C'est facile, non?

Four goals in the third period (including one empty netter by Matt Hendricks) helped power the Oilers to a 6-3 victory over the winless Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.  Jordan Eberle had a pair (including one on the PP) helping him erase his doughnut in the goal column.  Leon Draisaitl scored his first career NHL goal, which may sway Oiler brass on whether or not he'll be on the big club for the next couple of months.  The Hurricanes are a very, very bad team this year.  It was a little worrying that the Oilers didn't flat out dominate all three periods, but I'm not going to get angry at six goals.

The Oilers seek their fourth victory in a row, but they'll be up against a formidable opponent in the Canadiens.

The Oilers are saying

• Goaltender Viktor Fasth (groin) is practicing with the club.  This is good news for Ben Scrivens.  Why is this good news for Ben Scrivens?  Ben Scrivens is going to need a break sometime.  There's no timetable for Fasth's return.  Fasth has been kept out of action since the debacle in LA on October 14th.
• Montréal is doing the Western Canada back-to-back starting tonight.  Tomorrow, they'll be in Calgary, and will play their third game in four nights when they visit Vancouver on Thursday.  The Oilers...well, they can attain a statistical .500 if they slink by the Habs tonight.  So there's that.
• Hey, you remember Tom Gilbert?  That's right, the soft American who acts disinterested on the ice and doesn't hit worth much?  What's that?  He's averaging just about 23 minutes a game on the second pair in Montréal?  Thirty shifts a game?  With a 33% smaller cap hit than Nikita Nikitin? Power play time?  What the hell do the Canadiens know? They're only first in the East.  Watch the games, nerd.
• NAIL YAKUPOV ICE WATCH:  Yakupov played 14:35 last game versus Carolina.  That's a couple more shifts and a minute more than the game against Washington.  That's a good thing.  Trust me, I'm a doctor.
• TELL A FRIEND - the fourth line is finally worth talking about, and not in a "oh look, Uncle Vic is drunk under the tree again" kind of way.  The Oilers' fourth line isn't a constant liability right now, this is a nice change over the past several years when the team felt compelled to dress a 'nuclear deterrent' who couldn't skate or keep up with actual NHL hockey players on the opposing clubs. Granted, the fourth line is also taking up nearly six million in cap space, but I feel a lot better with a six million fourth line than a fourth line that routinely sets grease fires in their own end of the ice.