The Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers both come into Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada matchup having lost their last game, and it will be fascinating to see which side will rebound from games that were anything but their best. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s game day.
It may still be early in the season, but tonight’s game between the Oilers and Rangers feels like it’s carrying a little extra weight. These two teams were both labelled as Stanley Cup contenders before the season started, and yet both sides are struggling with varying issues at the quarter mark of the season. On one side, the Oilers are battling consistency and still can’t seem to get goals from anyone not named Draisaitl or McDavid with any regularity. On the other hand, the Rangers are bleeding offensive opportunities and have needed some pretty heroic goaltending performances just to lock in some of their wins.
Tyler and Liam had Jonny Lazarus on Friday’s episode of Oilersnation Everyday to talk about what we should expect from the Rangers, and I thought his insight was worth sharing. Jonny covers the Rangers for us over at DailyFaceoff.com, and I figured if anyone would know what’s going on with that team or what we should expect, he’d have the best chance at explaining it to us:
“To me, right now, they’re a first-round exit if I’m speaking open and honestly. But it seems like there are a lot of similarities with the vibe check of the Oilers. You guys got to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last year — it’s a really long season with a lot of hope and great moments — and it’s hard to kind of flip that switch for 82 games when everyone just wants to get back to the playoffs. It’s hard to care about a random game at home against the Rangers when your team just played in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Similarly to the Rangers, the team feels like they’re just looking to flip a switch later on in the year too.”
What was interesting to me about this first quote from Lazarus is how so many people seem to be wondering if the Oilers are still looking back at what could have happened in June as opposed to what’s right in front of their faces. Believe me, I was there for Game 7, and watching the Oilers get that close to the Cup only to lose by a single goal was a pain that is tough to describe. But we must move forward. Dwelling on what might have been doesn’t seem helpful when we need wins today, no?
“We’re talking about Games 16, 17, and 18 of the regular season where the Rangers have something to prove, and that shouldn’t be the case for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. But right now, it seems like both fanbases have higher expectations and higher standards for their team, and there is a lot of displeasure in games when the competitiveness isn’t there. Right now for the Rangers, while they have a lot of elite talent offensively, defensively they look like a disaster, and goaltending has bailed them out in many games. It’s been a little bit of a disappointing start to the season, and the word I would use for it is uninspiring.”
As much as I want to believe Jonny when he says the Rangers are playing uninspired hockey, it’s tough to feel bad for a team that’s 12-5-1 because their goalie has been so good. Honestly, it makes them more annoying to me. What I wouldn’t give to have the Oilers’ mediocre nights covered up by a Shesterkin-level goaltender with the ability to steal games more often than not. I mean, no one wants to leak offensive opportunities, but that problem is never as dire when you’ve got someone standing back there who can erase the mistake.
If the Oilers are going to win this game as banged up as they are, they’re going to need three-quarters of the roster to crank up the urgency by a factor of five or more. While no one can control the injuries and how long guys need to recover, what every player in that Oilers room can control is how much effort they put out and how much they care. Over the last week, the boys have only shown their best in their win over the Senators, and that’s not a great spot to be in when going up against a team as talented as the New York Rangers. We’re going to need more than that.
Let’s see what the numbers say…

