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2020-21 NHL Playoffs GM1: Oilers vs. Jets – Three Players to Watch

The war of words is done;
The red-lipped cannon speak;
The battle has begun.

The web your speeches spun
Tears and blood shall streak;
The war of words is done.

Smoke enshrouds the sun;
Earth staggers at the shriek
Of battle new begun.

Poltroons and braggarts run:
Woe to the poor, the meek!
The war of words is done.

“And hope not now to shun
The doom that dogs the weak,”
Thunders every gun;

“Victory must be won.”
When the red-lipped cannon speak,
The war of words is done,
The slaughter has begun.

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Should they be in the lineup, here are three players that I think you should keep an eye on for the Jets tonight,

  • #55 Mark Scheifele – His playoffs were “cut” short last season after a questionable hit from Calgary Flames Matthew Tkachuk. He’ll be desperate to prove his detractors wrong and also to show anybody watching that he can skate with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
  • #37 Connor Hellebuyck – Helly has to be able to show the whole league why he’s considered one of the best goalies in the world and that this season was simply an outlier. On his own, he could steal a series for the Jets and as we know, the team that usually goes the farthest in the Stanley Cup playoffs is usually the one with the best netminding.
  • #17 Adam Lowry – Winnipeg’s ability to shutdown Edmonton’s momentum factory could come from its bottom six winning the scoring battle over the Oilers’ grinders and Lowry would have to have a big hand in that. Is he healthy enough to do that though?

With regards to Edmonton, I’ll be watching these three individuals closely,

  • #25 Darnell Nurse – There’s one more step for Nurse to take here and that’s to become the kind of player who levels up in the playoffs. Evolving into the player he was this year in the regular season is one thing, being able to maintain and upgrade that form in the post-season is another.
  • #19 Mike Smith – Last year was a post-season to forget. Smith was crap against Chicago but there were some mitigating circumstances involved as well… Simply put, he wasn’t ready to go. Not this year though… His passion and intensity rings true throughout the Edmonton Oilers’ entire roster. Now, the question is, how far can it carry the team?
  • #97 Connor McDavid – I want to know if he can carry that regular season form into the playoffs like previous legends of the game could…

Oilers Notes

I wanted to put Zack Kassian in as one of the players to watch but Nurse, Smith, and McDavid are three players I really feel need to have “statement games” in the first contest of the series here.

Getting back to Kassian though, it is of the utmost importance that we see old Kass. If he can’t exert his physicality early on in game one here, he might as well be in the press box because in the muck is where the team needs him most.

With Kassian, Josh Archibald, Jujhar Khaira, Alex Chiasson, Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Adam Larsson, Darnell Nurse, and Dmitry Kulikov, the Oilers have the soldiers to take it to the Jets and I truly feel like they need to soften Winnipeg’s stars up early and often.

I want to see murderous intentions as soon as the puck is dropped.

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