Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New York Rangers

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs New York Rangers

Hello Oilers fans. Austin here with today’s pregame report for the Oilers. First game of a fivegame road trip. They take on the New York Rangers tonight in the Big Apple. And the Oilers have actually had some pretty recent success against the New York Rangers. They have won their last three games against the Rangers at home and on the road. So, uh, for the Oilers, they’re looking to keep up that streak against New York where they have had relative success. So, that is a good sign heading into tonight’s game. And also, it’s an early puck drop tonight, 5:00 pm local time, and I will be doing a live stream. So, if you want to check that out, make sure you hit the like button on today’s video. And uh make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss the notification of when I go live for our little watch party tonight. It is going to be great. I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving. If you are Canadian and you celebrated Thanksgiving, and uh for those of you who are maybe not Canadian or didn’t celebrate, I still hope you had a good weekend. I think we all had a better weekend than the Toronto Blue Jays did. Uh that was really rough to watch this past weekend against Seattle. So let’s get into the uh pregame discussion here. In today’s video, I’ll be going over the projected lineups. There are a couple changes to the lineups. Uh a couple good, a couple not so good. We are going to discuss things. I’m going to go over the stats for both teams. I’ll go over player to watch, score prediction, and uh that sort of thing, and the keys to the game. So, let’s get right into it, folks. The projected lineup for your Edmonton Oilers. On the top line, there is a change. We finally have Trent Frederick being yanked off that top line and Andrew Mjapani who has goals in the first two games of the season. He is getting a look with McDavid and Dryidle tonight and I like that. I think that is a good decision from Chris Knoblock. We are happy with that decision. That’s something that fans have been kind of asking to change up for a few games now even going back to preseason. So the fact that it only took two games for Trent Frederick to lose that spot. Uh, I’m glad the coaching staff has rec staff has recognized that maybe that line wasn’t exactly working and Trent Frederick is much better suited to a third line role, especially in the center position. On the second line, we do have a new player being inserted into the lineup. Jack Rosley is going to get his first game with the team since signing that one-year $ 1.5 million deal uh way back on whatever the season opening night was against Calgary. Don’t remember what day that was. October 8th, October 9th. Who knows what day it was because time is uh just flying these days. So, but in any case, Jack Rosik, he has signed with the Oilers, $ 1.5 million deal. He is going to get his first look tonight with Nan Hopkins and Matthew Seavoy. I like the look of that line. I think that’s going to be a speedy offensively minded line. Hopefully, Ryan Nan Hopkins can keep up with the two speedsters on his wing. Now, this is where things get a little bit different where maybe we don’t totally agree with the lineup decisions. So Pud Coulson, Frederick, and Kain as a line. That’s fine, right? And then on the fourth line, you have Howard with Henrik and Tomasek. Again, that’s another okay line. However, the extras, do you notice Noah Phelp being scratched today? After scoring his first NHL goal the other night against the Vancouver Conucks, why is Noah Phelp getting the Jeff Skinner treatment right now? Remember whenever Jeff Skinner was healthy scratch, he’d get into the lineup, he’d score a goal and then Chris Knoblock would just scratch him anyways? Yeah, that’s uh I’m getting bad vibes here. Unless no Philp is dealing with a potential injury that we are unaware of or if he is dealing with an illness that we are unaware of because the team has had a lot of illness already early in the season. Uh if this is a pure healthy scratch situation, I do not agree with it. I think based on merit, Noah Phelps should be in the lineup over players like Adam Henrique in my personal opinion. And I would even argue Noah Phelps should be in the lineup over someone like Ike Howard who I think hasn’t played poorly, but I think he just hasn’t played great at the same time, right? You can you can play okay, you can play good, not so good. I think Noah Phelp has been fine. I don’t think there’s any reason to pull Noah Phelp from this lineup. So, um, obviously there I’m sure there’s reasons as of the recording of this video. I don’t know what Chris Noblock’s pregame thoughts are. I don’t know if he did an interview to talk about why the lineup looks like this, but I don’t agree with Noah Phelp being the guy that is kind of yanked out of this lineup. Like I said, unless there’s an injury that we’re unaware of or if Noah Phelp is not feeling 100%, that is totally