Tag Archives: Blues

Edmonton Oilers, Zach Laing

Oilers vs Blues – Battered Oilers fight to get back in the lineup

nugeblues

TALE OF THE TAPE:

Game: Edmonton Oilers (27-38-7, 61 pts. 5-4-1 in their last 10) vs St. Louis Blues (41-21-9, 91 pts. 6-4 in their last 10)

Location: Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta

Time: 7:30 PM MT

Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet Oilers – Radio: 630 CHED

Edmonton Oilers Preview:

72 down, 10 to go.

The end is in sight for the Oilers on another disappointing season. However, that isn’t holding some players back from giving it their all.

Adam Pardy, who suffered a broken finger and has missed the last two games, is one who is trying to get back into play as soon as he can.

Adam wants to play, badly. He’s got a hand injury from blocking a shot, and he’s able to skate so he wants to keep his legs going and his conditioning up as much as he can. The minute he’s good to play we’re going to put him in, because we’d like to find out a little bit more about him. He can’t run the risk of greater injury to himself and hurting the team, and I think he understands both of those situations. He’s very noble, he wants to maintain that conditioning level and we’d welcome him back quickly. – Todd McLellan on Adam Pardy.

Transcribed by J. Willis, OilersNation. 

I recommend reading through Willis’ article linked above, as he talks about how Pardy could be a valuable defensive asset in a 6/7 role next year for the Oilers.

After serving a three game suspension, Darnell Nurse returns to action after his altercation with Roman Polak of the Sharks on Mar. 8. Nurse has shown maturity through the situation, saying he “could have definitely been smarter out there.”

That’s fair. I wrote about the incident in a post-gamer I did for Copper and Blue. To summarize my thoughts on it, I was okay with what Darnell did.

Todd McLellan feels the team should be well prepared. He noted the similar roster structure between Nashville and St. Louis. The difficulty for the Oilers all season has been injuries.

Rather than it being an excuse, it is a legitimate reason as to why the team has not been successful. Suffering the most-impactful injuries in the league and the third most injuries period as per mangameslost.com.

None the less, the Oilers had a legitimate chance this season to do well. My beginning of the year prediction had them finishing 10th in the West. As of today, they are only six points out of 10th and fourteen out of a playoff spot.

For years, the Oilers have been pushed around physically by the Blues. With the size additions the team has, it should be interesting to see how the team responds. Let’s see what the Oilers are made of tonight.

Quotes from oilers.nhl.com.

Predictions for tonight:

  1. Oilers win 3-1.
  2. Patrick Maroon fights David Backes for all the crap he has done to the Oilers in the last few years. Nobody gets hurt, but Maroon gets the W.
  3. Darnell Nurse returns, plays over 20 minutes and is a positive CF player in his first game back.

Last games predictions and results:

  1. The Oilers win the game for LB.
  2. The line of Patrick Maroon, Connor McDavid and Jordan Eberle are all on the ice for two Oilers goals.
  3. Adam Clendening has another good showing, and scores his first with the Oilers.

Well, I was close. The Oilers lost but the line of Maroon-McDavid-Eberle accounted for one goal.

St. Louis Blues Preview: 

Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson is questionable after missing practice Tuesday. Coach Ken Hitchcock said Gunnarsson, who blocked two shots in the Blues’ 7-4 loss to the Calgary Flames on Monday that ended a six-game winning streak, is day-to-day. If Gunnarsson can’t play, Robert Bortuzzo would; he’s been a healthy scratch in seven straight games. St. Louis is seeking a ninth straight win against Edmonton; the Blues are 13-1-0 in the past 14 against the Oilers. The Blues last lost to the Oilers on March 26, 2013. “If we’re not prepared (against Edmonton), it’s going to be even worse,” said goalie Jake Allen, who will start after being pulled Monday after allowing four goals on 17 shots. Stastny has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak after scoring two goals Monday.

 

— NHL.com

Line Combos and Starting Goalies:

Oilers (Cam Talbot):

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Iiro Pakarinen
Matt Hendricks – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Nail Yakupov
Lauri Korpikoski – Mark Letestu – Adam Cracknell

Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Nikita Nikitin – Adam Clendening
Jordan Oesterle – Griffin Reinhart

EDM Injuries: Oscar Klefbom (leg infection), Andrew Ference (hip), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (hand), Eric Gryba (knee), Benoit Pouliot (shoulder), Brandon Davidson (knee).

St. Louis Blues (Jake Allen):

Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri – Paul Stastny – Troy Brouwer
Patrik Berglund – David Backes – Dmitrjj Jaskin
Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Magnus Paajarvi

Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo
Robert Bortuzzo – Kevin Shattenkirk
Joel Edmundson – Colton Parayko

Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter.

Edmonton Oilers, Kris Hansen

The BLH Oilers Weekly Round Up Oct 11th-Oct 17th

 

Alright so second week of the Edmonton Oilers season was underway and we ended up with a 1-2-0 record.

It is a tough schedule to be playing against teams like St. Louis and Dallas, but low and behold we have our first victory of the season against the Calgary Flames!

The Edmonton Oilers Three Stars of the Week

3. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 

Nuge has been great on both ends of the ice. He tallied a nice goal right on the rebound last night against Calgary and has shown some really impressive back checking ability. Easily our best defensive forward, Nugent-Hopkins looked very comfortable with Taylor Hall on his left side.

2. Taylor Hall

Hall was our second best forward this week. He scored a crucial goal on a nice individual effort against St Louis and tallied a goal and two assists against Calgary. He was one of our most dangerous forwards in both those games.

1. Connor McDavid

Honestly, who else would it have been? The kid had his breakout game in a rival’s home turf. He silenced the boo birds very quickly. He started shooting the puck and ended up with two goals and one assist against Calgary last night. His assist was nice too: working deep behind the net and he just finds Pouliot wide open (who in turns passes it to Yakupov for his first goal of the year). Then there was the move he did on Hiller, on boy. Hiller made a great desperation save and if McDavid rose that puck, he would have had a hat trick and the goal of the year. It’s scary how good this kid is and we finally got a glimmer of what is to come for this amazing young man. He also scored his first career goal in a stinker against Dallas.

 

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors 

 

 

Interesting that Doug Armstrong was in the pressbox scouting the Flames and Oilers. It’s very interesting. Blues have had a good start to the season while both Edmonton and Calgary have struggled out of the gate.

Also interesting to note, despite being sent down to the AHL, Nikitin and Scrivens have not played a game yet for the Condors. It’s been debunked as Visa issues, but all is quiet right now.

Around The League

 

Highlights

Re-watch the Oilers win over Calgary many times over

 

McDavid’s effort + Hiller’s desperation save = Golden Highlight

 

Colton Parayko’s shot made a nice mark on the glass

 

Hall’s beautiful back hander on Elliot

 

McDavid scored his first career goal against Dallas

 

The Week Ahead

The Oilers have four games this week: Sunday in Vancouver and two home games: Wednesday vs Detroit and Friday vs Washington.

That’s your weekly round up for this week!

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