Pre-Game: Game #39 Oilers vs. Sabres

The Oilers tour continues on into Buffalo tonight as this will be game 5 of a 7 game trip. The Oilers pulled out a big victory in Chicago, 4-3, playing a high energy, physical game. The Oilers incurred a couple of injuries in last night's game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins hurt his shoulder while Tom Gilbert hurt his knee. Both are unlikely to play tonight. The Oilers have called up Josh Green and Colten Teubert to likely take their places and play tonight. Teemu Hartikainen was called up before last night's game, bringing a high energy game with him. Lennert Petrell was sent down to make room for him, which is the right move to make at this time. Where do the Oilers go from here? Hopefully they can continue to play hard, although tonight's game will be a tough one considering a quick turn around on back to back days. Buffalo comes into this game losers 6 of their last 7, coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to Ottawa. It will be interesting to see what the Oilers can accomplish in this game as well as what kind of lineup they ice tonight. This is another winnable game for the Oilers. Let's see if they continue the trend of losing the easy ones and playing hard in the tough ones.

Forwards Oilers
- Even without the Nuge, the Oilers have a deeper set of forwards than Buffalo.
Defense Oilers
- The Oilers have Tom Gilbert out but Buffalo's D is decimated from injuries. Ehrhoff, Sekera and Myers all out.
Goaltending Sabres
- Don't know what the Oilers' goaltending will bring game to game.
Special Teams Oilers
- The Oilers power play scored twice against the Hawks and are now 2nd in the NHL on the PP.
Coaching Sabres
- Lindy Ruff is the longest tenured coach in the NHL.
Intangibles Sabres
- Tough back to back for the Oilers as they lose an hour going back to the Eastern time zone.

Oilers: (my version)
Hall-Horcoff-Eberle
Green-Gagner-Hemsky
Smyth-Belanger-Jones
Hartikanen-Belanger-Eager

Smid-Potter
Sutton-Petry
Peckham-Teubert

Khabibulin
Dubnyk

Sabres:
Vanek-Hecht-Pominville
Gerbe-Roy-Stafford
Ellis-Gaustad-Kaleta
Boyes-Adam-McCormick

Regehr-Weber
McNabb-Leopold
Gragnani-Brennan

Enroth
Miller

Game Time - 5 PM MT @ Buffalo on Sportsnet Edmonton.