Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Boston Bruins

Pre-Game Report: Edmonton Oilers vs Boston Bruins

Hello Oilers fans. Austin here and welcome to the pregame report between the Empton Oilers and the Boston Bruins. The big bad Bruins. I cannot wait for this game. I always look forward to the Oilers and Bruins every single year. They only play each other twice per season. Now, why do I look forward specifically to the Bruins? Well, those of you who have been on the channel for quite a while now, you’ll know that my second favorite team is the Boston Bruins. I’ve been cheering for the Oilers since 1997. I’ve been cheering for the Bruins since 2003. and the Boston Bruins. They got me through some pretty hard times in life, especially the decade of darkness. Went the Edmonton Oilers. The Bruins were a very good team during the mid to late 2000s, early 2010s. And Boston also just seems to continue to be good. Uh I think a lot of people looked at Boston’s opening night roster, myself included, and went, “Oh yeah, that’s a team that’s probably going to be fighting for Gavin McKenna sweep stakes.” Uh that’s not the case. The Boston Bruins this season, they work hard, they’re physical, they’re punishing, and the Mton Oilers have a lot of workout out for them tonight. So, if the Others are going to pull out a big win, they’re going to have to play a full 60 minutes. Yes, a full 60 minutes. Stop giving up goals in the final minute of a game. I think Tristan Jarry is probably not very happy about that. And I imagine the coaching staff is also not very happy about that. And uh we’ll see how the game ends up going tonight. I will do a live stream commentary. I do also have some hockey cards to open on the stream for once. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. So, if you if you like today’s video, hit the like button. If you really like it, make sure to subscribe to the channel if you want to make sure that you’re tuning in to the live stream commentary tonight. Uh make sure that you hit the little bell so that you’re notified when I do go live. And uh yeah, as always, these pregame reports, I’ll go over the projected lineups for the Oilers, stats between the two teams, keys to the game, players to watch, score prediction. Let me know all of your thoughts in the comment section below. Now, the projected lineup for Edmonton, there’s only a couple changes here. Top line stays the same. Ryan Nen Hopkins, Conor McDavid, Zack Heyman, they’ve been redot. Conor McDavid has 20 points in his last seven games. Why would you switch that up? That’s a good question. They’re not switching it up. Second line, same thing. Pod Coulson, Dry Cidle, Seavoi. Dry Cidle’s been red hot. Pud Coulson’s been putting the puck in the net much more often as of late. And Matthew Seavoy finally starting to get that offense going. It’s really good to see for Seavoi. So again, you’re not going to really touch that second line, but it’s the bottom six where you’re shuffling the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. It doesn’t really matter who you shuffle around, but there is a very specific shuffle that I’m a big fan of, and that is so Majapani is with Henrik and Yanmar, but the fourth line, you have Trent Frederick playing center on the fourth line. They have moved Trent Frederick away from Adam Henrik. I find Frederick and Henrik all season long. Have not been very good together. That is not a good fit. And Trent Frederick playing the center position, I think that’s going to have to force him to be much more defensively responsible. If you take a look at the goal against uh Pittsburgh in the last minute the other night, Trent Frederick just horrific, horrific defending and back check. And listen, I know it’s back in Boston. Trent Frederick played for the Bruins for several years. Uh this was a game that I thought maybe you scratch a guy like Trent Frederick, but with Curtis Lazar injuring potentially injuring his knee against Pittsburgh, they are going to stick Frederick at the center position here. Tomasek is also a scratch along with Lazar. Quinn Hudson hopefully gets a few more shifts uh tonight than he did against Pittsburgh. I’d like to see at least nine or 10 minutes time on ice because the Boston Bruins among their regular forwards, among Bruins regular forwards, there’s only one that averages less than 12 minutes per game and that’s Essimon. He averages 1155 per game. But the Oilers have several guys that average less than not only 12 minutes per game, but less than 11 or 10 minutes per game. Lazar was averaging 917 before he got hurt. No, Philip was only averaging 10 minutes before he got hurt. Uh, Clattenberg was only averaging 7 minutes when he got hurt. And then you have Max Jones, he’s averaging 539 in one game. Quinn Hudson, 659 in one game. So, if you’re a team that wants to get guys going, if you want that bottom six to start feeling good about their game, you might have to give them a few extra shifts here and there because you can’t just keep relying on your top six. You’re going to run those guys into the ground if they haven’t already. And the bottom six