At the start of Game 1, hockey fans were forced to endure the American anthem played on harmonicas... I thought it was going to be the most painful I had to watch...

Then the first two periods happened.

For nearly 40 minutes the Edmonton Oilers were obviously the lesser of the two teams. Everyone was a step behind; Evan Bouchard struggled mightily as did Stuart Skinner between the pipes. Blunders were made but the moment any type of grade A chance happened against Edmonton, it was ending up in the back of their net.

Draisaitl scored at the end of the second period giving the Oilers a glimmer of life but Oilers fans weren't taking much solace in that. Then Connor McDavid took over. Edmonton dominated for the final 20 minutes scoring 4 goals and tying the game 5-5. That was until Danault scored in the final minute of the game on a weak shot that unsurprisingly beat Stuart Skinner and sealed the deal. The bad news is the Oilers find themselves down 0-1 in the series. The good news is Edmonton has a brutal record in the first game of a series 3-12 in their last 15 and if they can play like they did in the third period, they will have a chance to bounce back.

Tonight Evander Kane will play his first game of the season. In the past I have talked about the LTIR shenanigans that teams like the Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning have gotten away with over the years. I joked that the fastest way to see it closed is for a Canadian team to try it... surprise surprise, according to Elliotte Friedman the NHL was none too happy about Kane being ready to play and I think that was a big reason why the Oilers kept him out of Game 1.
(completely unrelated I am sure, Matt Tkachuk who hadn't played since Feb 8th was miraculously ready for Game 1 and haven't heard much about the NHL having issue with that).

If Kane is healthy and can contribute than it is a great boost for the Edmonton Oilers who need more physicality in the top six. That is the good news... the bad news is I have major questions about how Kris Knoblauch is managing this team.

Let's go back to last game; with Stecher and Ekholm out Knoblauch decides to play Josh Brown because yay hits that mean nothing. On the first powerplay goal against, Brown stands in front of the net with his stick nowhere near the ice and gives Kuzmenko the easy tap in. Knoblauch also clearly thought he made a mistake because he benched him immediately after and ended up playing a grand total of 4:54; forcing Edmonton to effectively run 5 defensemen for the full game.

Tonight, here is the lineup it looks like the Oilers are deploying:

Draisaitl - McDavid - Perry
Kane - RNH - Hyman
Frederic - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Janmark - Arvidsson

Nurse - Bouchard
Walman - Klingberg
Kulak - Emberson

Skinner

A few things about this lineup. For starters the bottom six has been set up here to do absolutely nothing and to Knoblauch that is a good thing. He wants the lowest event hockey possible and for no shots for or against and pray that his top six can do all of the work. Jeff Skinner did not have a great game (was -2) but had an assist and 5 hits. Podkolzin by my eye did even less and had 4 hits and was 0-0-0 across the board. I would much rather have seen Skinner back and Podkolzin removed (especially because Kane is a more effective version of Pod).

The second issue is here we are once again with the panic button of "stack McDavid and Draisaitl." The Oilers might have the best centre depth in the NHL and two elite players that can generate regardless of who you put them with and instead, Knoblauch puts both players together and hopes they can carry the team. Also Klingberg plays tonight.

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It's only one game and I expect a much better effort from the Oilers tonight but so far in the early parts of this series things are going like I predicted. Byfield is an absolute monster against this team and the Oilers are having issues with the scoring ability throughout the Kings lineup. Edmonton needs Stuart Skinner to be far better tonight if they expect to tie things up.

Thanks for reading.

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