GDT: Edmonton Oilers @ Florida Panthers-01/18/2016

[McYoungGuns]

VS
OILERS (18-23-5) at PANTHERS (26-14-5
TV: SNW, FS-F
@ 5:30pm MT​

OILERS

Hall-Draisaitl-Purcell
Pouliot-Nugent-Hopkins-Eberle
Kassian-Letestu-Yakupov
Gazdic-Hendricks-Pakarinen

Sekera-Fayne
Nurse-Schultz
Davidson-Gryba

Talbot (Nilsson)



PANTHERS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Aleksander Barkov - Jaromir Jagr
Jussi Jokinen - Vincent Trocheck - Reilly Smith
Brandon Pirri - Nick Bjugstad - Logan Shaw
Corban Knight - Derek MacKenzie - Shawn Thornton

Brian Campbell - Erik Gudbranson
Dmitry Kulikov - Steven Kampfer
Willie Mitchell - Alex Petrovic

Al Montoya

Roberto Luongo



Season series: The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 at Rexall Place on Jan. 10. Panthers forwards Jaromir Jagr and Jonathan Huberdeau each scored a goal, and center Mark Letestu scored a goal for Edmonton. All three goals were scored in the first period. Panthers backup goalie Al Montoya made 24 saves for his seventh win of the season.

Oilers team scope: Edmonton begins a three-game road trip with back-to-back games against Florida and the Tampa Bay Lightning, followed by a game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday. Left wing Taylor Hall, Edmonton's leading scorer with 46 points (16 goals, 26 assists), has two points (one goal, one assist) in his past nine games. Edmonton signed goalie Cam Talbot to a three-year, $12.5 million contract extension on Sunday, one day after he made 31 saves in a 2-1 shootout win against the Calgary Flames. Talbot has a .949 save percentage in his past five games and has worked his way into the No. 1 job. "I judge it not just over this last stretch, where he's been very good, but from what I've seen before," general manager Peter Chiarelli told the Oilers website.

Panthers team scope: Montoya is expected to make his 11th start of the season after Roberto Luongo played Sunday in a 3-1 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning. After a franchise-record 12 straight wins, the Panthers have lost three games in a row. "We needed to compete harder, put pucks on the net," coach Gerard Gallant said. Despite the losing streak, Florida still leads the Atlantic Division with 57 points. Center Nick Bjugstad scored a goal in the third period against Tampa, his first since Nov. 21 against the New York Rangers. Florida plays its final four games before the All-Star break at BB&T Center.

Click to read more...

 

[McYoungGuns]

it wasn't up and I didn't think anyone was putting it up soooooooo


GO OIL GO!!!!!!

 

[Jet Walters]

There will be blood

 

[McYoungGuns]

There will be blood

we hate the panthers , they were mean to us and Hendo just pushed the kid very lightly , like a love tap he just threw himself into the boards ... good job ekblad, acting is ur real calling ...

 

[Captain Fantastic]

I can look forward to being blacked out. GCL blocks me from viewing the Panthers games which is a three hour drive away. While the Lightning games are not blacked out (they weren't last week) which is a 1.5 hour drive. Doesn't make sense. **** you NHL.

 

[McTrashBoat]

we hate the panthers , they were mean to us and Hendo just pushed the kid very lightly , like a love tap he just threw himself into the boards ... good job ekblad, acting is ur real calling ...

"Injured" for 4 games now, now that's dedication to a bit

 

[McGoMcD]

Meh, I don't expect this game to be that violent at all. Hendriks will have to fight, probably Thorton, but he won't have a problem with that.

The Panthers are in a big playoff race, they wont' do anything too stupid.

 

[BlackDogg]

Going to make Jagr look so bad, he'll drop out of the ASG faster than an AHLer who got traded.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Fully expecting a nasty, chippy game.

Hopefully we score first so the rest of the game isn't a trappy snoozefest.

 

[The Nuge]

This is why you have a guy like Gazdic taking up a roster spot. If stuff goes down and he doesn't do anything you may as well waive him.

Yep. That's why I've always maintained that his job as the 14th forward is safe. There's a reason he's riding shotgun with Hendricks. Hendricks already answered the bell, so he shouldn't need to fight. If Thornton wants to start something, Gazdic is there to step in, and put him in his place

 

[NedPlimpton]

Jagr will probably score 12 goals and I won't even be mad because he's such a beautiful, beautiful man.

