A man with great wealth can afford his many friends, but a poor man's friends will leave him for greener pastures.
A man that has deceived himself will not go unpunished; the one who is unwittingly deceived must be let go.
Many people will cozy up to a generous ruler; it is easy to forget old gripes with a man who gives gifts.
Nashville Predators (27-16-3) @ Edmonton Oilers (16-23-5)
Rexall Place, 7:00 P.M. MST
Television:Sportsnet West
Visiting Team Scouting Report: These teams met about a month ago. Since that time the Predators have gone 6-5 over eleven games and the Oilers have gone 1-8-1, pretty well killing off any chance the Oilers had at the playoffs. Over this eleven game stretch the Predators have not played well at EV. They've been outscored 23-18 and outshot 275-233 (although by Corsi, it is a bit better). With the score close things haven't been any better (outscored 17-13 and outshot 200-173) so the poor numbers are not simply because Nashville has been protecting leads. Considering the Preds overall record, the 6-5 mark represents a "slump" that that the Predators can ill afford. They're currently five points clear of the ninth place Red Wings but the Wings have two games in hand as well as a superior goal and shot differential to that of the Predators. The Predators could really use this win and, fortunately for them, the Oilers could use a(nother) loss (the Hurricanes are only four points back!).
Expected Lineups:
Edmonton Oilers (16-23-5):
Penner - Horcoff - Nilsson
Stone - Gagner - Pisani
Moreau - Cogliano - Stortini
Jacques - Potulny - O'Sullivan
Gilbert - Souray
Smid - Visnovsky
Grebeshkov - Staios
Deslauriers
Nahville Predators (27-16-3)
Erat - Legwand - Ward
Hornqvist - Goc - Sullivan
Jones - O'Reilly - Dumont
Spaling - Thuresson - Belak
Weber - Suter
Hamhuis - Klein
Bouillon-Franson
Rinne
Behind the Numbers:
- Last time out against the Bluejackets Shawn Horcoff played in his 600th career regular season game, each one in an Oilers' uniform. Congratulations Shawn!
- In 22 games with Ales Hemsky this season the Oilers have a shot differential of -6.41 per game. In 22 games without Hemky the Oilers have a shot differential of -0.73 per game.
- The Nashville Predators don't have a single player out of the NHL's top seventy point-getters. Steve Sullivan is their leading scorer with 30 points.
- Since December 15th the Carolina Hurricanes have made up 10 points on the Oilers in the standings which leaves the Oilers only four points back of "first" place.
- The Oiler record for worst +/- in a single season is Joffrey Lupul's -29 in 2006-07. Both Patrick O'Sullivan and Shawn Horcoff are on pace to crush that record. If Horcoff finishes -22 or worse he will be the only Oiler with two seasons in the bottom ten. Let's see some history!