Oilers v. Blackhawks - Mark 1:9-11

On the day MacTavish came back to the organization, he was welcomed by Lowe in the halls of Rexall Place. And just as they looked up, they saw the roof torn open and a light shining down upon MacTavish. And they heard a voice from the heavens saying, "This is my manager; with his work I will be pleased." From that day on, they looked for the right moment to reveal MacTavish to the fans, and Daryl Katz wondered how he might use the new divine hole in the roof to convince others about the need for a new arena.

Edmonton Oilers @ Chicago Blackhawks

United Center, 5:00 p.m. MST
Television: Sportsnet

Visiting Team Scouting Report: There aren't a lot of times that one looks forward to watching the Oilers, but games against the Blackhawks seem to be an exception. The Oilers have had their fair share of excitement against the Blackhawks across the lean years of their existence, and I here's hoping that tonight is no different. Who knows. Maybe we'll even get another eight-point game from Sam Gagner just in time to shove him out the door.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (15-27-5):

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Gagner
Yakupov - Arcobello - Eberle
Perron - Gordon - Hemsky
Gazdic - Smyth - Jones

Ference - J Schultz
Belov - Petry
Marincin - N Schultz

Dubnyk

Chicago Blackhawks (29-8-10):

Sharp - Toews - Hossa
Saad - Kruger - Kane
Bollig - Shaw - Versteeg
Bickell - Handzus - Smith

Keith - Seabrook
Hjalmarsson - Oduya
Leddy - Brookbank

Raanta

By The Numbers:

• Taylor Hall wasn't able to make the Canadian Olympic despite sitting in a tie for tenth overall (and tied for seventh among Canadians) in points per game since the beginning of the 2011-12 season. Even more surprising? Three players above him on that list also failed to make the team! Claude Giroux (4th overall at 1.07), James Neal (tied for 5th overall at 1.04), and Martin St. Louis (also at 1.04) also didn't make the cut.
  
• Patrick Kane is currently second in the NHL scoring race with 54 points so far this season. If he's able to keep that standing until the end of the year, it will be his second consecutive season among the league's top five scorers and the third time in his career that he'll be among the league's top ten.
  
• There are other teams who value the role that Luke Gazdic fills, but no other team gives their designated puncher so many games with so few minutes. Across the NHL, no one has played at least 35 games and received less total ice time than Gazdic's 227 minutes.