The Oilers come home to start a 6 games homestand, spread out nicely over 12 days. The keys for the Oilers is to remain focused and not take any shortcuts throughout. The games are winnable ones but ones that cannot be taken for granted. The Oilers are coming off a bitter 5-2 loss to the Avalanche where they just looked to have ran out of gas in the third period. The Oilers sit in ninth place in the conference currently, so this homestand could make or break the Oilers in terms of thinking playoffs, or thinking high draft pick again. They really need to make some hay here, so are they ready for primetime or down time? We'll find out shortly. Nashville comes into this game losers of 4 in a row, coming off a 4-1 loss in Detroit. The Oilers beat Nashville 6-2 on Tuesday to help Nashville with four in a row. It will be interesting to see if Nashville comes out with any fire in the belly tonight. I will try and post an update on Taylor Hall's injury as more news is made available.
Forwards Oilers
- Even without Hall, the Oilers have more dynamic forwards than the Predators have.
Defense Predators
- I expect Weber and Suter to be much better tonight than they were against the Oilers on Tuesday.
Goaltending Predators
- Ditto goes for Rinne.
Special Teams Oilers
- The Oilers have some of the best special teams going in the NHL, ranked 4th on the PP and 9th on the PK.
Coaching Predators
- Tom Renney has so many forwards right now that I'm not sure he knows what to do with them.
Intangibles Oilers
- Home ice and last change should get the matchups the Oilers want.
Oilers:
Smyth-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Petrell-Horcoff-Hemsky
Jones-Belanger-Gagner
Paajarvi-Lander-Hordichuk
Whitney-Petry
Smid-Gilbert
Peckham-Teubert
Khabibulin
Dubnyk
Predators:
Wilson-Legwand-Hornqvist
Erat-Fisher-Kostitsyn
Tootoo-Smith-Spaling
Halischuk-Smithson-McGratton
Suter-Weber
Hillen-Klein
Josi-Blum
Rinne
Lindback
Game Time - 7:30 PM MT @ Rexall Place on Sportsnet West.
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