different. It makes sense. Uh but I think pulling Philip out of this lineup, keeping someone like Frederick or Henrique in the lineup instead, eh, I don’t know. Uh that doesn’t seem merit-based performance uh in my opinion, but we’ll have to see. On defense, you have Ekholm with Bousard, which is obviously a great pairing. No need to change that up. And then you’ll notice that there’s another change here. So you have Nurse with Stetcher instead of Regula, and you have Kulak with Emerson. And then Jake Walman, he is still on the IR, but he did skate this morning. So that’s a good sign that Jake Walman is getting closer to his return. But Alec Regula was not on the ice at all. And I am going to assume it’s because of the head shots that he took uh against the Vancouver Conucks. He was boarded by Evander Kane. continuing hard into the boards and then he was hit hard behind his own net late in the third period from Evander Kane and though there wasn’t exactly uh head contact being made those two hits very jarring uh Regula was pulled from the concussion spotter so maybe this is a situation where they told him hey you got to take a week off maybe he’s suffering something I don’t know again I don’t like to speculate on injuries especially since I’m not the player I’m not in the organization but I’m assuming if Regula is not even on the ice right now uh probably has something to do with the two big hits that he took from Evander Kane against Vancouver. So hopefully Alec Regula is okay moving forward. Hopefully we see him a little bit later on this road trip. But it is going to be good to see Troy Stetcher get into some action. Uh guy like Ster you don’t want to have sitting too too long um in the press box. So Nurse and Ster tonight not an issue there. I like the way those two play together. So should be a good pairing. And then in goal you do have Steuart Skinner starting. So uh you have Stu going up against Shurken. Can Steuart Skinner outduel um Igor Shurken? If I’m a if I was a betting man, I would say no, but we’ll have to see how this game plays out. The Rangers don’t score a lot, but they do not give up a whole lot of goals either. If we take a look at the stats so far this season, again, the Rangers, they’ve already played four games. This is going to be their fifth game of the season. The Oilers, this is their third game. Uh these are small sample sizes. I would probably wait to reserve judgment on the uh advanced stats until teams have played at least 10 games. I think 10 games is like a good enough sample where you get an idea of where a team is at. Uh but just because I like to have the stats on the screen, I’m going to present them anyways. The New York Rangers, uh so far this season, their power play ranks 16th, 18.2%. Their penalty killer ranks tied for first in the league at 100%. They have not given up a power play goal yet. Goals for per game, they ranked 25th, 250. goals against per game. They rank second, 1.25 goals against per game. Like I said, this team does not give up many goals. Igor Shist Sturken and Jonathan Quick have combined for just 1.25 goals against this season so far. Uh so if Shist Sturkin for some reason can’t go, Jonathan Quick seems to have found a little bit of a fountain of youth and he continues to play well as well for the Rangers. Well, as well is that is that a sentence that makes sense? Anyways, expected goals for for the Rangers, they rank eighth, 53.93%. Shots for percentage, they rank 15th. And team save percentage at five on five, they rank fourth, 96.70 save percentage. Obviously, that is unsustainable. So, hopefully the Oilers can kind of break through a little bit tonight. On the Oilers side, they are 10-1. Their power play ranks 11th at 22.2% although it did struggle against the Vancouver Conucks going 0 for five. going to need to get that big PP up if the Oilers want to have some success tonight. Penalty kill ranks 14th, 83.3%. It did come up very clutch against the Vancouver Conucks. Hopefully that penalty kill continues to be clutch moving forward. The Oilers scored three goals per game which ranks 19th. They give up two goals against per game which ranks sixth which is fantastic. Uh expected goals for they rank second in the entire league 64.91%. shots four percentage they rank first in the NHL 63.51% and team save percentage at five on five ranks 20th 88.89%. Uh they haven’t faced a whole lot of five on five shots. Uh Stu Skinner gave up three goals on I forget how many shots it was against the Flames. Calvin Pickard only gave up one goal on 15 shots to the Vancouver Conucks. So again, early sample size. A lot of these numbers are a little bit silly. not going to be sustainable, especially the Oilers expected goals and shots for percentage. If if that’s sustained all season long, Edmonton is not going to lose very many hockey games, but they do have a big game to play tonight. If we take a look at the keys to the game for the Oilers and Rangers for your Edmonton Oilers, number one, use your speed, especially now that Jack Rosik is in this lineup. The Oilers have a lot of speed up and