Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New York Islanders

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New York Islanders

Hello hockey fans. Austin here with the pregame report for the Mton Oilers and the New York Islanders. Puck drop is at 5:30 p.m. local time here in Alberta. And uh I’m very much looking forward to this game. The Islanders of course coming off that first overall draft pick of Matthew Schaefer and Schaefer has three points in three games. He has been instrumental in helping drive uh the New York Islanders offense, but he has not been instrumental in helping the team win yet. The New York Islanders are winless on the season. They are 0 and3. Some of it has to do with team play. A lot of it has to do with the early struggles of Ilia Sroken in net for the New York Islanders, which means big save Dave. Yes, Dave Riddick is actually getting the start tonight for the Islanders over Ilia Sroken. So for Oilers fans that were looking forward to playing against Sroen, well, we’re we’re getting big save Dave tonight. And for Oilers fans, uh we are getting Stuart Skinner to start tonight, I believe. So hopefully Stu, who’s coming off a 30 save shutout against the New York Rangers, has another good game against the Islanders. I like I’ve been saying, we don’t expect shutouts anytime Steu is in the net. We just want some consistent play. Let’s see if he can follow up a good game with another good game. Can he do two consecutive good games in a row and keep building on that throughout the regular season? That’s kind of what Oilers fans are looking for tonight. We’re looking for a good game from Stu. And of course, there’s going to be a little bit of changes to the forward group. Uh I went over the new look lines yesterday, but I am going to go through them again today. So, if you enjoyed today’s video, hit that like button. If you really like it, make sure to subscribe to the channel as I will be doing a live stream commentary, little watch party once again here on the Awesome Hockey YouTube channel tonight. I will be going live at 5:00 p.m. local time, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, about a half hour before puck drop, just to give fans time to come in and hang out and we can discuss things about the game. You can all ask me some questions. I like doing that. So, let’s jump into the lineups, then the stats for both teams, and then keys to the game, players to watch, and score prediction. And now the projected lineup for the Edmonton Oilers against the Islanders tonight. The lines do look different than they did at the start of the game against the Rangers. Top line you have Mapani with Conor McDavid and David Tomasekk. Obviously Mapani two goals in three games. Uh he’s been very tenacious on the puck. He’s been utilizing his speed well. Uh I like Mapani up with Conor McDavid. I think he deserves that look. And David Tomasek who had an assist in his first game of the season. That beautiful no look backhand pass to Leon Dry settle on the power play. Tomasek is getting a look on that top line with Conor McDavid. And I also think Tomasek deserves a look on that top line. I thought Tomasek played very good against the Rangers. And it’s his ability to cut and drive towards the blue paint that I really like about his game. I don’t think the Oilers have enough players that drive the blue paint. I don’t think they have enough players that really try and get in tight to goenders to try and just have a puck bounce off of them or try and grind in and and shovel in a rebound opportunity. The Oilers have generated a lot of high danger chances, but none in that like blue paint area and I think David Tomasekk is going to really help with that. He’s already had a couple really good looks this season earlier uh on the power play, especially against Vancouver. He was stoned a couple times by Demco. So, look for David Tomasic to have a good game tonight. I’m excited to see him on that top line with Connor. On the second line, you have Nan Hopkins on the wing of Leon Dry Cidle and Jack Rosik. Now, of course, Rosik his first game of the season with the Oilers on um whatever the last day was Tuesday against the Rangers. Uh I thought he was okay. I didn’t think he had a great game. I thought whenever he and Nan Hopkins were on the ice together, they were getting kind of hemmed in. But I think Leon Dryidle is going to really settle down that line. Nan Hopkins on the wing, I think, is better suited to his game at this point. And obviously uh the the most optimal place for NG I think is third line center. Um but the Oilers have a ton of forwards. Uh Nan Hopkins is a smart player. So I understand why they’re going to have him in this top six. And I also understand why they don’t want to break up the Vilipod Coulson and Trent Frederick and Casper Kappa in line. This line connected for the goal against the Rangers before the Others got an empty netter. Uh it was Trent Frederick’s first of the season off an assist by Casper Kappan and Casper Kappen by the way like he has been doing all the little things right this season. His ability to get sticks in lanes, his ability to get his body into lanes. Uh he’s just been very effective defensively and it has led to offense. He had an assist on Noah Phelps first goal of the season. He had a nice assist after keeping the puck alive in the neutral zone for Trent Frederick’s goal against the Rangers. So hopefully Kaan can keep that play up and hopefully Pod Coulson can get his game going. I think Pud Coulson is getting a little bit better every single game. Started slow, but he seems to be building his game back up. He’s getting a little bit more physical now, which is good to see. Let’s see if Pod Kohl’s can pot one tonight against the Islanders. I would love to see it. On the fourth line, this is where this is where the discourse in oil country