Rookie GDB 2.0: Oilers vs Flames

5 years ago

The Oilers rookies are back in action as they take on the Flames only 24-hours after absolutely stomping the NAIT/MacEwan All-Stars last night at Rogers Place. For tonight’s game, the teams will face off in neutral gang territory down in Red Deer with the Oilers rookies looking to avenge the 7-3 beatdown they took on Sunday.

After Sunday’s lopsided loss, some of the rookies admitted that they had some nerves firing which understandably accounted for some of the mistakes they made, but today is a new day and talk is cheap so the boys are going to have to make sure to lock things down in tonight’s game. They can’t let nerves get in the way of competing within their game plan, and they have to find a way to get engaged early. Getting beat by the Flames is inexcusable at any level, and we can’t be having our boys getting stomped regardless of rookie status and I would expect a much more inspired effort from our boys in blue.

If they can play like they did last night against the Griffooks, albeit against stiffer competition offered by the Flames rookies, then they’ll do alright. Against the college kids, the Oilers looked much more confident on the ice and their game plan and they could definitely use a dose of that confidence tonight against the Flames, especially in net. In the first round of BOA rookie battles, the Oilers netminders struggled a little bit and having that settle down will do wonders for the team in their pursuit of victory. Needless to say, when you lose the first game 7-3 there is plenty of room to improve and I would expect that to happen tonight, at least I hope so anyway.

If you’re planning on checking it out, the puck will drop just after 7 pm MST over on the Oilers website or on YouTube/Facebook.

LINEUPS…

Oilers

Gust – McLeod – Yamamoto
Vesey – Larkin – Maksimov
Gambardella – Vesel – Hebig
Van Stralen – Esposito – Polei

Jones – Bouchard
Crevier-Morin – Bear
Kulevich – Lagesson
Wilson – Day

Skinner
Rodrigue

These were the lineups that got posted on the Oilers site and it looks like all of Cooper Marody, Tyler Benson, and Dylan Wells will all get the night off. Ostap Safin won’t play either as he’s still recovering from a hip flexor incurred during his training.

Flames

Brett Pollock – Glenn Gawdin – Matthew Phillips
Dmitry Zavgorodniy – Dillon Dube – Mike McMurtry
Jordan Ernst – Adam Ruzicka – D’Artagnan Joly
Yasin Ehliz – Milos Roman – Zach Fischer

Juuso Valimaki – Adam Ollas Mattsson
Josh Healey – Brayden Pachal
Merrick Rippon – Igor Merezhko

McDonald
Farkas

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

From Flamesnation:

The players that are going to China are now in Shenzhen. The remainder of the players who are going to be in main camp are awaiting medicals. That means it’s the prospects’ time to shine! After laying a drubbing on the Oilers prospects on Sunday afternoon, the Flames are hoping to keep that train rolling along into main camp.
Presuming the Flames go with a similar lineup as they did on Sunday, keep an eye on the secondary offensive group for the Flames: Matthew Phillips, Glenn Gawdin and Brett Pollock. They were productive offensively, but they were quite iffy in their own end. If they want to stick around for awhile in camp, they’ll need to have as impressive a 200-foot performance as the Mangiapane-Dube-Foo trio did on Sunday.

TONIGHT…

GAME DAY PREDICTION: After suffering an embarrassing loss on Sunday night, the Oilers bounce back with a much better effort, defeating the Flames rookies 6-4.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The boys will fuel up at gasoline alley on the way, murdering several spicy chicken sandwiches and JBCs in the process.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The stream will be flawless and buffering will be kept to a minimum. Great success!

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