Good morning, Nation! Welcome to the first matinee GDB of the season as our beloved Oilers get set to take on the New York Rangers at the world-famous Madison Square Garden.
GAME DAY! game day! GAME DAY! pic.twitter.com/SJ18RI8EiW
— Baggedmilk – Oilers Beet writer (@jsbmbaggedmilk) October 2, 2019
After our boys launched themselves to a 4-0-0 record, their best start to a season since 2008, the Oilers are looking to keep the party going with another two points against the rebuilding New York Rangers. Obviously, this is the best start we’ve seen from this team in a decade and I hope to Gord that they don’t push away from the table during this heater. On the other side of the coin, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton and Glen Sather wrote a letter to their fans back in February of 2019 that outlined their plan to rebuild the team’s roster. The letter advised that the club would be moving out veteran faces with the goal of bringing in some younger talent they could build around. In the year and change since that letter went out via the team’s social media accounts, the Rangers have gone out and acquired some talented young players that will be cornerstones of the franchise moving forward. Today, we’ll get another look at how their rebuild is going.
Because of an oddity in the schedule, the Rangers haven’t played at all since last Saturday and it’ll be interesting to see if or how that affects them. Seeing as the season is still under two weeks old, you’d have to think that the gap between games could be beneficial for the Oilers since the Rangers haven’t had many at-bats to really work the rust out even though they started their season with two wins. Is this just me being overly optimistic? I don’t think so. Either way, to me this is a game that the Oilers can win if they can put forth the kind of resilient effort that we’ve seen from them in the first four and I say that knowing that New York hasn’t lost yet. Outside of a few specific spots, the Oilers have more top-end skill in their lineup than do the Rangers and that should, at least in my brain, translate to two more points on the board. That said, this is the NHL and Edmonton Oilers we’re talking about here and we know better than most that there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this league, so the boys are going to have to start strong if they plan on keeping this streak going.
The Oilers will look to start their season with a 5-0 record for the first time since 1985-86.
Numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (fancies at 5×5)
Oilers
Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian
Jurco-RNH-Neal
Khaira-Sheahan-Archibald
Granlund-Haas-Chiasson
Nurse-Bear
Klefbom-Persson
K.Russell-Benning
Koskinen
One of the most interesting things about the Oilers’ hot start is that it’s creating actual competition for roster spots. For the past week, a guy like Alex Chiasson had been out with the flu but the boys have soldiered on and you have to think that internal battle for playing time can only help in the long run. I don’t know if I remember a time outside of maybe the 2017 playoff run that this team has had enough depth to force guys to grind their way back into the lineup. At the time of posting, the Oilers’ lineups haven’t been released yet so I’m piecing things together based on what I could find on Twitter, but I’ll be sure to update this section when news becomes available.
Rangers
Panarin – Zibanejad – Buchnevich
Kreider – Strome – Kakko
Lemieux – Howden – Fast
McKegg – Andersson – Smith
Hajek – Trouba
Skjei – Fox
Staal – DeAngelo
Lundqvist
As mentioned above, the Rangers haven’t played a game since last Saturday, which tells me that the Oilers could have the chance to take advantage of a rusty team. Obviously, the Rangers are going to be well-rested but to go a full week without playing games has me wondering if they’ll be on top of their game.
From Larry Brooks at the New York Post:
The twin demotions of Flip Chytil and Vitali Kravtsov dramatically changed the Rangers’ dynamic but apparently not the perception of the team’s forwards as a group of skilled, finesse-oriented, east-west athletes.
The fact is, once you get past the first line, the Blueshirts are about as blue-collar, straight-line, north-south as it gets.
But the addition of Artemi Panarin ’s dazzle has had an effect that incorporating @Marian Gaborik and Rick Nash into the mix never did. Panarin’s addition not only has given the team an elite talent (who practices with the same commitment and creativity he brings to games) but an identity that seems to be sticking even if, at least temporarily, misapplied.
GAME DAY PREDICTION: After a slow start that allows the Rangers to open the scoring, the Oilers come roaring back in the final 40 minutes and close out a 5-3 win.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Ryan Strome scores a goal because of course he will.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Being the old man on campus, Mike Smith was excited to be in New York when he saw that Billy Joel had an October 12th concert date. Unfortunately, the Rangers are in town which meant that Billy is not (he’s in Arlington, Texas, tonight) and it was young Ethan Bear that was tasked with breaking his heart.
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October 12, 2019 at 10:00PM
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