Coming off of their biggest win of the season the Oilers will venture to defeat the Blackhawks tonight. What the Oilers did against the Pens should provide a much needed boost of confidence to the young group. Sidney Crosby and a loaded Penguins team came into town and the home team was not outplayed.

We write about standing up and getting in the face of the opposition and nobody did it more than Devan Dubnyk. He played incredibly well and took home "Fight of the Night" honours after his mix up with Malkin. Dubnyk has always been noted for his calm demeanor but its his career on the line now and its nice to see some fire. Maybe standing up to Malkin will remind him that he happens to be 7 feet tall and he can stop giving up the top of the net.

There was another much talked about sequence from that Pens game I want to touch on as well. Taylor Hall's stick breaking slash to the glass was immediately derided by the TSN crew. Certainly it could have been construed as immature but I'm not sure of that either. A play had just died and his linemates peeled off for a line change and Hall was upset. After so many passionless games from the Oil I was looking for someone on the team to get angry and demand more from his team.

If Taylor Hall wants to get angry with his team and break a few sticks along the way I will take that over the alternative. It's impossible to know for sure but it's possible that the message he had for his linemates after that incident directly lead to the goal he scored later on.

Getting angry when someone is in your space, getting upset when a play doesnt work out, those are signs that the team believes they can win. You dont get upset when you think you should be losing, you get upset when you think you should be winning. That's what the Oilers miss too often. That game against the Pens was something they can rally around and build upon.

LINEUPS

Via Gene Principe we have been told that Devan Dubnyk will be starting tonight despite the fact that this was Bryzgalov's scheduled start. I have been excessively hard on Dubnyk this season, and I think it's fair to be hard on a goalie who hasnt stopped pucks. However, after his performance against the Pens and the battle level he showed I am fine with Dubnyk getting tonight's start.

Hall RNH Gagner
Yakupov Arcobello Eberle
Perron Gordon Hemsky
Gazdic Smyth Jones

Ference J. Schultz
Belov Petry
Marincin N. Schultz

Dubnyk

OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Keep Standing Up. The same battle level that they showed against the Pens has to be there against Chicago.

2) Building Chemistry. It wasnt instant chemistry with Gagner on the top line. There were difficult sequences that resulted in frustration, but ultimately the trio started to click. They need to pick up where they left off.

3) Simple Hockey. One of the dangers of a young team is that the highs get too high. What the Oilers cant afford to do is try to get too fancy out there based on 1 win against Pittsburgh. It has to be simple, smart hockey or Chicago will bury Edmonton.

Puck drops tonight at 5:08PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!

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