THE NUMBERS

OILERS
RANGERS
RECORD
10-9-2
12-5-1
WIN/LOSS STREAK
L1
L1
LAST 10 GAMES
5-4-1
6-4-0
GOALS FOR
58
63
GOALS AGAINST
67
44
POWER PLAY%
16.7
23.9
PENALTY KILL%
69.2
88.1
AVG. SHOTS/FOR
33.0
30.6
AVG. SHOTS/AGAINST
25.5
32.2
TEAM SAVE%
.901
.932
CORSI FOR%
55.73
48.11
PDO
0.969
1.032
TEAM SHOOTING%
6.76
9.98
EXPECTED GOALS FOR%
54.22
51.49
Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (Sv%, CF%, PDO, Shooting%, xGF% all at 5×5)
  • Tonight’s matchup is the first of two games between the Oilers and Rangers this season with the next coming on March 16th at Madison Square Garden. The Oilers have earned points in eight of their last 10 meetings against the Rangers over the last five seasons, earning a 7-2-1 record over that stretch.
  • Jeff Skinner leads all active Oilers in career games (52) and points (31) versus the New York Rangers, and I’m hoping some of that magic comes back to Skinner after he picked up a goal in garbage time against the Wild.
  • Connor McDavid has at least a point in 12 of his 13 career games versus the Rangers, including four points in their last three matchups. McDavid’s linemate, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, has also seen some success against New York with 13 points (4G, 9A) in his last 11 games.
  • The Rangers have wins in three of their last four and six of their last nine games. New York also has points in 13 of 18 games played overall, giving them a .694 points percentage that ranks fifth in the NHL.
  • On the road this season, the Rangers are 7-2-0 and lead the NHL in road GA/GP (1.78), and rank tied for second in road GF/GP (4.11).
  • The Rangers have allowed two or fewer goals in 11 of 12 victories this season and their 11 games allowing two or fewer
    goals rank tied for the second in the NHL.

LINEUPS…

Oilers

Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Kapanen
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Brown
Skinner – Henrique – Janmark
Caggiula – Ryan – Perry
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – Emberson
Skinner
The blender was out again for the Oilers at morning skate, as every line outside of the fourth line got a shuffle in one way or another. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the newly acquired Kasperi Kapanen will flank Connor McDavid, while Connor Brown gets a bump up to the second line to play with Leon Draisaitl and Podzilla.
The other news was that Darnell Nurse will be making his return to the lineup after missing the last three games, while Evan Bouchard has been labelled as 50-50 to play. The last time Kris Knoblauch said someone was 50-50, it was Viktor Arvidsson over a week ago, and the guy has yet to return to the lineup. Pray for Bouchard? I will be.

Rangers ***Updated***

Kreider – Zibanejad – Smith
Panarin – Trocheck – Lafreniere
Cuylle – Brodzinski – Kakko
Edstrom – Carrick – Vesey
Miller – Fox
Lindgren – Trouba
Jones – Schneider
Quick
Artemi Panarin has points in seven of his last nine games (4G-5A), and at least one point in 15 of 18 games this year. At one point, Panarin had 10 goals in 15 games, which was the fastest Ranger to reach the 10-goal mark (14 GP) in a season since Rick Nash did it in 12 games back in 2014-15. Going back into last season, Panarin has recorded a point in 82 of 100 regular season games. The only other NHL players who have tallied a point in more games over that same stretch are Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (86) and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (84). Needless to say, the Oilers need to be aware when he’s on the ice.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING…

From Forever Blue Shirts:
Things aren’t so dire for the Rangers (12-5-1). They own the fifth best points percentage in the NHL and played fewer games than each of the three teams ahead of them in the Metropolitan Division. But one quarter of the way into the 2024-25 season, the Metro is shaping up to be the best division in the NHL, so the Rangers have their work cut out for them.
Laviolette can’t make a wrong decision with the Rangers starting goalie Saturday. He can go with his stud No. 1 Igor Shesterkin, who was brilliant in defeat against the Flames, stopping 46 of 49 shots. Or he can start backup Jonathan Quick for the second time on this trip. Quick is 4-0-0 this season with a 0.91 goals-against average and .970 save percentage. He shut out the Detroit Red Wings and Seattle Kraken in his past two starts
Shesterkin and Quick have combined for a .924 save percentage, best in the NHL, this season. But perhaps Quick gets the nod here. It’s the last game of the road trip and he has great career numbers against the Oilers (25-12-6, 2.18 GAA, .921 save percentage, four shutouts).

TONIGHT…

GDB Edmonton Oilers Ryan Nugent-Hopkins photoshop
Photoshop: Tom Kostiuk from Handmade by Tom
Game Day Prediction: Despite being banged up, the Oilers get a big night from their two best players, powering them to a decisive 5-1 win.
Obvious Game Day Prediction: The Oilers’ PK makes it seven straight games without a goal. I believe.
Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Sam Carrick revenge goal? I can see it, and I know you can too.

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