Xmas has now come and gone, (hope everyone had a great Xmas!) and its time to hit into the dog days of hockey. The Oilers look to build on a convincing 4-1 victory against the Wild last Thursday. It will be interesting to see how the Oilers come out in this one, the Canucks too for that matter. This annual Boxing day matchup with the Canucks usually has a lot of unpredicability to it. It will also be interesting to see if Ales Hemsky finds his way back into the lineup. The Canucks come into this game losing on Friday night to Calgary 3-1. Prior to that, they had won 3 in a row. Should be a good test for the Oilers to see if they are ready for primetime yet.
Fowards Canucks
- The Sedins will be a handful tonight, as they are every night.
Defense Canucks
- Hamhuis, Bieksa, Edler and Salo are as good a top 4 as there is in the NHL.
Goaltending Oilers
- I'm giving this one to Khabibulin while Luongo has been up and down all year. The Oilers will need Khabibulin to be strong if they want to win.
Special Teams Canucks
- The Canucks are one of the few teams that beat the Oilers on special teams. Canucks have the best power play in the NHL.
Coaching Canucks
- The Nuge's line figures to see a lot of Ryan Kesler tonight. Should be a tough matchup.
Intangibles Canucks
- Both teams should be decently rested but Canucks get home ice.
Oilers: (my version)
Hall-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Petrell-Lander-Gagner
Smyth-Horcoff-Jones
Eager-Belanger-Hordichuk
Smid-Gilbert
Whitney-Potter
Peckham-Petry
Khabibulin
Dubnyk
Canucks:
D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Burrows
Raymond-Kesler-Higgins
Hodgson-Malhotra-Hansen
Ebbett-Lapierre-Weise
Hamhuis-Bieksa
Edler-Salo
Alberts-Sulzer
Luongo
Schneider
Game Time - 8 PM MT @ Vancouver on Sportsnet West.
No comments:
Post a Comment