Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New Jersey Devils

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New Jersey Devils

Hello, Oilers fans. Austin here with a bit of a late pregame report. I actually initially wasn’t going to be able to do one. I even told the fans in the community Discord that I would not have a pregame report up just because of how quick this turnaround is. The game as of recording right now is in about 3 hours. But I decided, you know what? I’m going to record one anyways. Despite the fact I am losing my voice, despite the fact I’m getting a bit of a cold right now, I’m still going to do a live stream during the game. We’ll see how I feel. I don’t know how much energy I’m going to have or how much commentary I’ll be able to do during the live stream, but in any case, I hope you enjoy the game. Hopefully the Oilers can get a big win. They’ve had two lackluster efforts in a row against the Rangers and the Islanders on this New York swing. Let’s see if they can go two and one on the New York swing. If they beat the Devils today, that would be fantastic. And then they have two games left on this road trip. You want to win three out of the five games total. The Oilers are one and one so far. Uh, so I’d like to get a win tonight in New Jersey. Keep the the good times rolling here in oil country. If you like today’s video, hit the like button. If you really like it, make sure to subscribe to the channel as we continue to build towards 10,000 subs. And uh we’ll go over the lineups, the stats, keys to the game, players to watch, and the score prediction. I’ll just try and work through this very, very quickly for everyone. Now, here’s the projected lineup. This was the lineup that we had against the New York Islanders. I cannot confirm if there’s been any changes. I know WMAN was very very close to returning. I know Alec Regula is also supposed to return sometime this weekend into early next week. So you could see Walman or Regula today or tomorrow. Just keep an eye out on that. Uh Mapani, McDavid, Tomasek were together briefly, but that line did get split up as the game progressed. Same with Nan Hopkins, Didle and Rosik. You had Pud Coulson, Frederick and Kenan. That line was very effective in my opinion. They they they stayed together the whole game. The only thing they have to look look out for is Trent Frederick taking horrible, horrible offensive zone penalties with three minutes left in the game. Please stop doing that, Trent. You did that in the first game of the season. You did that against the Islanders. Cannot afford penalties like that. It cost you against the Islanders. Go out there, produce a little bit of offense. Play on an edge, but keep that stick down. On the fourth line, Howard with Henrik and Seavoy. This line was very ineffective. I think Ike Howard is probably be going to be sent to the miners here soon. Adam Henrik, I think, has looked okay considering how slow he is and his age, but he is given a role. He is given a role to Penley Kill. He is given a role to mentor some of these young kids. So, for Adam Henrik, until Noah Phelp gets back in the lineup, we’ll see if Adam Henrik can find a way to produce. And Matthew Seavoy, despite his speed and offensive instincts, has yet to find the score sheet this season. Hopefully, he’s able to break through against the New Jersey Devils today. On defense, you have Echol with Buchard. And I think we all can agree that Evan Buchard had maybe the worst game of his entire career against New York Islanders. Let’s see if he’s able to park that mentally and get back to an area of his game that we all know that he is capable of. If Evan Buchard is playing good, the team has a good chance to win. If he’s playing very badly, the team does not have a very good chance to win. So for Evan Bousard, let’s see if he’s able to turn that game around today. On the second pair, you have Nurse with Stetchure. Although that could look different if Walman or Regula are good to go. Like I mentioned, I cannot confirm if either of Walman or Regula are going to be in, but for now, nurse with stature, Kulak with Emerson. I thought Ty Emerson had a very good game against the Islanders. He had a nice assist on the goal from Ryan Nan Hopkins. So hopefully Tai Emerson can get going a little bit here. Not looking for a lot of offense, but we’re just looking for some confidence and things to build his game so that, you know, Chris Knobblock decides to play him more than 14 minutes a night instead of playing Deon Buchard 26 minutes per night. In goal, you have uh Stu Skinner. I do believe Stu is going to get the start and then Pickard gets the start tomorrow against uh the Detroit Red Wings, although it could be vice versa. Maybe Picker gets the start today. I’m not 100% positive on that. Nothing has been announced as of yet, at least not on the Oiler socials as of the recording of this video. Taking a look at the two team stats, power play for the New Jersey Devils. Well, first of all, they are 3-1 on the season. Uh so the New Jersey Devils are off to a very good start right now. Their power play ranks ninth, 23.1%. Penalty kill ranks second in the league, 94.1%. goals four per game, they rank eighth, 350 goals per game. Goals against, they give up three goals against per game. However, um Jake Allen has played very well for them in the crease. Marstrom wasn’t playing great and I do believe Marstrom is hurt now. So, look for Allen to get the start for the New Jersey Devils. Expected goals for they rank 21st. Although, I wouldn’t take advanced analytics too much into consideration right now. These are still very small sample sizes. I would probably wait until the 9 or 10 game mark of the season to truly get an idea of where teams are sitting in terms of the advanced