The Edmonton Oilers are in Montreal for a trio of games against one of the best teams in the first half of the season. Early on, the Habs handily beat Edmonton twice by scores of 5-1 and 3-1. Although, in their third meeting, the Oilers shut out the Canadiens 3-0.
At the moment, Montreal is 4-3-4 in their last ten and Edmonton is 7-3-0, trends that I expect to continue because the Oilers’ leadership core of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Darnell Nurse are on a tear the league hasn’t seen since the days of Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Sergei Zubov. I also am of the belief that as big and strong as these Canadiens are, they’re slowing down after a hot start and are ripe for the picking.
If the Oilers win, they’ll be alone at the top of the North Division. Wouldn’t that be a helluva birthday gift for Mike Smith, who turns 39 today!
The #Oilers have signed 2018 sixth-round pick Michael Kesselring to a three-year entry-level deal!
The 6’4” defenceman spent the last two seasons with @GoNUmhockey, posting seven goals & six assists in 54 @NCAAIceHockey games.
He'll join the @Condors for the rest of 2020-21. pic.twitter.com/xHVNyTmQTO
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 22, 2021
Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Habs tonight,
- #11 Brendan Gallagher – Was an integral figure in Montreal’s win over Vancouver the other night. His confidence will be sky high, meaning, he’s going to be in everybody’s grill. Has seven points (five goals) in his last ten games.
- #92 Jonathan Drouin – He’s starting to heat up a little bit with four points (all assists) in his last five games. Drouin is a clever playmaker when given the time and space.
- #17 Josh Anderson – I have a feeling we might see a scrap tonight if Anderson is feeling good. Anderson’s game is predicated on being extremely physical and I hope the Oilers keep their wits about him when he’s on the ice.
For Montreal to have success, their top-six is going to have to outwork Edmonton’s. Simple as that. As good as that group is, it will be a very tall task for them. Expecting one of the Oilers’ goalies to have a bad night is probably a better bet.
Dominique Ducharme’s bottom-six has gone absolutely dry with only two goals in its last five games, so that will have to be addressed as well.
For the last ten games, Carey Price (4-1-2) and Jake Allen (0-1-2) have had their forms on the year flipped. Price is starting to round into the goalie we all know him to be and Allen is beginning to regress. This will be a tough decision for Ducharme as to who he starts because Allen has a much better record against Edmonton and Price’s struggles when he plays the Oilers are well known. Whoever it is starting, they’d best have their “A” games handy.
With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,
- #29 Leon Draisaitl – A heavy game is one that fits Leon nicely. Since the 3rd of March, he’s got 16 points and now he’s part of a line being called “The Nuclear Option” which features himself, Connor McDavid, and Jesse Puljujarvi. I can only remember one other line that featured such high-end talent and it was on a team that won two consecutive Stanley Cups in the early 90s.
- #25 Darnell Nurse – Call me convinced. I used to want the Oilers to trade Nurse every year because I wasn’t impressed with his puck-handling or his shooting or his upcoming contracts. Things have changed. Nurse is composed with the puck, his decision making is better, his shooting is better, his passing has improved by leaps and bounds. He’s playing like a Norris Trophy finalist right now and has 9 points in his last ten games. The Oilers finally have a true top-pairing defenseman and if he wants $7M or $8M a year long-term, it’s a conversation worth listening to.
- #13 Jesse Puljujarvi – I know I pick him as a player to watch often but this time it’s for different reasons. He’s getting some really good press lately for his fantastic play lately and I want to know how he responds to having some of the spotlight on him. It didn’t bother his form in Finland for Karpat or with when he was a superstar for Finland at the World Juniors, but I’m still curious how his game will react to the positive attention.
Three Keys to Success For the Oilers
- Get On the Habs Early
Montreal recorded a very emotional victory two nights ago and they’ll be feeling good going into this one. Edmonton should be gunning for the kind of start that saw them come away with a 7-1 win against the Calgary Flames recently. It was as if their mindset was that they were in the last minute of a must-win game down by a goal and they had the netminder pulled. That’s how intense they need to start their games. If they do that tonight, they’ll send a shock into Montreal’s psyche that will put the Canadiens back at square one.
- Tighten Up the Neutral Zone
Those two games against the Jets were tough defensive battles and as many have said already, similar to a playoff atmosphere. The Oilers would be good to emulate those victories and close off the neutral zone thus disallowing the Montreal forwards clean entries into Edmonton’s zone. They’ll be forced to dump it in and if Mike Smith is in net, he’ll gobble those up and spit them back out to his forwards for a counter attack.
- Shut Gally Down
The heartbeat of the Montreal Canadiens is Brendan Gallagher. If the Oilers can find a way to take him off of his game and render him ineffective, that could go a long way for Edmonton. Gallagher’s intensity and enthusiastic style of play has a certain ability to find its way into the minds and hearts of his teammates when he’s on.
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