is uh a little bit intense. You have Ike Howard with Adam Henrique and Matthew Seavoy. Now, when I talked about this line in my video yesterday, I also put out a tweet about having Seavoy and on the fourth line with Henrik and Howard. I wasn’t saying that Howard shouldn’t be on the fourth line. My biggest issue is Matthew Seavoy being down on that fourth line. I don’t think Seavoy has done anything that would warrant him to be relegated to a fourth line role. And I also understand that you have to earn ice time. whatever it is that you’re doing on the ice, you know, if you’re doing good things, the coach usually rewards you. Uh, and I also talked about how this is an opportunity, right? They may only see 10 or 11 minutes of ice time, but what are you making with the ice time that you’re given? And also, one thing I forgot and neglected to mention about Howard and Seavoy on the same line now is that those two did have chemistry during preseason. Whenever they were on a line together, I thought they played pretty well. It’s Adam Henrik that’s kind of the odd man there where you know Henrik he’s very close to 1,000 games played. I think he’s at 996. So I’m hoping they just give Henrik four more games. Let him hit his 1000 and then get Noah Phelp back in there cuz I don’t think Noah Phelp should be out of this lineup. But this also shows the depth of the Mton Others. They have a lot of forward depth. It has not translated to a lot of goals yet this season, but they do have a lot of players that can play at the NHL level. Uh so having that internal competition is good. I just think it’s unfair that no Phelp is the one that has to kind of be the guy to sit out right now when I think there are other guys that could be sitting out. I also think Ike Howard likely doesn’t see much more ice time at the NHL level depending how things play out. Obviously, when Yanmark is healthy, I I do think the team is going to send Howard down to Bakersfield just to get him 18 19 minutes a night down there, build his game up, and then when he’s more wellrounded, he can come back up to the NHL. I like Ike Howard. I think he’s a good player. Maybe not quite NHL ready, but I’d love to be proven wrong. And I’d love it if Howard and Seavoy connected on a couple goals tonight. That would be really good to see. On defense, you have Ekome with Bousard, one of the best defense pairs in the entire NHL. I don’t need to talk about them too much cuz I always talk about how amazing they are. Nurse with Ster. Uh Darnell Nurse has played fine this season. Troy Stcher’s first game of the year uh was kind of a disaster. He took a bad penalty. He had a couple bad giveaways. So for Troy Stetcher, he’s got to slow his game down. Hopefully he looks much better tonight against the Islanders. Then you have Koulak with Emerson. Very quiet pair. Uh I’ve liked Koulak’s game this season so far. I’ve liked Emerson’s game. They don’t try and do too much. They play very simple hockey. And simple hockey sometimes is very effective against certain opponents. Jake Walman, he has been skating with the team. Still not quite ready to go. He could be ready to play this weekend. Uh whether that is against the Devils or the Red Wings, I think is who the Oilers also play this weekend. I just know that they’re two matinea games and one of them is against the Devils. So we’ll have to see how it plays out. in goal. Steuart Skinner Stew. We need to channel that dark stew energy tonight for Steuart Skinner. Calvin Pickard backs him up. Now, let’s take a look at the stats this season so far. Again, small sample size. Three games each is what’s been played. So, take these stats with a grain of salt until there’s a bigger sample to go off of. Usually around 8, nine, 10 game sample size is where you get a real idea of where a team is at and how they’re going to perform the rest of the season. For the Islanders so far this year, they rank 16th on the power play. They rank 26th on the penalty kill. They rank 28th in goals per game. They rank 30th in goals against per game. As I mentioned, Ilia Sroken’s early season struggles. Again, probably wouldn’t want to overreact to that. Ilas Sroken is an elite goalender in the NHL. Bit of a slow start. Teams has a lot of new faces trying to get things going here. Uh the expected goals forward percentage for the Islanders, they rank 29th, 44.53%. That is that is not good. That is not good. Uh that could be concerning uh in the long term for the Islanders, but their shot metrics uh aren’t that bad. Their shots scored percentage is 11th at 53.44%. So the fact that their shots percentage is in the top 15, top six, almost top 20 in the league and then their expected goals for is bottom five. Uh that tells me that the Islanders are throwing a lot of junk on net. They are not picking and choosing high danger areas to shoot from. They get down in games and then they just start throwing the puck from everywhere. Uh if you’re the Oilers, you can take advantage of that. Try and expose that, get an early lead, force the Islanders to take these low danger shots, regain possession, go in on transition and attack them. Team save percentage for the Islanders, 84.34% in all situations. Oh my goodness gracious, that is brutal. That is not good. Obviously, that is not reflective of how Sroken and Riddick are going to play this season. uh early season sometimes just weird wacky stats happen and that’s one of them in my opinion. For the Emmonton Oilers, they are 20 and one on the year. They have a power play percentage of 22.2% which ranks 11th in the league. They did not get a single power play against the New York Rangers. So hopefully they’re able to play a little bit better, get in on the for check and force the Islanders to take a couple infractions so that the Oilers can once again get to work on their power play. Their penalty kill ranks 11th at 88.9%. So