Oilers v. Ducks - Psalm 43:5

Why am I always so discouraged?
Why is my heart so filled with sadness?
I will again turn to God for help!
I will look to him for deliverance!
Yes, the one who saves through the draft will help us!

Anaheim Ducks @ Edmonton Oilers

Rexall Place, 6:00 p.m. MST
Television: TSN

The Race to the Bottom (It's Happening Again):

Visiting Team Scouting Report: The Oilers sure do play the Ducks a lot! I've looked at the team numbers and their two best forwards over the last couple of weeks, but haven't touched much on their defense. Here's how the Ducks have allocated their minutes on defense so far this season:

No one between the age of 23 and 28 is among their top six guys, which looks more like a rebuilding roster than it does a competitive one, especially when you consider that Ben Lovejoy had played just 130 NHL games before this season. But Lovejoy has been alright, Hampus Lindholm has been much better than they had any right to expect, and they've been able to mostly hold things together.

Expected Lineups:

Edmonton Oilers (26-43-9):

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Lander - Gagner - Perron
Smyth - Gordon - Pinizzotto
Hendricks - Acton - Larsen

Marincin - Petry
Klefbom - Schultz
Fraser - Belov

Fasth

Anaheim Ducks (51-18-8):

Silfverberg - Getzlaf - Perry
Maroon - Perreault - Selanne
Cogliano - Koivu - Winnik
Palmieri - Bonino - Beleskey

Robidas - Beauchemin
Lindholm - Sbisa
Allen - Vatanen

Andersen

By The Numbers:

• Ryan Smyth is currently 68th on the all-time games played list with 1,266 regular season games played, but he should pull into a tie for 66th if he plays all of Edmonton's remaining games. If he does that and played 70 next year, he's got a pretty good shot at jumping into the top 50.
  
• The trade that sent Bobby Ryan to the Ottawa Senators is looking pretty good for Anaheim. Jakob Silfverberg is approaching half a point per game in his second NHL season and the first-round draft pick looks like it could easily end up being one of the first ten selections in this year's draft.
  
• Mark Arcobello's new contract will pay him just $600,000 at the NHL level next year, which should be tremendous value. If the Oilers are anywhere near the cap, that deal will have helped them to acquire some of the more expensive pieces.