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1-6-1, 0.38 p/g	Ranks	3-2-2, 1.14 p/g
Western Conf: 14th		Eastern Conf: 8th
28th	P/G	17th
20th	ST	22nd
22nd	ES	12th
30th	Goal	22nd

Top Story:

The Oilers need a win in the worst way possible. Just eight games into the season, they are a near unthinkable five games below .500. Coach Eakins is throwing Yakupov in the line blender, while Oiler fans try not to pull every remaining hair out of their heads before the tenth game of the season.

Yak Attack, Part Deux: Just one game back after sitting two out as a healthy scratch, Nail Yakupov will line up at left wing on the Nugent-Hopkins / Eberle line. Will a change of scenery do a Yak good?

The Oilers are saying:

"I knew this renovation was going to be messy. I didn't know it would be this messy"

That's Oilers coach Dallas Eakins after Edmonton's 3-2 loss in Long Island.

He said an R word. Not THE R word (rebuild), but 'renovation' is a close cousin.

Yeah, it's messy. It's a little bit like a run down rental property. At least your tenants (we'll call them fans) are still footing the rent, but after seven years of flickering lights, you might want to get someone to take a look at the electric. One thing works fine one night, the next night it's on the blink. Oilers offence has been average for most of the season, then is held off the score sheet for all but eight seconds in Uniondale.

Perhaps if the team could find a way to harness all the bad things and turn them into one good, super thing, things could be different. Now go make magic out there, gents.

The Opponent is saying:

"You take away 12 shots on the power play last night...that's only 30 shots on goal which is the average in the league. The amount of penalties we take certainly leads to us playing in our end too much, and then getting shots at our net, and that's never a good recipe, and there's no chance of success if that continues to happen"

--Senators coach Paul MacLean

42 shots is a lot of shots allowed. 30 is much more manageable. Senators coach Paul MacLean discusses the keys to winning on a team with three times as many wins as the Oilers. An excellent piece of information to put in your breast pocket is "there's no chance of success" if you take too many penalties that lead you to playing in your end too much.

Key matchup: Nail Yakupov on the first line LW against any other opponent. "Whoever plays with Ebs plays well" says Coach Eakins. Now that we've gotten all prophetic, let's see a four point night.

Expected Lines & Pairings:

Check back for updates as game time draws near

Edmonton Oilers

Nail Yakupov - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Taylor Hall - Mark Arcobello - David Perron
Ryan Smyth - Boyd Gordon - Ales Hemsky
Luke Gazdic - Will Acton - Ryan Jones

Nick Schultz - Andrew Ference
Jeff Petry - Ladislav Smid
Justin Schultz - Anton Belov

Devan Dubnyk

Scratches: Mike Brown, Phillip Larsen, Denis Grebeshkov

Ottawa Senators (via Silver Seven)

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