down their lineup. They have very, very speedy players. They have McDavid on on the wing right now. Uh they have Seavoy, they have Rosavik, they have Howard, they have guys that can really move their feet. Uh Casper Kappan. So as long as the Oilers are managing the puck and using their speed, I really like their chances tonight. I think they can outskate the Rangers. Uh what I liked the most about the Oilers speed against Vancouver on Saturday was that a player like Quinn Hughes, who is Vancouver’s arguably their best skater on the team, he had his angles getting cut off the entire game from Edmonton speed. Guys like Seavoy were just cutting those angles off, not allowing Hughes any room to breathe. And I think the Oilers going to have to be that aggressive at the points, especially on the penalty kill tonight against the Rangers to have some success. And the third key to the game for Edmonton, get that PP up. Get that big PP up. The Oilers have power play. Has to start getting going here. I’d like to see a couple more goals. Of course, the other night against the Canucks, Demco just made some unbelievable saves. Tomasek got absolutely stonewalled a couple times. dry settle was stoned a couple times. So, I’d like to imagine that uh if that game was played a 100 times, the Oilers likely come away with at least a couple power play goals in about 90% of those games based on those chances. Uh but again, you have to give a lot of respect and and kudos to a a goalender like Demco tonight. It’s going to be just as hard, if not harder, to beat Igor Shurkin. So, we’ll see how the team does. And for the New York Rangers, number one key to the game for them, help Sturken out. The Rangers does don’t they don’t score a lot of goals and right now they have really been relying on their goalending to get their wins. If the Rangers want to have some long-term success and get back to the postseason, they’re going to have to help their goalending out. Uh number two, keep the penalty kill hot. Of course, the Rangers have not given up a power play goal against yet in four games. Uh so obviously if the penalty kill continues to play great, and again that also includes the goalending, uh they’re going to have a lot of success against the Edmonton Oilers. So for the Oilers, try and break through on the power play. Uh for the Rangers, keep that penalty kill hot. And then number three, they need more at five on five. The Rangers are not producing a lot at five on five right now. And again, like I said, if you if they want to have some sustained success this season, if they don’t want to just rely on goalending all year long, cuz I don’t think that’s a sustainable way to uh make the playoffs or even have any form of success in the playoffs, uh they’re going to need to start producing more at five on five. With the Oilers and Steuart Skinner in the crease, anything’s possible. So for the Rangers, just throw any punk on net. You never know what’s going to beat Steu. Players to watch, Jack Rosik for Edmonton and Igor Shurken for the New York Rangers. And my score prediction, what is it going to be? The first road trip of the season for Edmonton. The first game on the road for Edmonton this season. Sorry Oilers fans. I’m gonna say 4-3 Rangers in overtime with a Rosik goal. Now, why am I picking picking the Rangers? Well, I think Stu versus Shisturkin, that’s a tough matchup for Steuart Skinner. I’d love to be proven wrong. I say the Oilers get at least a point out of this, but again, uh the Rangers do not give up a lot of goals against, they don’t give up a lot of chances against and uh Igor Shurken whenever the Rangers do give up an opportunity is there and he’s able to make some big saves. For the Oilers, I’m looking for a good performance from Stuart Skinner. If he gives up four goals, that’s fine. What I’m looking for is what do the goals against look like? What are the shots for and against? Um, you know, is he giving the team a chance to win? Right. That’s all I care about. Is he giving the team a chance to win? It’s early in the season. I don’t want to judge too harshly. I’m excited to see Jack Rosik in the lineup tonight. Uh, I’m not happy that Noah Phelp is out of the lineup and hopefully Alec Regula is okay. Let me know your thoughts in the Oh my goodness. Sorry. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Let me know your player to watch. Let me know your score prediction and uh yeah, keep the conversation going in the comments section. And of course, uh, before the game tonight, tell so much you love them. And as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. We’ll see you tonight for Pug Drop. Take care.

The Edmonton Oilers begin their first road trip of the season on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers. Andrew Mangiapane has been promoted to the top line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Jack Roslovic makes his Oilers debut, Noah Philp is healthy scratched, and Stuart Skinner gets the start. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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