Game Thread: Oilers at Rangers

The Oilers are coming off of their 52 shot win against Buffalo Sabres who turned around and let Sidney Crosby catch Wayne Gretzky in career P/G last night. The captain is back from his suspension and Viktor Fasth stays in net. The Oilers wish to be realigned in the Eastern Conference has yet to be granted.

How To Tune In

Sportsnet West. 4 PM. Change the channel between periods to avoid the worst intermission show ever conceived.

What To Watch For From The Oilers

The defense. Andrew Ference is back, Keith Aulie stays in and this team isn't the Sabres. Aulie, Ference, Nikitin, Schultz...the Rangers have to be excited to see this.

What To Watch For From The Rangers

New York Rangers blog Blueshirt Banter

New York Rangers

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BSB has a by-the-numbers preview up and points out that Oilers are 5-2-0 versus the Eastern Conference and 0-6-1 against the Western Conference, 0-5-1 against the Pacific Division. From their standpoint, the key to the game is keeping the Oilers on the move:

The key to this game is going to be getting to the underbelly of Edmonton; their porous and often downright embarrassing defense. Despite their improved play at times, they still have one of the worst defensive corps and team defenses in hockey when it comes to tracking play that is being turned at them quickly. Call it the foibles of being a young team in the NHL. They just don't get set well to defend their own zone off rushes and turnovers.

On the nose.

Though, the author then goes into the "on the rush" shooting percentage thing, so take it for what's it's worth.

Projected Lineups

Edmonton Oilers

Viktor Fasth

New York Rangers

Rick Nash - Derick Brassard - Martin St. Louis
Chris Kreider - Derek Stepan - Mats Zuccarello
Carl Hagelin - Dominic Moore - Lee Stempniak
Tanner Glass - Kevin Hayes - Anthony Duclair

Marc Staal - Kevin Klein
Matt Hunwick - Dan Girardi
Conor Allen - Michael Kostka

Henrik Lundqvist

Final Thought

Oilers down by 6 and driving in the final 2 minutes against Petoskey #HSFootball #Playoffs

— My104.3 (@My1043) November 8, 2014