It. Is. Time. vs Calgary Feb 6
There is not much to say for this one. It is the Battle of Alberta. Flames vs Oilers. McDavid vs Whoever they have? The first matchup of the season for the two rivals. A quick trip down the QEII to take on a team the Oilers are very familiar with. It is a tale of two teams going into this one tonight. The Flames are winners of just two in their last 7. While the Oilers have won 4 of their last 6! Two teams on the opposite ends of play but with the Battle of Alberta, you can throw out the records and just enjoy some fun hockey.
It is the first time these two are meeting up in the regular season since, well this...
Now, neither one of these goalies will be playing in the game tonight and I also don't expect a big line brawl like this again. Some lineup notes to look at for tonights game:
Jujhar Khaira has been recalled from the Taxi Squad.
Ethan Bear has been placed on IR. This is just take make room for tonights game. He can be placed on the active roster on Monday.
Stuart Skinner recalled from the Taxi Squad. He will serve as the back up tonight. Mike Smith should be activated from the IR tomorrow.
Oilers (6-6)
RNH - McDavid - Puljujarvi
Kahun - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Archibald - Turris - Kassian
Khaira - Haas - Chiasson
Nurse - Barrie
Koekkoek - Larsson
K. Russell - Bouchard
Koskinen
There has not been an official announcement on the lineup so I am basing this lineup solely on a couple of things. Tippett wants to be tougher tonight and he liked Bouchard enough to keep him in? Ethan Bear is not available for tonight so I think it is reasonable to keep Bouch in there. Khaira slots in either on the wing or at centre which in my opinion is the wrong choice, it really should be Ennis but hey I am not the coach!
A nice surprise has been Gaetan Haas! It is in limited time yes but he has shown his defensive skills and has the foot speed to keep up in this league. He is dealing with something so we will see if he is ready to go for tonights game.
Flames (4-5-1)
Gaudreau - Monahan - Simon
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Dube
Mangiapane - Backlund - Leivo
Lucic - Bennett - Nordstrom
Giordano - Andersson
Hanifin - Tanev
Valimaki - Nesterov
Markstrom
This is the lineup that the Flames PR has thrown out there so I am guessing it has to be right??
Looking at advanced stats and all that can really be misleading sometimes. All but 3 Flames players have a Corsi for under 50%. Their scoring seems to be balanced and Markstrom hasn't really hurt them. This seems like a team getting some bad bounces and maybe not capitalizing on chances. Being that they are 23rd in the league in goals for the latter may be true. I know that one whipping boy in the city of Calgary is Sam Bennett. He has 1 assist in 9 games and is a -5. Not great stats from a former 4th overall pick. Now he will for sure score at least two tonight.
3 Oil Drops for Victory
Bring a tougher mentality than you did vs Ottawa. I think this is an obvious one for sure. The Oilers played a very weak Senators team in their last 2 games and some sloppy play could make its way into this game. If it does, they will be on the wrong end of a butt whooping. I think we can trust that the Oilers big guns will play well, however it is the bottom 6 and the defensemen. Whoever Tippett plays tonight on the back end has to step up their games against this team. The Oilers two best defensemen this year will not be playing tonight. Ethan Bear and most likely Caleb Jones. Yes I put Caleb Jones there because stats have proven him to be better defensively than Nurse, Larsson and Barrie. The best teams have an all around good defence core. The Oilers have yet to play a solid defensive game.
Keep scoring! Ya it seems like a simple thing but the Oilers are doing some things right this year and one of them is scoring goals. 3rd in the league in scoring with 42 and history has told us that, if you score more goals than the other team, you will win games.
Don't give in to Tkachuk. You know this guy will get under your skin. It is the 1st matchup between these two teams of 10. Matt Tkachuk will be his usual self and you cannot give into his antics. We all know how much we hate it but he is, if nothing else, effective. Tkachuk is a great hockey player but when he runs around being a pest it is keeping him away from actually playing at a high level. So let him do his thing and let the Oilers do theirs.
Who is excited for the first BOA?
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