GAME PREVIEW: Edmonton Oilers vs. St. Louis Blues

Edmonton Oilers (38-25-5, 3rd, Pacific)

St. Louis Blues (38-25-5, 3rd, Central)

01 April 2022

Rogers Place

7 PM MT

TV: Sportsnet West

Radio: 630 CHED

SB Nation Opponent: St Louis Game Time

EXTRA TIME

The Edmonton Oilers needed a little extra time to put the Kings away in Wednesday’s 4-3 shootout victory, but they picked up two points all the same. Connor McDavid scored his 100th point of the season with a goal in the third period, while Leon Draisaitl picked up his 49th goal of the year late in the first. The Kings made it a match by scoring two goals in under fifteen seconds early on in the third period, but Mikko Koskinen stopped 38 of 41 shots to tie his career high win total at 25.

The Oilers are on a two game win streak, they’ll look to make it three in a row as the Blues are in town tonight. The Blues are on a two game win streak of their own. Can the Oilers make it three wins in a row tonight?

Let’s go to the tape.

THE OILERS ARE SAYING

“It is very impressive...He might have gotten 100 in his rookie season too, if he hadn’t have gotten hurt. His consistency is amazing, fun to be a part of, fun to watch. It is hard to score in this league. He goes up against the best every single night. Every team tries to stop him and focuses on him the most, yet every season he gets 110, 120 points, I don’t even know. But that is hard to do. It is impressive.”

Source

That’s Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl on teammate Connor McDavid’s 100th point of the season.

It is really impressive. You’ve got the best player in the world in Edmonton routinely putting up 100 point seasons like it’s nothing. The Oilers ought to be contending for the Stanley Cup every year with two of the best players in McDavid and Draisaitl on the club. If you’re not going all-in every year with the deck stacked, then what are we doing here?

THE BLUES ARE SAYING

“It was all around good game for us and something to build on for sure. We got to put like four or five in a row before we start thinking that we got something going here.”

Source

That’s Blues forward David Perron after his club’s 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

Seems like years ago that Perron was in the top six for Edmonton. Well, it was seven-plus years ago. Like his time in Edmonton, Perron continues to fill the net in St. Louis (he’s one of four 20+ goal scorers on the Blues this year). Stunner of a deal that sent him to Pittsburgh for Rob Klinkhammer and a first round pick that was later sent to the Islanders in the Griffin Reinhart deal. Fond memories, really.

HAVE SOME OF THIS

• 49, 50: Maple Leaf Auston Matthews scored his 50th goal in last night’s 7-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets, it was an empty net goal. Good for him, maybe he’ll score 10 or 12 more before the regular season is up. Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl is right behind him at 49, he’ll have an excellent chance at 50 tonight. Fun fact: Chris Krieder is third in the league with 46.
• 100! Connor McDavid’s third period goal scored in Wednesday’s win seals his fifth 100 point season since debuting in 2015-16. He’s scored at least 100 points in five of his seven years in the league. The years he didn’t? His rookie season (the collarbone incident with Brandon Manning), and 2019-20 when the pandemic ended the regular season at 64 games (he only had 97 that year). Remember last season when he scored 105 points in 56 games? Maybe this is the year the Oilers win a playoff round.
• LINES: Derek Ryan gets the bench tonight, Kassian is back on 3RW. Archibald at 4RW. Still no Shore. Everything else as it was. Carry on.
• The Blues offence is not to be trifled with. They’re currently fifth in the league in scoring (3.52 goals per game), they’re just outside the top 10 in goals allowed (11th, 2.85 GA/G) and they’ve got the third ranked power play in the league at a whisker above Edmonton’s (26.1%). This team scores goals, lots of ‘em.
• The Blues have four 20 goal scorers in their ranks this season: Vladimir Tarasenko (23), David Perron (23), Jordan Kyrou (22) and Pavel Buchnevich (21). They’ve got three more who could are likely to hit 20 in the coming days: Brandon Saad (19), Ivan Barbashev (19) and Brayden Schenn (18). A possible seven 20-goal scorers is a lot of 20 goal scorers.
• The Blues are heading into a back-to-back set with Edmonton tonight and Calgary tomorrow. Jordan Binnington (13-13-4, .901 SV% / 3.14 SV% / 2 SO) or Ville Husso (18-6-4, .923 V% / 2.40 GAA / 2 SO) will get the nod tonight, the other likely tomorrow. Mikko Koskinen (25-10-3, .902 SV% / 3.10 GAA / 1 SO) has won his last two, Mike Smith (7-9-2, 3.41 GAA / .896 SV%) picked up a win in his last start versus San Jose (24 March) with 28 saves and will start tonight.
• KEEPING UP: The Kings outshined the Flames last night in a shootout, the Oilers are again three points behind. A win will bring them within one tonight.