 

[Spawn]

Yep. That's why I've always maintained that his job as the 14th forward is safe. There's a reason he's riding shotgun with Hendricks. Hendricks already answered the bell, so he shouldn't need to fight. If Thornton wants to start something, Gazdic is there to step in, and put him in his place

So we need to waste a roster spot on a player for a situation which at most happens once a year?

What a waste lol.

Gazdic will probably get a fight in tonight... but who cares. Wont stop some Panther player from taking a run at Hendricks or some other Oiler if they feel like it.

 

[Mr Positive]

So we need to waste a roster spot on a player for a situation which at most happens once a year?

What a waste lol.

Gazdic will probably get a fight in tonight... but who cares. Wont stop some Panther player from taking a run at Hendricks or some other Oiler if they feel like it.

but there is going to be some pre-arranged fight at some point so we might as well bring out our punching bag. They brought their's

 

[ChaoticOrange]

but there is going to be some pre-arranged fight at some point so we might as well bring out our punching bag. They brought their's

So Florida is making their team worse by dressing a 38 year old facepuncher that's played over 10 minutes 4 times this year, so a reasonable reaction is to dress our facepuncher that's played over 10 minutes once this year?

I mean yeah it's only taking Lander out of the equation but still.

 

[KlimasLoveChild]

This should be a physical test tonight, they aren't going to be too happy about last time. I'd like to think the Oilers rise to meet the challenge but this is what is likely to happen to our top six......hopefully Gazdic and Kassian can play the part of Harry.

 

[NewBoysClub97*]

If I was Hendricks I wouldn't fight anybody tonight. Let them take some dumb penalties.

Oh yeah, the refs are atrocious. What am I thinking that they will make some good calls.

 

[joestevens29]

So we need to waste a roster spot on a player for a situation which at most happens once a year?

What a waste lol.

Gazdic will probably get a fight in tonight... but who cares. Wont stop some Panther player from taking a run at Hendricks or some other Oiler if they feel like it.

Well in all honesty what else are you going to do with that spot? Anyone of actual value you'd want playing not rotting in the pressbox.

 

[joestevens29]

If I was Hendricks I wouldn't fight anybody tonight. Let them take some dumb penalties.

Oh yeah, the refs are atrocious. What am I thinking that they will make some good calls.

I really don't see Hendricks backing down. I sooner see Gazdic score a hatty tonight then Hendricks not fight if asked too.

 

[McDNicks17]

I'm expecting a super boring game where both teams have completely forgotten what happened last time they played.

 

[McPuritania]

I don't expect much of a physical affair tonight. Sadly that's how it is these days. After a chippy, nasty, game the next one is tame. Outside of a scrap between Thornton and Hendo, or Gaz, I don't see much going on.

That being said, with all the **** talk that's gone on leading up to this game, and my hope that we smash 'em up tonight, so I bestow upon this GDT, these GDT tunes.

 

[The Nuge]

So we need to waste a roster spot on a player for a situation which at most happens once a year?

What a waste lol.

Gazdic will probably get a fight in tonight... but who cares. Wont stop some Panther player from taking a run at Hendricks or some other Oiler if they feel like it.

Who would you rather be in that spot? Do you want to mess up Slepyshev's development by having him sit in the PB?

 

[belair]

Alvaro Montoya in net?

Hmmm...

 

[CornKicker]

So Florida is making their team worse by dressing a 38 year old facepuncher that's played over 10 minutes 4 times this year, so a reasonable reaction is to dress our facepuncher that's played over 10 minutes once this year?

I mean yeah it's only taking Lander out of the equation but still.

anytime lander gets sat im in.


gazdic does have more goals.

also hopefully the panthers pretend to be tough again and Nurse grabs bjustad and rips him up.

 

[1990*]

Alvaro Montoya in net?

Hmmm...

Montoya was in net before, was he not?

Having said that, with Ekblad out, this stands to be the one winnable game on this road trip. Tampa and especially Dallas have never been kind to us.

 

[t0nedeff]

Can we please try Yakupov on that top line at some point tonight. He has been the best forward the last two games and he had legit chemistry with Drai last year and Purcell hasn't done **** in a while so I definitely need to see them try to get Hall and Drai going and putting a hot player that has come back and just shot the puck from everywhere could just do it.