stats at the moment. Shots four percentage, they rank eighth and teams save percentage at five on five. New Jersey ranks 30th. Like I mentioned, uh Markstrom was struggling. Jake Allen has been able to settle the crease down a little bit. Let’s see if the Oilers are going to be able to break through. It’s always a tough matchup against uh the New Jersey Devils for Edmonton. On the Oilers side, they are 2-1 and one on the season. It would sure be nice to go to 31 and1 and continue that really good start to the year. Uh their power play ranks ninth, 23.1%. Penalty kill ranks 13th, 85.7%. Uh the penalty kills looked much better. Yes, they gave up that game-winning goal late against the Islanders to Bo Horvat, but for the most part, I do like Edmonton’s penalty kill so far. Goals per game, this is where they’re really struggling right now. They are struggling to put the puck in the net. They rank 30th in goals per game. They score only 2.5 goals per game. They need the offense to get going. They need depth production and they need their big dogs to get going. I know NG has a couple goals this season. Dry settle has a couple goals. Uh other than that, there’s not many players doing anything in terms of goal scoring. They need production up and down this lineup. And Chris Knobblock has to start trusting more than just two players as in McDavid and Dry Cidle. He can’t keep playing McDavid and D settle 26 minutes a night. It’s unsustainable. Give other guys some opportunities. However, in saying that, even though the Oilers offensive struggles have been very prevalent, uh their defensive play has been much better and their goalending especially. They only give up two goals per game, which ranks fourth. Expected goals for they rank eighth in the NHL. Shots forward percentage, they rank second and team save percentage at five on five. Oh my goodness, they’re a top 10 team right now in terms of save percentage, 93.85% at five on five. Steuart Skinner has really turned his season around early, right? that kind of weird game against Calgary and then he played absolutely lights out against New York Rangers and then I thought he played very well against the Islanders the other night for Edmonton. However, it did not translate into a win. Hopefully the team in front of Stu can play better for him. It’s two starts in a row for Stuart Skinner that the team in front of him has not played well and he is the reason why they’ve even had a chance to win either of those games. They got one win, they lost one. Team in front of Stu needs to be better or Pickard. If it’s Picker getting the start tonight, team in front of Picks also has to be better. Now, the keys to the game for Edmonton and of course players to watch and score prediction. You’re going to see that score prediction be a little mad, but trust me, I have logic here. Uh, for the Oilers, their three keys to the game, stay out of the damn box. Trent Frederick, shoot the damn puck. Connor McDavid, stop line juggling Chris Knoblock. For the New Jersey Devils, play with your speed, force turnovers, and be patient. If the uh Edmonton Oilers want to suffer the consequences of not really getting in on the forch check enough, if the New Jersey Devils play patient with them, they’re going to force turnovers. The Oilers are going to start getting a little bit uh antsy when it comes to their uh shot selection. And New Jersey can expose that. And New Jersey is very good on their feet. They’re very fast. They are well-rounded team. As long as New Jerseyy’s healthy, of course, this is a terrific hockey team. Saw that a couple years ago. Hopefully, they are able to stay healthy. And um for the Oilers, they got to work their butts off. You got to go to work, right? Put your hard hat on. Go to work tonight or this afternoon, I should say. Players to watch for the Oilers, Evan Bousard and for the New Jersey Devils, Luke Hughes. I’m going with the two number one Dman for each team. Although you could argue at home is Edmonton’s number one Dman, but for for this sake, it’s Bousard and Hughes. Score prediction, I’m going to go with the 53 New Jersey Devils. It is a matinea game. Is it against New Jersey? Uh, the Oilers have been struggling at putting the puck in the net. I have a not so great feeling about this game. Hopefully I’m proven wrong, though. Conor McDavid gets a goal at least uh to try and build his confidence before the game against Detroit tomorrow. That is today’s pregame report. I hope you enjoyed. Sorry that the energy level just isn’t there. My apologies for the scratchy voice right now. Uh, I’m going to try and make sure that this is all sorted out. Some tea, some honey, uh, some throat lozenes before the the game. Uh, I will be doing a live stream. Like I said, the the commentary is not going to be my usual play-by-play commentary. It’s mostly just to hang out with the best fans on the planet. We’ll shoot the Well, I’m not going to say that word, but we’ll shoot the crap and uh have some fun this afternoon. All right. Thank you so much, Oil Country. You’re the best. Tell someone that you love them before the game. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go, Oilers. We’ll see you soon.

The Edmonton Oilers head to Prudential Center on Saturday afternoon for the first of back-to-back games against the New Jersey Devils. Connor McDavid has yet to score a goal this season, the 5 on 5 offense is dried up, and the team is relying heavily on goaltending early in the season. Going to need a full 60-minute effort this afternoon against a very good Devils team. Austin Hockey has all the stats, keys to the game, projected lines, players to watch, and score prediction in today’s Preview! #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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