Oilers v. Ducks - Numbers 21:4-5

So Dustin left Los Angeles, taking the I-5 south to Anaheim, making sure to avoid eye contact with anyone wearing Canadian hockey paraphernalia along the way. But as the time passed, he grew impatient with the long journey, and began complaining to himself about his decision. "Why did I leave my comfortable home full of pancakes just to die in this traffic on he highway?" he complained. "There is nothing to eat  and nothing to drink. Why can't In-N-Out make pancakes!"

Edmonton Oilers @ Anaheim Ducks

Honda Center, 6:00 p.m. MST
Television: Sportsnet

Visiting Team Scouting Report: There are a few teams held up as shining examples of clubs outperforming their underlying numbers, but the Ducks seem to have mostly escaped that label this year even though they've taken just 49.5% of the Fenwick events at five-on-five with the score tied. So how are they winning? The best PDO number in the league in those situations (9.8% shooting percentage and 93.8% save percentage), and an excellent power play (the Ducks are fifth in the NHL with 57.6 shots on goal per sixty minutes of five-on-four ice time). I grant that the Ducks are a pretty good team, but of the Pacific's top four teams, they're probably the weakest.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (11-20-3):

Hall - Gagner - Yakupov
Arcobello - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Smyth - Gordon - Perron
Joensuu - Lander - Jones

Ference - Larsen
N Schultz - J Schultz
Belov - Petry

Bryzgalov

Anaheim Ducks (22-7-5):

Penner - Getzlaf - Perry
Palmieri - Perreault - Selanne
Winnik - Koivu - Cogliano
Beleskey - Bonino - Jackman

Fowler - Lovejoy
Beauchemin - Lindholm
Vatanen - Allen

Hiller

By The Numbers:

• The Oilers are currently working on their fifth consecutive season with a points percentage of less than .500. Since the introduction of the shootout in 2005-06, only one other team has managed that feat (the New York Islanders from 2007-08 to 2011-12).
  
• Including tonight's game, Andrew Cogliano will have played in 493 consecutive games to start his career. That puts him over halfway to Doug Jarvis's record of 964 consecutive games, and just a few games away from becoming the 20th player in NHL history to play 500 consecutive games.
• Anton Lander was showing much better offense at the AHL level this year, but that hasn't translated to more offense at the NHL level, at least not yet. Lander doesn't have any points so far with the Oilers and a rather paltry two shots on goal (though to be fair, he's playing less than ten minutes per game, and some of his ice time is spent killing penalties).