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Game 2 - Edmonton Oilers @ Calgary Flames

Edmonton lit Calgary up for seven goals in their season opener. Will we see a repeat performance at the Saddledome?

By Jeff Chapman
Zack Kassian practiced with the second line on Thursday.
Zack Kassian practiced with the second line on Thursday.
Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports


Edmonton

@
Calgary
1-0-0, 0 points, 2 p/g Ranks 0-1-0, 0 points, .0 p/g
Pacific Division, 1st Pacific Division - 7th
t-1st P/G t-17th
15th ST 10th
t-16th S/G t-1st
t-13th Goal t-25th
7 PM MDT
TV - SN 360, SN1
Radio - 630 CHED
Scotiabank Saddledome
The opposing view:  Matchsticks And Gasoline

PROJECTED LINES
Milan Lucic - Connor McDavid - Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Zack Kassian
Patrick Maroon - Leon Draisaitl - Jesse Puljujärvi
Tyler Pitlick - Mark Letestu - Anton Lander

Oscar Klefbom - Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera - Kris Russell
Darnell Nurse - Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot
Jonas Gustavsson

Update

Seven Goals Is Alright With Me

The Oilers opened Rogers Place with a bang, scoring seven goals to emerge victorious over the stupid Flames. There was plenty to like about this game:  Connor McDavid (2-1-3) scored on a penalty shot, and was his old usual self. The Oilers got secondary scoring from guys like Patrick Maroon, Tyler Pitlick and Zack Kassian.  Jesse Puljujärvi scored his first career goal, Jordan Eberle had an empty netter, and the Oilers played well enough to earn their first W of the season.  I'd be a little concerned with allowing two shorthanded goals in just about two minutes, but because our decade has been dryer than a lint trap, let's chalk that up to a good old statistical blip.

The Oilers visit Calgary tonight.  Can they spoil the Flames' home opener?

The Oilers are saying

"You need that type of night from your captain, especially when you're putting up a new building where this is some excitement and a little bit of jitters.  For a 19-year-old to settle you down like that is remarkable, credit to him and the followers for following him.  It wasn't a Picasso by any means, but we got the win and that's what's important.

Source

That's Oilers head coach Todd McLellan on the play of Connor McDavid, who's pretty good IMO

I've got some significant questions about the defence, and with Brandon Davidson due to miss some significant time after sustaining an injury on Wednesday, the Oilers will need to depend on McDavid and company to put up more games like this one. It's not reasonable to expect six or seven goals every night, but hey, I'm not going to turn aside a perfectly good seven goal outburst if you're bringing it.

The opponents are saying

It was kind of one of those nights where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong

"It was kind of one of those nights were everything that could go wrong, did go wrong"  Source

That's Flames goaltender Brian Elliott about being on the wrong side of a 7-4 loss.

Yes, I've got some questions about Edmonton's defence, but the Flames went with a top four that included Deryk Engelland on Wednesday.  Yeesh.


Have some of this

  • TKACHUK - One of the nice things about signing a guy like Milan Lucic is that he prevents incidents from happening on the ice.  When someone gets slighted, there's Milan Lucic in the offender's face holding him accountable.  Brandon Davidson is on injured reserve after Matt Tkachuk slew-footed Davidson in the second.  Maybe someone knocks on Tkachuk's door tonight.  You know, to pay him a visit.  To bring him some cookies, I don't know.   Tkachuk made even more friends after laying a big hit on Adam Larsson in the dying seconds of the third.  Larsson took a maintenance day yesterday.
  • GRYBA: Filling the skates of the injured Brandon Davidson will be Eric Gryba, at least for tonight. He'll likely pair with Darnell Nurse tonight, which has me feeling all sorts of teenage angst.
  • RUSSELL: It's exactly one game, but Kris Russell didn't look like a tire fire out there.  Our bar has been set low, but I'll take another game like the one I saw on Wednesday from Kris Russell.  Eventually the bag runs out of mints, but maybe it's a big bag of mints.
  • KASSIAN: Zack Kassian practiced with the second line on Thursday, so look for him to be with Pouliot and Nugent-Hopkins to start tonight.  Anton Slepyshev was seen on line four.  Man, the Oilers could use someone to play mid six RW right about now.
  • Cam Talbot (1-0-0, .902 SV% / 4.03 GAA) will likely start for the Oilers tonight.  Brian Elliot (0-1-0, .778 SV% / 6.07 GAA) will likely get the nod as Calgary begins a back-to-back.
  • Iiro Pakarinen (knee), Drake Caggiula (hip), Brandon Davidson (lower body) and Matt Hendricks (lower body) will not dress for the Oilers tonight.  Calgary will be without Ladislav Smid (neck)
  • YAK-WATCH: Nail Yakupov played 8 and a half minutes against Minnesota, had a goal and an assist en route to the first star of the game.  He assisted on a goal scored by Magnus Pääjärvi, the goalie was Devan Dubnyk.  No, it really happened.
  • #GOILERS

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