After absolutely demolishing the Canucks on Hockey Night in Canada, the Edmonton Oilers return home for the second half of their back-to-back with some momentum on their side and eight straight games in their own building lined up on the calendar. If playing at home is supposed to be an advantage, this is where the Oilers can make it count.

Saturday’s 6-0 win in Vancouver was exactly what we all needed to boost our Saturday night. Not only did the Oilers head into Vancouver and snatch two points, but they left Rogers Arena half full of Oilers fans as the locals made their early exit to beat the traffic. Tristan Jarry was perfect when he needed to be, stopping all 31 shots for his first shutout as an Oiler. Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen each chipped in two goals, Zach Hyman kept his goal heater going, and the Oilers never once gave Vancouver a reason to believe they were in the game. One power-play goal, a clean penalty kill, and a full 60 minutes of hockey that overwhelmed the opposition. No drama. No nonsense. Just a job well done.

Now comes the follow-up. The St. Louis Blues roll into town sitting at 19-21-8, in 28th overall, but riding a modest two-game win streak. The numbers suggest this is a matchup Edmonton should win on paper, but we all know what happens when we get overconfident. Should win doesn’t always mean that they will win. The Oilers are averaging 3.37 goals per game compared to St. Louis’ 2.50, and control the even stength play at north of 50 percent in both Corsi and expected goals. For the dumb dumbs like me, the spreadsheets are saying our offence is better. Cool? The Blues, meanwhile, spend more time chasing than creating, allow 3.40 goals against per game, and rely on mistakes to generate a wide portion of their offence.

Shifting gears to the special teams, St. Louis’ power play sits at 16.8 percent, their penalty kill at 76.0, and while Edmonton only hit on 1/4 opportunities with the man advantage against the Canucks, the power play looked dangerous and confident. Surprised? No, me neither. If the Oilers keep drawing penalties and working the puck around the offensive zone the way this group has a knack of doing, this feels like a spot where results should follow. Patience matters, but pressure matters more, and the Oilers’ PP1 has been doing it for years. The Blues should take penalties at their own peril.

As was reported on Saturday, Leon Draisaitl will miss tonight’s game as he remains on short-term personal leave due to a family illness. On a hockey level, you can’t replace a guy like No. 29. He’s too good and too dominant. But on a human level, the thing that matters most is the family matter he’s attending to now. We’ll miss him, but I just hope he’s okay. And with Draisaitl out for the next while, we’ll need more of what we got against the Canucks to keep the train on the rails. Depth stepped up. The bottom six were engaged. The defence kept things simple. When everyone is pulling in the same direction, the Oilers have shown they can still overwhelm teams without leaning on both halves of the Dynamic Duo to do everything.

That’s why this visit from the Blues feels more important than just collecting two points. This is the start of an eight-game homestand, and stretches like this are where we’ll need our boys to start stacking wins. The Oilers deserved a better result earlier in the week against the Islanders, and Saturday felt like the correction the Hockey Gords owed us for the goalie-ing. But wins like that can be intoxicating. Point being, if the Oilers are ever going to string some wins together, I can’t think of a better time than the next two weeks when they’ll be posting up at home. The Canucks game was about taking advantage of a broken team. Tonight is about proving that effort carries over.

Start on time, keep the pace up, and make St. Louis spend the night defending instead of finding comfort. If the Oilers do that, this run of home games can be meaningful. A strong statement was made on Saturday, but now it’s time to build on what they did and repeat the process of beating a bottom-feeder. Good teams beat bad teams, and I think it’s fair to expect that even a tired Oilers club can find a way to make that happen. And what better outcome to be had on a night when we celebrate 1000 games of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? RNH day won’t feel complete unless the Oil can lock in two points to go along with the ceremony, silver stick, and incoming photoshopped tee from his teammates. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so.

Let’s see what the numbers say…

Podkolzin – McDavid – Hyman
Frederic – Nugent-Hopkins – Kapanen
Howard – Roslovic – Savoie
Mangiapane – Lazar – Janmark

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Emberson
Walman – Stastney

Ingram

Given that the Oilers played last night in Vancouver, we won’t get much information on the lineup until the boys get back on the ice for Sunday’s game against the Blues. With that in mind, I ported over yesterday’s trios and assumed Connor Ingram will be our man. As always, I’ll jump back in and update the line combos once we get closer to puck drop.

Stenberg – Schenn – Snuggerud
Neighbours – Dvorsky – Kyrou
Buchnevich – Bjugstad – Berggren
Toropchenko – Sundqvist – Walker

Broberg – Parayko
Tucker – Faulk
Fowler – Mailloux

Binnington

The Blues ride into Edmonton on a two-game win streak, and I would enjoy nothing more than seeing our boys end it. The Blues haven’t had a great season through the first half, but they’ve still got more than a handful of pieces in their lineup that can hurt you if the puck isn’t managed properly. Take care of the puck, don’t give unearned chances to score, collect two points. Easy.

Game Day Prediction: 1000 games for Nuge, 1000 Oilers goals on the board. HUGE win. Okay, for real, the Oilers walk away with a 5-2 victory. It’ll be decisive but not 1000 goals on the board, unfortunately.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: The NUUUUUUUUUUGE chants per 60 will be sky high at Rogers Place. Bank on it. Same goes for the two points Connor McDavid picks up.

Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction: The Oilers’ fourth line will pick up two goals. That’s right. Two.