far so good for the new look pelony kill. Uh they were three for three against the Rangers the other night, including a late kill that they had to have in the third period. And I think uh part of that is better goalending, but part of it is the way the Oilers now play. They don’t allow a lot of those high danger cross crease passes. They’re allowing Stu or or Calvin Pickard to see the shots coming. They have lanes where they just let the goalie make the save and then the defense has been very good at cleaning up those rebounds. So second and third opportunities have not been there for opponents and the Oilers hopefully that can continue here. Goals per game, they rank 25th, 2.67 goals per game. But goals against per game, the Oilers actually rank number one in the league. They only give up 1.33 goals against per game. Their expected goals for percentage ranks fourth 56.04%. Shots for percentage they rank second at 59.13%. And then their team save percentage 94.03% which ranks second best in the entire NHL. Do I think that’s going to sustain itself all year? No. But do I think the Oilers are going to only score 2.67 goals per game all year? Absolutely not. This is a game that could either be incredibly lowc scoring or you may see some kind of explosion of offense happen. We’ll have to find out. Let’s get into the keys to the game players to watch and score prediction for the Oilers. Keys to the game stay out of the box. Do not give the Islanders anything tonight. Uh don’t take dumb penalties. Keep your stick on the ice. If you’re going to take a penalty, make sure it’s at least worth it. You know, are you taking away scoring opportunity or are you just being reckless with your stick? Most of the others penalties this season have just been reckless stick infractions. They need to stop that. Uh they also need to get back to work at five on five. That effort against the Rangers, nowhere near good enough. Nowhere near good enough. It’s amazing that Stu was there to to kind of save their butts a little bit, but the Oilers do have to get back to work uh and play the way they did against Calgary and Vancouver, especially that Vancouver game and really put it to the Islanders. really put the pressure on the New York Islanders. And number three, I want to see more players crash the net. Not just Tomasek, not just these power forwards that are known to do that. I want to see other players get into those dirty areas. I want to see McDavid in there, Dry Cidle, Newton Hopkins. I want to see guys crash the Woo paint. Make big save Dave’s life miserable in the crease, of course, without taking a penalty. For the New York Islanders, they desperately need saves. I think a few extra saves would go a long way in the um the the the morale of their team. And if they get some early saves from Dave Riddick, I think you’re going to see that team really start to gel, really start to get into a rhythm, and then their transition game, their speed, and their offense will start to click. So, if they start getting some saves, it’s going to be a good night for the Islanders. Number two, work the cycle. The Oilers can be exposed if you’re working the cycle against them. Try and get the defenders moving around. If the Oilers are skating a lot in the Dzone, they are prone to have those lapses where they give up big shooting lanes or they give up areas on the back door where guys are just wide open. For the Islanders, try and work the cycle. And number three, the Islanders special teams have to improve their power play penalty kill. Uh whether they get a couple opportunities on either, they have to convert or prevent goals against players to watch tonight. I’m going with David Tomasek for the Edmonton Oilers. I think he’s due. I think getting a look with Conor McDavid is very exciting for him. I am excited to see him up there. And then I’m going to go Matthew Schaefer for the New York Islanders. The young 18-year-old first overall pick has already had an impact for the Islanders this season. He has three points in three games as a defenseman, a rookie defenseman at 18 years old. This is going to be a player to watch. I’m very excited. Uh I saw a bit of him when he played in junior. He didn’t play much last season because of um injury, but this is a very, very good player. This is a player that is going to be a top 10 defenseman in the NHL one day. and um he’s very good, trust me. Keep an eye on Schaefer tonight. Score prediction, I’m going to say 5-3 Oilers. Let’s just say that there’s going to be a bit of an offensive explosion tonight hopefully. And I’m going to say David Tomasic lights the lamp and gets a goal tonight as well. Thank you all so much for continuing to tune in. Uh your support every single day means the world to me. We hit 7,600 subscribers yesterday, which is very exciting. Thank you all so much. I can’t wait to see you all during the game tonight at 5:00 p. p.m. Mountain local time. Puck drop about 5:37 local time, kind of around there. And uh, of course, if you’re a Jays fan, I always have that Jays jersey hanging up. Big win last night. Let’s see if they can get a second one tonight in Seattle. Let’s go Jay’s. Let’s go Oilers. Tell someone that you love them. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. We’ll see you tonight.

The Edmonton Oilers continue their five-game road trip on Tuesday night at UBS Arena against the New York Islanders. Forward David Tomasek will hold down his top-line role next to Connor McDavid and Andrew Mangiapane, along with the Czech forward serving in the net-front role on the first power play unit should Edmonton get any PP Opportunities. Enjoy today’s preview where Austin Hockey breaks down the projected lineup, keys to the game, players to watch, and score prediction! #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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