A quick question: How many times did you watch that ridiculous play against Duncan Keith? Be honest. Round it up to the nearest thousand. Hold on to that memory, I know there are a bunch still to come, but remember as many as you can for later on down the line. We’re only going to get one Connor McDavid and that’s a fact.
The Edmonton Oilers of 2017-18 have been the tale of two teams: The impressive club who won the season opener and won this week in Chicago; and the tentative, indecisive group who lost four in a row in between the bookend W’s. Who knows the ebb and flow of a long season, but for Oilers fans, today’s game is a complete mystery.
The problem for any good fan today is both sides of the coin can be argued successfully. We know the club played well in Chicago, we know the historic numbers for “Oilers in afternoon games” are beyond atrocious, and we know Connor McDavid plays for the road team. A year ago, 97 added to Cam Talbot in net and a good power play damn near won the division. It’ll be a tougher row to hoe but the recipe worked in Chicago, perhaps it will again today.
GOALS GOALS GOALS
The Oilers aren’t scoring enough and have been giving up too many, and of course playing without Leon Draisaitl (again today) makes things more difficult. The encouraging thing about Thursday’s game is that the Oilers had all of their needed pillars working: McDavid, Talbot, penalty kill and then power play for the win. If we see that kind of effort today, the Oilers will end the afternoon just one game under .500 and Oilers fans will be walking smartly away from the edge of the canyon and toward the nearest watering hole.
5×5/60 SCORING (FORWARDS)
- Leon Draisaitl 2.70
- Connor McDavid 2.64
- Patrick Maroon 2.09
- Milan Lucic 1.73
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 1.71
- Kailer Yamamoto 1.02
- Zack Kassian 0.98
- Ryan Strome 0.96
- Source
Ideally you’d like to see the top line over 2.00/60 (they are if you include Leon) and the second line pushing hard toward it (Lucic and Nuge are sporting better numbers than one year ago) but these are very early days.
LINEUPS
Oilers
Maroon-McDavid-Yamamoto
Lucic-RNH-Strome
Jokinen-Malone-Kassian
Pakarinen-Letestu-Slepyshev
Klefbom-Larsson
Russell-Benning
Nurse-Gryba
Talbot
Brossoit
Flyers
Giroux – Couturier – Vorachek
Weal – Filipulla – Simmonds
Weise – Patrick – Konecky
Leier – Laughton – Raffl
MacDonald – Provorov
Gostisbehere – Hagg
Sanheim – Gudas
Elliott
Neuvirth
Lineups (subject to change) courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
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TONIGHT
![](https://i1.wp.com/dev1.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/gdb8.jpg?resize=559%2C551&ssl=1)
GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Flyers announce their presence with authority in the first period, bringing it to the Oilers physically and with speed. An early goal by Claude Giroux gives Philadelphia the lead at the end of the first period.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Three goals in the period, two by Edmonton (Darnell Nurse and Iiro Pakarinen) with Giroux tying the score late. 2-2 after two.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The third period is a freewheeling dream for fans, heart attack central at both ends. No scoring in the third leads us to overtime, where nothing is solved. Jussi Jokinen gets the only shootout goal and the Oilers win on the road again.
GDB BROUGHT TO YOU BY SHERBROOKE LIQUOR
Take home a growler, a crowler, a sixer, a mixer, whatever. Sherbrooke Liquor. Where’s Your Beer?
Recently by Jason Gregor:
- Major mistakes are costing Oilers
- GDB 5.0: Long live the WhaleTail
- Game Day Notes: Oilers and Hurricanes
- WTFundamentals
- NHL stats and trends: Best start of a Hall-of-Fame career
- RNH: Last year I wouldn’t have tried that play
Source: Edmonton Oilers, Official Game Day Preview, 10/20/2017, 11:30pm
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Americans love afternoon hockey games for some reason. Games are always supposed to be played in the evenings IMO.
Also Americans love fast food and guns. They all wear their shoes indoors too. And what’s up with their afternoon hockey obsession?
I actually love Oiler games during the day on weekends personally. I got nothing better to do.
Maybe it’s a part of promotion to Europe and Russia. The game will starts 8pm msc, primetime
@kormega
Insightful!
I have to disagree a bit. There is nothing better than waking up and tuning into Doc Emrick calling a game on NBC. Also it gives me a great excuse at start drinking at 11am.
I think it is because afternoon games are like camping. A great excuse to start drinking at noon.
Also if you start one game at 11, start another at 2, and 5, and 8, then you can party all day without being an alcoholic.
