Saturday Night Hockey Picks - Montreal Canadians at Edmonton Oilers

Montreal Canadians at Edmonton Oilers

Saturday, October 10 – Rexall Centre, Edmonton 

The Montreal Canadians have been a bit of a surprise. They were chided in the offseason for not getting any size up front, but the pickups of Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri and Scott Gomez are proving to be smart additions. Despite getting hammered 7-1 to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, the Habs lead the Northeast division with a 2-2-0 record.

There seem to be some problems in Oil Country. Edmonton lost their first game in a heartbreaker and needed a shootout to beat the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. Their special teams are a mess and their young guns are failing to produce early. Add in the blown lead to Calgary on Thursday in the dying seconds of the third period and you have a team searching for answers. New Head Coach Pat Quinn has his hands full with this one.  

What The Canadians Have To Do To Win:

The Habs are hoping that the loss to Vancouver was an aberration, not a sign of things to come. Before that game the team had been getting strong play from goalie Carey Price. The Canadians game lives and breathes by the play of their goaltender, so if they want to get back on their winning ways Price has to be able to rebound after a tough outing.  

The Habs power play needs to improve. They have converted only 3-of-14 opportunities with the man advantage, putting them 20th in the league in that category. They are even worse on the penalty kill, sitting 27th in the league, allowing seven goals in 16 attempts. New pickup Hal Gill was supposed to help on the PK, but has so far proven to be nothing but a very large pylon when the Habs are down a man.  

What The Oilers Have To Do To Win:

As bad as Montreal is on the penalty kill, Edmonton is worse. They rank 29th in the league when down a man, not a number worthy of a playoff team. However it is still early and that number can quickly be changed around.  

The Oilers young guns need to start producing. Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano and Patrick O’Sullivan are all expected to start putting up big numbers, but have only five points between the three of them. Gagner has two goals, the only goals between the three. Quinn is known to be less than patient with young people, so the three better get on track soon before they start to see their minutes get cut.

Outlook & Pick 

The game is going to come down who can take advantage of each other’s penalty kill. The Oilers have the advantage of playing a team who just lost 7-1. The Habs are hoping that Carey Price will be able to bounce back, but judging by his performance last year that is far from a guarantee. However, the Habs offense has been consistently better than the Oilers, and the team seems to really be responding to Jacques Martin’s new system of play.  

Pick: Montreal Canadians