Game Thread: Edmonton Oilers @ Colorado Avalanche - Something's Gotta Give

Fun night for Oilers fans. The team is mire at the bottom of the conference once again and the GM is threatening to make "improvements" to the team.

Team Reports

Oilers Report: Ryan Jones will join Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle on the left wing. Oy. That should lead to some interesting hijinks on the ice, so watch out for that.

Avalanche Report: Happy, healthy and raring to go, the Avlanche have looked like a different team recently. This certainly isn't the team that the Oilers have seen thus far and a healthy Ryan Wilson means the Oilers forwards are going to have a rough ride.

Expected Line Combinations

Ryan Jones - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Ales Hemsky

Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Jordan Eberle

Taylor Hall - Shawn Horcoff - Ales Hemsky

Lennart Petrell - Ryan Smyth - Mike Brown

Nick Schultz - Corey Potter

Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry

Ryan Whitney - Justin Schultz

Devan Dubnyk

Scratches: Teemu Hartikainen, Theo Peckham, Ben Eager

Broadcast Information

By The Numbers

• Colorado's special teams are an abysmal 25th with an STE of 93.7, though a fully healthy lineup should start to turn the tide.
• Columbus has passed the Oilers in the standings while the Flames have fallen into 15th in the conference by points earned per game.
• Colorado has received very solid goaltending thus far with a team .927 at even strength. The league average is .917. The Oilers are just above league average at .920. Colorado's short-handed save percentage is .868 - the league average is .862. Edmonton's short-handed save percentage is .888.
• Devan Dubnyk' has stopped 113 of 123 shots while short-handed for a .919 save percentage. Yann Danis 7 of 9 for .777 and Nikolai Khabibulin 16 of 21 for .762