Look at how the nfl schedules football games on sunday. By staggering the schedual you make it possible for the same fan to watch more than one game… this means revenue. Also, having games on all day means casual fans can just turn on the tv at any point during the day and watch part of a game. I wish I could count on live hockey from 12 till late every Saturday and Sunday.
beware of that jerk Gudas, he jumps on lightweight players
Glad to see Elliott in net. What was our record against him last year again? GDP: The Oilers keep their momentum from last game and score three in the first, including one from Yamo (his first in the NHL), and Elliott gets pulled in the first intermission. Neuvirth plays well in the following two periods, but the Oilers are strong defensively and pull off a 4-1 win.
4-0. Your record against him was 4-0.
Yup. Four in a row. If it where the playoffs it would be called a; “sweep” .
…
A “sweep”.
Not quite the first twenty minutes that I was hoping for, but I’m not too worried. Hopefully once Elliott gets properly tested, he’ll cave in the manner we expect him to.
Beer O’clock is coming early today.
No more Gryba …Please!
Aside from the Ghost…. that’s not a strong defence…..
Some pretty good young D there if you ask me….Provorov/Sanheim blue chippers, plus Ghost….wouldnt exactly call them weak
Provorov is only a sophmore but he is going to be a helluva d-man for years to come.
Philly has one mean nasty player on their team known for vicious hits. Radko Gudas.
He takes any liberties I don’t care if you get a game or two. Remove him from the game. I’m not proponent for violence or goonery but that player scares me on what he has done to good hockey players.
love the physical start to the game. I really liked seeing lucic stand up for the nuge too there on the bench talking smack to giroux
Personally I like the early games, gives me an excuse to be lazy…unfortunatly, they tend to leave me grumpy the rest of the day. KY gets his first goal of the season when he grabs a lose puck in front of the net and goes top shelf. The kids doing good things and it pays off. McDavid goes to grab the puck for him but Flyers try to prevent it, until Maroon just takes it.
That jerk manning isn’t playing today?
Yamfry is going to notch today.
Tis my OGDP
Where’s that manning A-Hole?
Can we call them the YaMM line? If that’s lame we need to think of one cuz this line might stick.
watching NBC Philadelphia stream, funny how they broke-up the whole CMD/Manning story but didn’t show how Maroon beat the ish outta that bum in the next game)
Game time is prime time in Kuwait! Usually at 4:00 am!!
High sticking? How can it be high sticking if the stick is waist height and the player skates into it?
This might be a long morning/afternoon Talbot has not tracked the puck well all game.
The game is only 10 minutes old. Relax lol
He cost the team a few games already this season and he let in one from behind the net last game. I will relax when Talbot stops giving up weak goals almost every game.
He had no chance on that first goal. A bigger worry is the oilers inability to break out of their own zone. The flyers are buzzing as drew mentioned
Did i say he missed the first goal? No, I said he was not tracking the puck well. He improved as the period progressed. Other than Malone no one on the Oilers is playing the body. That IMO is a concern.
First couple mins a bit sloppy, but looks like the boys are settling into the game and playing with a bit more structure. Is it just me or is Brad Malone very noticeable? He is flying around, back checking, checking and doing whatever it takes. reminds me of maroon last year minus the goal scoring.
I like Malone’s game as well. Very noticable
Lol quinner keeps calling Malone, “maroon”. Too funny.
It’s getting worse! Now he’s calling Maroon “Malone!” Well, Maroon scored, so call him whatever the f*** you want!
8 minutes of solidness right there
Zack throws a hit behind the net that causes a turnover. Then Maroon outworks his man behind the net. Tied game. Hitting and hard work gets you goals
Yamo needs to *use* the assumption that he’ll pass the puck to McDavid to his advantage: take a look at McD but take the shot instead. That’s how he’ll get his first goal.
For the love of God what needs to happen in this world for McDavid to shoot the bloody puck!!!! Hes trying to pass it right into the net. Not once in 2 PP’s has taken a shot
Jokinen and strome absolutely invisible out there today.
Slow-kinen and Slow-me out there today.
Benning is definitely an upgrade on auvitu. Nice game today in his return
Your name makes me want to vomit.
Well, I’m trying not to rag on Russell, but on both goals he’s sliding on his stomach instead of just stepping up and taking the shooter. I’m no hockey expert, but I’m pretty sure lying face down in front of your goalie is not the ideal way to defend.
It is all about timing.
Well, that was a mule kick to the nuts…..
Leon, I miss u
Without Sekera or Leon the Oilers are sure having a tough time. Absolutely no secondary scoring.
Outside of Mcdavid, Draisaitl and Yamamoto the Oilers are short on speed and skill up front. Scoring could be a big problem for this team moving forward. You can’t earn a playoff spot in October but you certainly can put yourself out of the race. Need to figure it out and fast.
Klefbom had been awful most of the season. Not going to win without him and Larsson going. Jokinen nice experiment time to break ties
Agreed.
Man I would trade half our wingers from Simmonds. Stud
The Oilers are a decent team, but they are not a playoff team.