GAME PREVIEW: Edmonton Oilers @ St. Louis Blues

Edmonton Oilers (32-33-7) (6th, Pacific)

St. Louis Blues (36-30-5) (3rd, Central)

6 PM MST

Enterprise Center

TV: Sportsnet One

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: St. Louis Game Time

TUCK IT IN

The Oilers were doubled up by the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night. Edmonton kept afloat with the Knights through two periods, but a three goal outburst in the third would give the Golden Knights a 6-3 victory. The Oilers got goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Kris Russell in the first forty minutes. Jonathan Marchessault scored twice, and four different Knights chipped in a goal to ensure a victory for Vegas.

The Oilers are in St. Louis to visit the third ranked team in the Central Division. Can they trip up the Blues?

Let’s go to the tape.

The Oilers are saying

“I think they play at a tempo that’s hard to match. They’re deep and they come at you with four lines. We negated them in our building, but they were on top of us for most of the night.”

Source

That’s Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock on his club’s 6-3 loss in Vegas on Sunday night.

The Oilers managed three goals, but only totalled 19 shots in their loss to the Golden Knights. The club’s got to have more action in front of the net.

The Blues are saying

If we play our way for 60 minutes, play the right way, grind teams down like we do, we’re not fun to play against. When we don’t do it for 60 minutes, we give teams a better chance to beat us.

Source

That’s Blues forward Brayden Schenn after his club’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Sabres on Sunday.

Buffalo picked up two points, but the Blues held on for one. They’re currently holding down the third spot in the Central Division with 82 points. Dallas is hot on their heels with 80.

HAVE SOME OF THIS

• The Oilers are teetering on mathematical elimination from this year’s playoffs (what else is new), but Connor McDavid is once again pulling the sleds every time he’s out on the ice. McDavid’s weekend saw him pick up 2-3-5 as the Oilers picked up a win in Arizona and a loss to the Golden Knights.
• HOW’S PAT MAROON BEEN DOING? Former Oiler favourite has three points (2-1-3) in his last two games, though he’s got just 22 points in 67 games on the season. Pat Maroon was last seen on the second line alongside Tyler Bozak in Sunday’s 4-3 OT loss to the Sabres. Maroon signed on for a one year deal with the Blues this offseason, it will be worth noting where he ends up in 2019-20.
• L50N: Whether Leon Draisaitl makes it to 50 goals on the year has not played out. He’s had a fantastic season so far, he’s got 91 points on the year. He’s got ten games to pick up 7 goals and/or 9 points. 7 gives him 50 goals, and 9 points gives him 100 points. Why not both?
• NET GAINS: Yielding six goals to the Golden Knights isn’t the way that Mikko Koskinen wanted to finish on Sunday night. Looking for win 23, he’ll likely get another chance in between the pipes tonight (22-17-4, .909 SV% / 2.85 GAA / 4 SO). Jake Allen is likely to start for the Blues (18-17-7, .904 SV% / 3 SO)
• SICK BAY: For the Oilers, Jesse Puljujarvi continues his recovery from hip surgery. St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko is day-to-day with an upper body injury, while winger Sammy Blais is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Defencemen Joel Edmunson and Carl Gunnarson are also out for the Blues.