You guys, I don’t know if I can even write this. I feel bad for crapping on the Oilers because I have lots of feels and love for their very own Captain Planet, Andrew Ference and their mental health champion, Ben Scrivens. Alas, facts are facts and the Oilers are straight up horribad mcterribful. Or maybe it’s sadful von embarrassble? Regardless, the Oilers are not playing good hockey right now and whether that stems from the roster or the apparent whining and feeling sorry for themselves when things go squirrelly, it’s not a good situation in Edmonton right now.
Which is why the game should be decent for Jets fans to watch! (Catch that segue? I am all kinds of clever today, folks.)
The game can be seen on Sportsnet1 or heard on TSN 1290.
Lineups
Winnipeg Jets
Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler
Evander Kane – Mathieu Perreault – Dustin Byfuglien
Adam Lowry – Mark Scheifele – Michael Frolik
Chris Thorburn – Jim Slater – Anthony Peluso
Injured: Tobias Enstrom
Edmonton Oilers
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Tyler Pitlick
Nail Yakupov – Leon Draisaitl – Jordan Eberle
David Perron – Boyd Gordon – Teddy Purcell
Luke Gazdic – Mark Arcobello – Steve Pinizzotto
Andrew Ference – Justin Schultz
Nikita Nikitin – Mark Fayne
Oscar Klefbom – Jeff Petry
Ben Scrivens
Viktor Fasth
Injured: Benoit Pouliot
Players to Watch
I could be all pragmatic here and pick someone other than Evander Kane, but it's him honestly. He's all over the media and I'm hoping he plays incredibly wonderriffic awesomesauce tonight to maybe help people realize that the team needs him regardless of if he's scoring or not. I have no problem with Evander being himself and sharing what he wants to on social media as long as it's not a video of him kicking puppies or something.
You just keep being you, Evander.
On the other side of the ice it's a volatile mix. After the Oilers last game (another loss, oops) Oilers captain Andrew Ference had this to say about his team mates (per Shane Jonas, The Canadian Press):
"To come here and have to try to convince guys that they should be happy to play in the NHL and be excited and have some pride and not mope around. It’s a joke. It shouldn’t happen"
and
"It’s not a chore to come here and play professional hockey."
Yeah, ouch. I don't know. Watch them all implode out there.
