The NHL trade deadline is behind us, and now we’ll have to wait and see whether Stan Bowman did enough to push the Edmonton Oilers over the tipping point. And with the Dallas Stars in town for tonight’s matchup, we’ve got a real measuring stick matchup on deck that will give us an idea of how we stack up against one of the best in the West.

With all the noise of silly szn behind us, the Oilers have 21 games left to come together as a unit and show what they can do. You never know how long it will take for new guys to settle in, but the pressure will undoubtedly ramp up on everyone in blue and orange to get up to speed as quickly as possible. And when you consider the Oilers’ struggles since returning from the 4 Nations break, we don’t really have time to wait.

Looking at the task at hand, the Dallas Stars are rolling into town on the back of a monster trade that brought Mikko Rantanen to town after the Hurricanes failed to get an extension done. That deal obviously makes a very good team even better, and I’m eager to see how the Oilers will respond now that their path through the west got increasingly more difficult. With everyone loading up, it’s up to the group in the room to figure out how to put things together.

Even before acquiring Mikko Rantanen, the Dallas Stars were a problem, which will be a massive challenge for our struggling Oilers. At 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, the Stars have outscored their opponents by a 44 to 31 margin, and that makes me nervous about how Edmonton will be able to defend their attack. I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that the Oilers’ defensive coverage has been a mess over the last stretch of games, and that will be a real problem if they can’t tighten that up.

I still believe the best approach will be for the Oilers to simplify their game and avoid trying to get too cute with the puck. Instead of fishing for the prettiest play possible, I’d like to see them focus more on driving to the crease, putting pucks on net, and trying to create offence from the resulting chaos. Sometimes you have to make your own luck, and with as many players struggling to produce offence, taking a step backward could be what we need to get out of this.

Now that the deadline is in the rearview mirror, I’m hopeful that noise quieting down will help some of our players who may have been hearing their name in the rumour mill. As much as we want these guys to be robots, uncertainty can be stressful and I can understand how that can affect what happens on the ice. I’m not trying to make excuses for anyone, but rather looking at the situation in a glass-half full mindset. Maybe that’s the homer in me coping for some of these bets going sideways, but I can’t help but look at the Oilers’ situation and struggles and see better days ahead.

Let’s see what the numbers say…

Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Brown
Jones – Kapanen – Perry

Nurse – Emberson
Kulak – Bouchard
Walman – Stecher

Skinner

According to the Oilers’ beat writers, the forward lines will be the same as what we got against Montreal but the defensive pairings don’t appear to be set just yet. With Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg not on the ice for morning skate, guys are rotating through with different partners, so we’ll have to wait and see what actually ends up happening when the game starts. Regardless of where everyone slots in, I’m looking forward to seeing Jake Walman‘s Oilers debut and getting a first-hand look at what he can bring to the table.

Robertson – Hintz – Rantanen
Marchment – Duchene – Granlund
Benn – Johnston – Dadonov
Back – Steel – Bourque

Harley – Lyubushkin
Lindell – Ceci
Bichsel – Dumba

Oettinger

How good is the Stars’ top nine? All I see huge talent on all three of those lines, and that depth will be a handful for the Oilers to handle. Focusing on defending will be crucial for the Oilers if they’re going to even up the season series at one game apiece, and anything less than that could end up in disaster. Needless to say, we’ll need much better structure in Edmonton’s d-zone than we’ve seen over the last two weeks.

Game Day Prediction: The Oilers get a goal from Leon Draisaitl early in the first period, which sets the tone for the rest of the game. Final Score: 6-2 Oilers.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Leon Draisaitl scores his 47th goal of the campaign on a power play goal from his office.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Jake Walman scores his first goal as an Oiler, hits the Griddy, and kicks off the city’s love affair with our newest defensive toy.