So look who decided to make his debut start as an Edmonton Oilers a big one. Bryzgalov shows up in a big way for the Oilers last night and makes every last save to record his first shutout of the season. Yes, the Preds lack marquee offensive talent, but they still directed 33 shots his way. For me, I felt that Bryz stayed in pretty good position most of the night making the majority of shots look easy to stop. Considering Bryz was brought in to push Dubnyk and compete for starts, you couldn’t ask for anything more than what he did last night.
I feel pretty strongly that recording a shutout should punch your ticket to the next game; however the downside here is that the next game is tonight. Frankly, barring any physical impediment I would let Bryzgalov play against the Blue Jackets and it looks like Eakins feels the same way. He said that choosing to start Bryz again was a “tough but an easy decision.” Ultimately it comes down to rewarding the guys who play well. It seems as though Eakins wants to give Dubnyk a chance to respond, but it just wont be tonight.
How Dubnyk responds is the reason the Oilers went out of their way to get a backup who could challenge for the #1 spot. Based on his track record in these situations he should bounce back and play well when he gets called on again. Getting a chance to bounce back is also the way the Blue Jackets will be looking at this game today, as they were thoroughly embarrassed by the Oil ten days ago to the tune of 7-0. They were just shut out again on Wednesday by the same Nashville team that the Oil just defeated and one has to believe that they want to make this a statement game.
Despite the being 4-1 in their last 5 games you have to think the Oilers are still burning up the phone lines trying to add to their back-end. Del Zotto’s name continues to pop up around the league in trade rumours and has been linked back to Edmonton. Now recently Dreger has stated that he’s hearing Tyler Myers’ name in rumours as well, not in connection to the Oilers specifically but out there nonetheless. As this season moves along and teams figure out who they are and where they are in relation to the rest of the league we will hear more names in the trade whispers. And anything involving a defenseman is going to be linked back to Edmonton eventually.
LINEUPS
Let’s see if anyone wakes up too sore to play tonight, but I anticipate basically the same group.
Hall RNH Eberle
Yakupov Gagner Hemsky
Smyth Gordon Perron
Jones Arcobello Joensuu
Ference Petry
Grebeshkov J. Schultz
N. Schultz Belov
Bryzgalov
The Blue Jackets are a team trying to find it’s way. They buzz words there are familiar to Edmonton Oiler fans. “Culture Change” is the goal of management and the coaching staff is under pressure to deliver it. Will they? Can they? I have no idea but much like Edmonton, stability behind the bench is going to go a long way to making that team better.
Foligno Johansen Jenner
Calvert Anisimov Atkinson
Umberger Letestu Comeau
Tropp Chaput Skille
Tyutin Johnson
Murray Wisniewski
Nikitin Prout
Bobrovsky
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Power Play Punch. Columbus is 10th on the PK at home this season and the Oil blew 3 Power Play opportunities against the Preds last night. They will need to turn it around. Since the Oil gave up that short-handed goal against the Hawks Eakins has switched up the PP to have 4 forwards and 1 D-man. The goal happened because of a broken stick. I wish they would go back to the 5 forward PP but regardless of the unit they need to keep moving their feet.
2) Short Rest. Playing in the 2nd of back-to-back games hasn’t been great for Edmonton this season they have lost 3 of the 4 games they played in those situations, but the last one against Calgary resulted in a Win. Despite the unconventional nature of a goalie starting b2b, I’m not worried about Bryzgalov. He will get plenty of rest when Dubnyk gets back into the fold. The other skaters might have some issues though. The good news is that Eakins was able to keep everyone except ference and Petry under 20 minutes last night.
3) Speed Speed Speed. The Oilers need to play with it tonight. It’s the team’s bread and butter. If they can play with it tonight when circumstances suggest they might be tired then maybe they really are figuring out who they are and how they need to play every night to be successful.
Puck drops tonight at 5:08PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy
MOVEMBER UPDATE
It’s winding down. The month is up soon and my stache is as good as it’s gonna get. Am I proud of it? No, this thing is digusting. BUT I am happy to help create awareness for Men’s health issues. Check out the page here at
www.mobro.co/MattHendersonHB 
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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