GAME PREVIEW: Edmonton Oilers vs. Ottawa Senators

Edmonton Oilers (33-34-7) (6th, Pacific)

Ottawa Senators (25-43-6) (8th, Atlantic)

2 PM MST

Rogers Place

TV: Sportsnet West

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: Silver Seven

TORN JACKETS

The Edmonton Oilers scored the four unanswered goals in Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Oilers picked up goals from Kyle Brodziak, Zack Kassian, Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up his 25th of the season. 25 is a career high for 93. The Oilers pull a little closer to the second wild card position, but there’s still plenty of land between themselves and glory. For now, they’ll focus on this afternoon’s opponent from Ottawa.

Can the Oilers take care of the Senators?

Let’s go to the tape.

MATINEE HOCKEY!

The game’s at 2 o’clock today. Set your timers.

The Oilers are saying

“It’s a dream come true. Obviously it’s not a goal, but any time you can get a point in this league, they’re hard to come by. I have a lot of emotions running through me right now, it’s an unbelievable feeling, and even better that we got a huge win out of it.”

Source

That’s Oilers forward Joseph Gambardella after picking up his first point (an assist) in Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Gambardella has eight more games in Edmonton before his contract becomes UFA. He’s picked up 45 points in 48 games with Bakersfield this year (27-18-45). Will the Oilers give him another look at the end of the year?

The Senators are saying

It’s a long year. We’ve all learned a lot. This last stretch is all about sticking together and working as hard as we can to win as many games as we can. Just learning and it’s fun for us to come to the rink and know everybody on the team is going to give it their all

Source

That’s Senators forward Brady Tkachuk after his club’s 5-1 loss to the Senators on Thursday.

The Ottawa Senators have lost thirteen of their last sixteen games coming into Edmonton.

HAVE SOME OF THIS

• It’s been a really bad couple of days for Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson. First, he tears up Tobias Rieder for not putting up ten or twelve goals. This radio appearance didn’t do much to quell three days of season ticket holder meetings. It’s probably fair to say that Tobias Rieder is gone after this season, but you’ve got to wonder if this sort of thing will thin out the already thin free agent pool that comes out.
• The Senators are hurdling towards a last place finish. With 56 points, only LA seems to be within shouting distance. The bad news? If they win the lottery, they’ve traded the rights to that pick to Colorado. The good news for the Senators? They picked up a first round pick from Columbus in the Matt Duchene deal. Columbus might not make the playoffs this year, so it might be a little less of a sting for the Senators.
• L100N? We’re getting close to crunch time. Leon is six points away from 100, seven goals away from 50. Imagine two 100 point scorers on a non-playoff team.
• NET GAINS: Mikko Koskinen will look to pick up his 24th win of the season with today’s start (23-18-4, .909 SV% / 2.85 GAA / 4 SO). Look for Craig Anderson to get the nod for Ottawa this afternoon. (14-25-4, .902 SV% / 3.55 GAA / 1 SO).
• SICK BAY: Jesse Puljujarvi is recovering from hip surgery, and he’ll be out for the remainder of the season. For the Senators, Codi Ceci is day to day (upper body), Thomas Chabot is week to week (toe) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau is out serving a suspension.