot like luck wasn’t going to be on their side in a game they were again dominating. Luckily for them, they have the right mix of vets and young guns coming together to push through the struggles to get the team to a result they deserved. When the playoffs roll around, they’ll need those same vets to step up and guide the Canadiens, much like we saw in the bubble last summer.

TONIGHT…

Photoshop: Tom Kostiuk

Game Day Prediction: Having @Connor McDavid and @Leon Draisaitl on the same line is way too much for Montreal to handle and, as usual, they are the engines behind tonight’s 4-2 victory.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: The Montreal Canadiens are fake news and the Edmonton Oilers will prove it with a dominant performance. We’ll also have to hear about how good of a defenceman Jeff Petry developed into after MacT traded him, which is always fun to hear over and over again. *eyes roll into back of head*

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Impressed and slightly intimidated by my perfect score prediction on Saturday night, Jason Gregor handed me the reigns for the first GDB of this three-game series to try and reconnect with the ways of accurate sports predictions.

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