Red Wings vs. Oilers Game Day Preview

The hope and excitement of a new season was strong in Edmonton. A new-look team stocked with young talent and worlds of promise sparked wild wonderment of the possibilities that lie ahead. But one month later, it's becoming quickly apparent that the path back to the Stanley Cup could be a little longer than initially hoped.

The cellar-dweller of the 2009/10 NHL season Oilers kicked off the '11 campaign in the right fashion with two solid wins, including a 4-0 drubbing of the old enemy, Calgary in front of rapturous fans. The fortunes since then however, have turned quickly -- managing only 2 more wins from the next 11 games of the season for a record of 4-7-2. Interestingly, both of those wins were in Chicago.

Edmonton meets Detroit at the mid-point of their 5-game tour of the East, beating the defending-Champ Blackhawks but falling 7-1 to Carolina two nights later.

The Red Wings season at this point has been almost the inverse of Edmonton's, sitting 4th in the West with a 9-3-1 record. Despite this pleasing start, the Winged Wheel has been far from dominant, narrowly dodging defeat a few times including their 3-2 overtime victory over the Coyotes three nights ago.

Nearing optimum health for the first time in the season, Detroit enjoyed once again having the presence of Brian Rafalski on the blueline. The only players remaining on IR for the Wings are the back-up goalie, Chris Osgood and Kris Draper, who would more or less be considered a depth player at this stage.

For the Red Wings, a return to form for the second line is eagerly awaited. Todd Bertuzzi, Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula were setting the League on fire early, a huge part of Detroit's strong start. And while Detroit's form overall hasn't regressed too much, a return in the last 5 games of more than a goal and 3 assists from the trio, would go a lot further to helping pick up a W.

One of the keys to victory for Detroit will be defense. This young Oilers team will without doubt give the Red Wings chances. However, Nikolai Khabibulin won't make it easy to light the lamp, as demonstrated in their recent meeting in Edmonton. In the other end, this talented group of Oilers are sure to generate their share of scoring chances in Detroit's zone. Lidstrom and his blueline crew will be wise to watch some white sweaters closely and give them little space to display their skills. Those collective skills will however, be without captain Shawn Horcoff -- one of the Oil's offensive leaders in the young season.

As displayed in the stats below, all signs point to a Detroit win. Of course that means the Wings will probably lose or need a shootout to win. I guess we'll soon see.

A few updates:
Devan Dubnyk will start in net for the Oilers tonight, and the line-up has been shuffled a little in an effort to get Jiri Hudler on the scoresheet.