also has to show a little bit more too. They they really have to It starts in their own zone and the neutral zone, right? The amount of times where they could get a puck in deep and they don’t and then they have to defend and they’re usually giving up a goal because they’re not very good at defending. It just comes down to fundamentals for that bottom six. If they start to defend better, they’ll start to play offense better and maybe they’ll finally start to chip in a little bit. But there’s a lot of work to do. Alec Regula potentially out with illness tonight. So the defense pairs at home with Bard, Nurse with Stashnne, and Stillman with Emerson. Now Stashny is a left shot Dman playing on the right side. And I do find it interesting that every time they need someone to play next to Nurse on their offside, it is always a left shot Dman. Darnell Nurse just I don’t know if he can’t play on the right side, if they never try him on the right side, if he doesn’t want to play on the right side, but it is always other players who have to adjust to their own games to play next to Darnell Nurse. That has been a big problem for a long time in oil country. Hopefully these defense pairs can get the job done, but it is going to be tough against the very physical Boston Bruins. Tristan Jarry will get the start and I’m really hoping for a 900 save percentage tonight from Jarry. He deserved it against Pittsburgh. He deserved it against Toronto. Team stop playing. You got to play 60 minutes play to the final buzzer for goodness sakes. It’s the NHL. What are we doing here? Help your goalender out. Now, when it comes to the stats for both teams, the Boston Bruins 2014 and 0. They are second in the Atlantic division, 7-3 in their last 10 games. The Bruins have been rolling as of late. Their power play ranks fifth best in the league. Benley Kill ranks 17th. Goals per game ranks seventh. Goals against per game ranks 20th. Expected goals forward percentage ranks 30th. Not very good. The underlying metrics for the Boston Bruins are not fantastic. It shows that they will likely regress at some point this season. But until they do regress, the Oilers still have to be on the ball here. Shots forward percentage for Boston, they rank 22nd. And team save percentage at five on five ranks 10th best in the league 91.4% or a 914. Now Jeremy Swayman is kind of the main contributor to that. No offense to Yonas Corposalo, but it is Jeremy Swayman’s crease in Boston. He has been the guy that has been consistently incredible this season. I think he’s second in the league in goal saved above expected. He might be number one now. I haven’t checked the stats in a few days, but in any case, it’s going to be tough to get through the defense of Boston. It’s going to be tough to beat their goalender if Swayman is getting the start. For the Edmonton Oilers, they are 161 12-6. They are third in the Pacific Division. They are 63 and one in their last 10 games. A win tonight would give them seven wins in their last 10. And that would be pretty darn good. The Oilers have been playing much better. They still are prone to those stinkers. And hopefully that stinker does not come tonight. Their power play ranks first in the NHL. They are back to being power play merchants. You love to see that. Belly Kill ranks 21st. Goals per game, they rank third. Goals against per game they rank 28th. Expected goals forward percentage 49.63% they rank 16th right in the middle in the NHL. Shots forward percentage they rank seventh. And team save percentage continues to be dead last. Dead last 32nd at 88.40%. Yes, Tristan Jarry in my opinion has been playing better in his two games than Stu did for a while there. Stu played good before he got traded. Uh but Tristan Jarry those late goals uh that’s really affecting the save percentage right now. The Oilers are 101 and one when they get a save percentage of 900 plus. That’s what we’re looking for. If they give up 30 shots, I want to see three goals against. That’s what we’re looking for. Now, when it comes to the keys to the game here for the Mton Oilers, number one, I already talked about it. Play a full 60 minutes. My goodness gracious, if they take the final minute off again, I don’t care if you’re up by seven goals in the final minute. You do not take a shift off, right? Help your goalender out. Help Tristan Jarry out. Play for each other. What are we doing out there in the final minute against Toronto, in the final minute against Pittsburgh? It’s unacceptable and frankly it’s very annoying and as a fan I’m annoyed. So I can’t even imagine what the goalenders and coaches are like or feeling when the Oilers just stop playing in the final minute. Help Jarry out. And also for Chris Knobblock, roll your lines. The Boston Bruins roll all four lines pretty consistently and guys can get engaged and get into the game. The Oilers do not do that. They have to roll all four lines if they want to beat Boston tonight. If the Others think that they can beat the Bruins rolling three lines with how physical Boston is, they are in for a world of hurt tonight. I’m just saying. I’m I’m not saying that Edmonton