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Edmonton Oilers (9-10-1) (6th, Pacfic)
San Jose Sharks (11-7-3) (2nd, Pacific)
8:30 PM MST
SAP Center at San Jose
TV: Sportsnet West
Radio: 630 CHED
SB Nation Opponent: Fear The Fin
DOUBLED UP
So far, the Edmonton Oilers are not faring well against their Pacific Division opponents. Even more frustrating? The Oilers are giving up leads to lose these games. The Oilers went up 2-0 against the Flames before surrendering four straight on Saturday night. Edmonton would hold 1-0 and 2-1 leads on Sunday before Vegas would score the next five en route to a 6-3 victory in Edmonton. As American Thanksgiving looms close, the Oilers are on the outside looking in. They’re starting a three game road trip tonight, and they’ll need results if they want to stay in the thick of things.
Can the Oilers get back to a Bettman .500 win a win tonight?
Let’s go to the tape.
The Oilers are saying
Very difficult weekend for the Oilers.
— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) November 19, 2018
Lost tough, emotional game to Calgary, and then lost mojo in 2nd vs Vegas.
In order for Edmonton to have success on California roadie team must defend better.
Wheels up.
Right now, they’re just not that good. We were all flying high two and a half weeks ago when the Oilers were on a four game win streak, when they defeated Washington, when they were 8-4-1 afrter a visit in Detroit. Since then, they’re a not-so-hot 1-6-0. That thing is happening again, you know the thing when local media personalities start raising their pens in anger to the GM. A few more losses and this thing will get very messy, very quickly. They’ve got Connor McDavid for cryin’ out loud, this team should be in the thick of it every year.
The Sharks are saying
“I don’t know if I said it in Swedish or English...If I said it in English, unfortunately, it might be out there. If not, then you’re going to have to play the guessing game.”
That’s Erik Karlsson on unleashing a tirade of expletives after scoring his first goal as a member of the San Jose Sharks.
It took Erik Karlsson until November 17th against the St. Louis Blues to net his first of the season. Smart money says he’ll be just fine.
HAVE SOME OF THIS
I know some Oiler fans always think changing the coach will fix problems. Changing Todd McLellan won't. He's a good coach. This is a flawed, average team with two stars in McDavid and Draisaitl. Oilers have to get to where they realize that and just try to out-work other team
— Jim Matheson (@NHLbyMatty) November 19, 2018
- Seems like it was just a year ago when you saw Matty singing the praises of Peter Chiarelli. It’s not that way anymore, and both Todd and Peter have to feel this. The administration is on thin ice when you start to see this pop up. A couple more losses and it could be curtains for the lot of them.
- Oilers got doubled up by the NHL’s 29th ranked offence in Vegas. They’ll need to do a better job keeping the puck out of the net tonight, as the Sharks rank twelfth at three and a quarter goals per game. Edmonton ranks 22nd at 2.85.
- Connor McDavid’s 28 points (12-16-28) is good for third in the NHL right now. He’s four behind...Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen, who has 32 (8-24-32) in 20 games.
- NET GAINS: I’ve got Mikko Koskinen (4-2-0, .917 SV% / 2.60 GAA / 1 SO) going for the Oilers tonight, while the Sharks are likely tou counter with Martin Jones (9-5-1, .894 SV% / 2.94 GAA)
- SICK BAY: Edmonton is without Andrej Sekera (ankle) and Tobias Rieder (upper body). The Sharks are without Tomas Hertl, who is day-to-day with a lower body injury.
Oilers are going to have to put together some wins, else it’s going to get ugly early.