vs 
Game Time: 6:30PM Central
TV/Radio: WGN Ch. 9, WGN-AM 720
North Dallas 53rd Parallel: Oilers Nation, Copper & Blue
So it seems there was a bit of a miscommunication with who had the preview today. With that said, here’s a half-assed look at what’s transpiring in an hour or so.
The Oilers are bordering on hilariously bad. It’s pretty amazing that they haven’t managed even a spurt of metric-defying productivity the way in which the Avalanche have, though the problem likely lies in net, where the two teams differ. The Oilers don’t have anyone performing as well as J.S. Giguere or innocent-until-proven-guilty-my-fucking-left-nut Semyon Varlamov, be it Devan Dubnyk or Jason Labarbera, who goes tonight since Dubnyk went yesterday in Philly. The Oilers hope that Ilya “Humongous Big” Bryzgalov may be the answer, but everyone knows he won’t be.
The Oilers are disinterested defensively, but are one of the only teams that can get into a track meet with the Hawks, and they’ve put that on full display the past couple years. Even a modicum of defensive give-a-shit from the opposition tends to squelch the Oilers attack, considering they’re getting a sub-.900 save percentage any way they slice it.
As for our Men of Four Feathers, it looks like Crawford is back in again tonight after having to work relatively hard last night because Joel Quenneville doesn’t trust Nikolai Khabibulin as far as Nik walk in a straight line during a field sobriety test. Corey Crawford’s workload is going to be a problem, and soon. It also looks like Sheldon Brookbank is playing again, but who’s to say where, as Q is apparently having fun playing mind games with everyone for no reason in November, particularly Jeremy Morin, who will at least take the warm up.
There will be a ton of space to be found tonight, but the Hawks will need to watch themselves from over pursuing a talented Oilers forward corps, as getting into a shootout is really their only chance. Let’s go Hawks.
