Edmonton Oilers vs.

Calgary Flames

1 PM MST

Rogers Place

TV: Oilers TV (AB/SK/NWT/NU)

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Matchsticks and Gasoline

Connor McDavid scored the game’s first goal, and he would score the OT winner en route to Edmonton’s 3-2 OT victory over Arizona on Thursday night. Two goals for McDavid, a goal for Tobias Rieder, and the Oilers will finish the preseason with a visit from their provincial rivals. The Oilers will make their final cuts after this afternoon’s game, so there’s a lot riding on this one for a handful of prospective Oilers. Who will make the grade?

Let’s go to the tape.

The Oilers are saying

I’d like to see what Tobi does with those two, with Connor and Nuge on his off-wing...

Source

That’s Oilers head coach Todd McLellan on having to shuffle his lineup a bit.

Ty Rattie is expected to miss today’s game due to being a little “banged up”. The Oilers are going to throw Tobias Rieder on the top line to see if there’s anything there alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid. Rattie’s blown the doors off of his preseason. Eleven points in four games on the top line will hopefully translate well into the regular season.

The Flames are saying

You have your favourite moves. I do like to go five-hole. Just tried to freeze him as much as I could and put it back five-hole.

Source

That’s Flames forward James Neal on scoring a goal against San Jose goalie Martin Jones. It was Neal’s first goal in since signing a 5 year 28.75MM deal that brought him to Calgary.

HAVE SOME OF THIS

• CUTS: Who’s going to make it? I wouldn’t have guessed it two weeks ago, but Jason Garrison is here with one game to go. Signed to a PTO before camp, he seems like a decent bet to become a 7th-8th defenceman on this team once preseason wraps up.
• Speaking of PTOs, I think Alex Chiasson’s going to get a deal from the Oilers as well. This may put Pontus Aberg in danger of missing the cut.
• I think the club could go either way on Evan Bouchard, but we’ve seen a bit of Ethan Bear in the 3RD position the last little while. Bear suited up for eighteen games with the Oilers in 2017-18, he may have a leg up on Bouchard to survive the final round of cuts.
• WHAT’S THE HASSLE? - Leon Draisaitl has scored just one assist in three preseason games. This means you’re going to start freaking out when guys like Ty Rattie are putting up eleven points out there playing next to Connor McDavid, right? Don’t let it eat you up. If it’s game 10 and he’s got two points, then we can all start burning things to the ground.
• Goaltender Al Montoya was sent to Bakersfield yesterday. On Jason Gregor’s show, Peter Chiarelli revealed that Mikko Koskinen has a NMCI think (?!!) on the season. This will likely eliminate any real competition for Koskinen unless the wheels come rolling off early.
• Kris Russell will miss today’s game with Ty Rattie. Russell, like Rattie, is a little “banged up”.
• We’ll talk about today’s lines once they become available.

#GOILERS