Game Thread: Hurricanes vs Oilers - Going Streaking

This has been a good week for the Oilers. They've got two wins in two tries, and while neither win was a masterpiece they were wins and nobody in Edmonton should complain too much about a game that ends as a win for the blue and orange. Looking to build on this new found momentum the Oilers will host the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, the only team in the NHL still looking to record a win. A team that lost 5-0 last night to the Flames of all teams (at least the Oilers scored two goals). And it's game like this one that the Oilers of the last eight years have lost far too often.

How To Tune In

7:30PM on Sportsnet Oilers. If you have Shaw I think this means that you'll find the game somewhere around channel 301. If you don't have Shaw I can't help you.

What To Watch For With The Oilers

They might well be better than their record but Hurricanes are not a very good team right now. I already mentioned that they're still looking for their first win of the season, and a big reason for that is the Staals - Eric and Jordan - are both out of the lineup due to injury. In the second of back-to-back games on the road they should be a little tired tonight too. The Oilers need to dominate the first period in much the same way that the Capitals dominated the third period against them on Wednesday night. They need to overwhelm the Canes and be in complete control when the buzzer sounds to end the first period. The Oilers have plenty of holes in their roster but the Hurricanes shouldn't be able to keep pace with them tonight and they need to make that clear very early on.

What To Watch For With The Hurricanes

From Cardiac Cane:

The Carolina Hurricanes got shutout by the Calgary Flames Thursday night. The final score was 5-0. The Hurricanes amounted just 16 shots on goal, their lowest total since January of 2012. The offense needs be better for the Carolina Hurricanes, but so does the defense. The defensive zone coverage for the Carolina Hurricanes was abysmal against the Calgary Flames. Cam Ward was left out to dry on many occasions in net.

So everything needs to be better, that sounds familiar.

Projected Line Combinations

Edmonton Oilers

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Teddy Purcell - Leon Draisaitl - David Perron
Benoit Pouliot - Mark Arcobello - Nail Yakupov
Matt Hendricks - Boyd Gordon - Jesse Joensuu

Andrew Ference - Jeff Petry
Martin Marincin - Justin Schultz
Nikita Nikitin - Mark Fayne

Ben Scrivens

Carolina Hurricanes

Jiri Tlusty - Victor Rask - Alexander Semin
Jeff Skinner - Riley Nash - Elias Lindholm
Chris Terry - Jay McClement - Zach Boychuk
Brad Malone - Brody Sutter - Patrick Brown

Andrej Sekera - Justin Faulk
Tim Gleason - Ryan Murphy
John-Michael Liles - Ron Hainsey

Anton Khudobin