The Edmonton Oilers return home to face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. It’ll be the second and final regular-season meeting between the two teams, with the Oilers seeking out revenge after an awful performance in Ohio earlier in the year. The Blue Jackets thumped the Oilers 6-1 with Edmonton’s only goal coming with less than a minute to play. It was arguably the team’s worst game of the season so rebounding from that effort will be key for the home team.
1. The Blue Jackets enter tonight’s game after an emotional trip to Calgary. It was the first meeting in Calgary between the two teams since the passing of former Flame and Blue Jacket Johnny Gaudreau. Calgary came out victorious with a 3-0 win putting an end to the Blue Jackets’ two-game win streak.
2. Columbus has a 0.583 points percentage but the team sits outside of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The reason they sit on the outside looking in is due to their road performances this season. They’re 3-7-2 on the road beating only the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche. They’ve struggled to score goals (25) and have allowed the 5th most goals (46). Unsurprisingly, their special teams rank in the bottom five of the league on the road too.
3. Over Columbus’ last five visits to Edmonton, they’ve won only once. That victory came in during the 2022-23 season when Kent Johnson scored an overtime winner after the Jackets trailed 2-1 coming into the third period. Other than that win, they’ve only scored five goals across the other four meetings while allowing 17.
4. Throughout November, nobody in the NHL allowed more goals against than the Blue Jackets with 53. Their penalty kill was leaking goals too playing at a rate of 72.5%. Edmonton, in comparison, had the 9th ranked penalty kill with 82.8% and allowed the 11th fewest goals, 37.
5. Zach Werenski has been fantastic over his last ten games with only Connor McDavid has scored more points over that span. Werenski had 5 goals and 16 points, which has taken his totals to 8 goals and 26 points on the season. He’s third in scoring amongst defencemen behind Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, but has the same amount of event strength points, 17.
6. Columbus has a ton of talent in their forward group but they’re still waiting for their younger stars to take the next step. In the meantime, their top line of Sean Monahan, Dmitry Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko have carried the bulk of the offence combining for 24 of the 42 goals the forwards have scored this season.
7. The Edmonton Oilers sent Drake Caggiula down to the American Hockey League following their 1-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, which is an indication that Zach Hyman returns to the lineup tonight. Hyman last played on November 19th in the Oilers’ win over the Ottawa Senators when he left the game with this undisclosed injury.
8. As mentioned before, the Oilers’ offence has done well at home versus the Blue Jackets. In their last five home meetings, McDavid has three goals and seven points, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has one goal and five points, and Leon Draisaitl has five points with no goals.
9. The likely goaltending duel tonight is between Stuart Skinner and Elvis Merzlikins. Merzlikins has a 3-1-1 record in his last five starts with a save percentage of 0.891 and a 3.00 goals-against average. He started when these two teams met earlier in the season and made 32 stops for a 0.969 save percentage. At the other end of the ice, Skinner has started to trend his game upwards. He has a 0.916 save percentage in his last five games along with a 2.20 goals-against average. His poor start against the Minnesota Wild where he allowed five goals on 26 shots has prevented his stats come looking as solid as they should.
