Coyoters Shut Out Oilers On Back Of Mike Smith's 44 Save Performance
The Oilers hung 44 shots on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, but Smith's first game in many moons saw him turn in a red letter performance as he turned aside every shot he faced. Antoine Vermette scored two goals, while Viktor Tikhonov and Alex Tanguay scored one each for the Coyotes en route to Arizona's 4-0 victory over the Oilers. The shutout is Edmonton's seventh game of the season where they've scored zero goals, a number that keeps them at 28th overall in goals per game with a meagre 2.32 average. Only the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils score less than the Oilers in 2015-16.
The Oilers host the Predators this evening, a team with a firm grip on a Wild Card spot. Can the Oilers erase the memory of last game, y'know, score a couple goals and all of that? Let's go to the tape.
The Oilers are saying
"We've had some uncharacteristic odd-man rushes against, something we have to clean up."
That's Taylor Hall on his team's performance against Arizona.
I'm not certain, but I think that's code for "Holy shit, we've got a lot of AHL guys on this blue line"
The opponents are saying
"It's a tight playoff race, and you need all the points you can get." Source
That's Predators defenceman Roman Josi
The Predators have a firm grip on the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, they're sitting nice and clean at 81 points. They'll no doubt look to pad those numbers tonight as they face the Oilers, who can't seem to score more than two goals a game to save their lives. .
Jere Sallinen! Your main man! Oh man, you had to see this one coming from a mile away. OK, who's Jere Sallinen? Welp, he was a sixth round pick by the Wild back in 2009, he's spent the last two years in Jokerit, he's scored 34 points (16-18-34) over the past two years, and has himself a one year deal for next year. He's listed at 6'0" and 183 pounds, so don't think you're getting the Finnish version of Andre the Giant. Here's a quick look from EliteProspects.com.
SEVEN - The Oilers have been shutout seven times this year, or roughly 10% of their games. I sit and yell at my TV after sixteen Old Vienna beers about the defence, but just imagine how difficult this team would be to watch without Taylor Hall? Connor McDavid?
Cam Talbot fell to earth a little bit after Arizona's 4-0 victory on Saturday night, but he'll be expected to start tonight (17-24-4, .918 SV% / 2.52 GAA / 2 SO) against Pekka Rinne (27-19-10, .909 SV% / 2.44 GAA / 4 SO).
Darnell Nurse will sit out the final game of his suspension tonight. Nurse was suspended after instigating a "fight" during the last five minutes of a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks last week.
The Predators had their consecutive point streak of fourteen games (10-0-4) halted on Saturday after a loss to Vancouver. That's a franchise record point streak.
Andrew Ference (hip), Darnell Nurse (suspension), Brandon Davidson (knee), Eric Gryba (knee), Benoit Pouliot (shoulder) and Oscar Klefbom (leg), are out for the Oilers, The Predators will be without Paul Gaustad (upper body), Gabriel Bourque (undisclosed) and Eric Nystrom (foot).
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