Game Thread: Oilers @ Nashville - It's the vets fault!

If the Oilers can't outshoot Nashville, I doubt they can outshoot anyone. The Predators are struggling badly, but they aren't that far behind last year's underlying numbers, so Ryan Suter really didn't matter.

The Oilers needed 12 points on the 9 game roadtrip and they're going to be lucky to get 7.

Team Reports

Oilers Report: The Oilers continue to struggle in all aspects of the game, but especially in puck movement out of their end and into the opponent's zone.

Predators Report: The Preds are struggling to produce goals and it's easy to see why - they average just 23.9 shots per game. They're last in the league and they are way, way back of 29th-place Columbus. The Jackets average 26.8 shots per game. The Preds grabbed Bobby Butler and Zach Boychuk off of the waiver wire to help.

Expected Line Combinations

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Nail Yakupov

Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Jordan Eberle

Ryan Jones - Eric Belanger - Lennart Petrell

Ben Eager - Ryan Smyth - Mike Brown

Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry

Justin Schultz - Nick Schultz

Theo Peckham - Ryan Whitney

Devan Dubnyk

Scratches: Corey Potter, Ales Hemsky, Mark Fistric

Broadcast Information

By The Numbers

Nashville's special teams are 28th in the league with a 90.9 STE. Their power play is 26th, their penalty kill is 26th.

Edmonton's special teams are 5th and slipping. But if the Oilers are going to win a game - beating the 28th-ranked special teams unit would be a start.

The should be quote the offensive tussle: Edmonton is 26th in Fenwick, Nashville is 25th. Both are 45% teams. I wonder how they'll settle this?

Nashville's even strength save percentage is .930 - good for 5th in the league, and that's mostly Pekka Rinne's .934. He's good, but his .820 save percentage while short-handed is killing the Preds' penalty kill.