should lose or will lose, but I’m just saying if Chris Noblock does not adjust his line utilization tonight, Boston is just going to absolutely punish Emmonton and it’s not going to be a fun game for Oilers fans. For the Bruins, keys to the game, punishing physicality. If you take a look at the physicality between both teams here, I’m just going to show everyone a couple stats. So, the Edmonton Oilers, Pod Coulson leads for hits for Edmonton, 102, Frederick’s next 86, and then it drops down to 35 hits. That’s Curtis Lazar in only 18 games. Zack Hyman’s only played 15 games. He’s at uh 29 hits. Right now, if you take a look at the Boston Bruins, look at their top five hitters. Jano 100 hits. Castic 88. Steve, you have Mitten Fraser Mitten 68. You have Morgan Geeky 56. The fifth most physical forward on Boston is Morgan Geeky with 56 hits. The fifth most physical forward on Em is on Andrew Majapani with 56. Geeki has 30 more hits. Like that shows just how physical Boston is compared to the Edmonton Oilers. And for Boston, that punishing physicality will help get a win tonight if the Oilers are not ready to go up against it. Number two, special teams could also be important here. The Bruins do have a good power play. They have a good penalty kill. And if you’re the Oilers, if you get your power plays, you got to try and make them pay because if you don’t, Boston will make you pay on their own power plays. And at number three for Boston, it kind of goes with the punishing physicality. Wear out the Oilers. If the Oilers refuse to roll four lines tonight, their top nine is going to be absolutely dead. Their defenseman are going to be dead. And by the end of the game, Boston is just going to be running all over the place. Boston doesn’t care what the score is after the first or second. They just keep coming at you over and over and over. And if the Oilers get to lead the first, they have to keep playing because Boston, they are relentless. They will punish you. They will keep coming after you. Now, game note here, the Oilers, they are 6’2 and two in their last 10 games versus the Boston Bruins. Trent Frederick returns to Boston for the first time since being traded to the Edmonton Oilers. My players to watch for Edmonton, it’s going to be Conor McDavid. He has 20 points in his last seven games. Conor McDavid has just been on another level as of late and he’s only two points behind Nathan McKinnon for the league lead. And my player to watch for Boston, I debated picking Morgan Geeky. He has 24 goals this season, but I went with David Pasternneck, their top guy, their captain. Uh, nine points in his last five games played for David Pastnack. Uh, he’s been unbelievable. David Pastnack has been fantastic for Boston. He’s been so good throughout his career and he’s he’s kind of the guy. He’s the electricity. He gets guys going offensively. So, the Oilers are going to have to defend very well tonight. Now, when it comes to my score prediction, now I don’t want anyone to get mad here, right? Those of you who have been on the channel for a long time, you’ll know when the Oilers are in Boston, I always predict predict the Bruins to win. When the Bruins are in Edmonton, I always predict the Oilers to win because this game is in Boston. I’m going to say 4-3 Bruins. But I’ll say Trent Frederick gets a goal. I’ll say he gets off the Schneider a little bit here. And also, not just Frederick, but I would like to see Adam Henrik get a goal. I don’t think Adam Henrik has a goal since October 26th. Like, we’re going to need Adam Henrik to get going here, too. But Trent Frederick, I’d like to see him score against his former team. I think that’d be pretty cool. and the Oilers at least get a point at minimum. Not saying I want the Oilers to lose, but that’s just how I am when these two teams go up against each other. Whoever the home team is, that’s who I predict is going to win the game. Not based on any kind of science or anything, but in any case, I hope you enjoyed this pregame report. I hope you enjoy the live stream tonight. I’m excited to go live. My apologies for no day after discussion. Yesterday, I was hanging out with some family before they flew home. Uh they were here for uh well be early Christmas. Um they’re not going to be here for Christmas now. They flew out this morning, but I was hanging out with family le yesterday, so I hope you all understand. We’ll see you soon. I’ll see you tonight. I cannot wait. It’s going to be a ton of fun. Love when these two teams play each other. Tell someone that you love him before the game tonight. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. We’ll see you tonight, folks. Take care.

Connor McDavid looks to stay hot (20 pts in last 7gp) as the Edmonton Oilers continue their 5-game road trip. Tristan Jarry (2-0-0 with EDM) gets his thirs start for the Oilers. Trent Frederic plays his first game back at TD Garden since being traded last season. Austin has you covered with all the stats, lineups, keys to the game, players to watch, and more! #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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