Game 66

Buffalo Sabres (30-27-8) vs Edmonton Oilers (28-30-7)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST | KeyBank Center | Buffalo, NY

TV: MSG

Radio: WGR 550

SB Nation Oilers blog: Copper and Blue

Know Your Opponent

Edmonton Oilers

Record: (28-30-7) | 63 PTS

Last 10: 4-4-2

Division Ranking: 5th in the Pacific Division

Conference Ranking: 11th in Western Conference

PP: 12th (21.7%)

PK: 29th (75.4%)

What to Watch

1. Familiar path’s cross

The Sabres and Oilers are pretty much mirror images of each other in their respective conferences. Both teams drafted star players in 2015, but haven’t been able to build enough around them.

Four years later they’re both on pace to miss the playoffs be a considerable margin.

2. Top line battle

Both the teams live and die off of the success of their top lines. We’ll see if the Sabres big three can outperform Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl tonight.

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Jeff Skinner – Jack Eichel – Sam Reinhart

Conor Sheary – Evan Rodrigues – Kyle Okposo

Scott Wilson – Casey Mittelstadt – Jason Pominville

Zemgus Girgensons – Johan Larsson – Tage Thompson

Defense

Marco Scandella – Rasmus Ristolainen

Rasmus Dahlin – Zach Bogosian

Matt Hunwick – Brandon Montour

Starting Goaltender: Linus Ullmark

Edmonton Oilers

Forwards

Leon Draisaitl – Connor McDavid – Zack Kassian

Milan Lucic – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Alex Chiasson

Tobias Rieder – Colby Cave – Josh Currie

Sam Gagner – Kyle Brodziak – Ty Rattie

Defense

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Darnell Nurse – Kris Russell

Matt Benning – Andrej Sekera

Starting Goaltender: Mikko Koskinen (unconfirmed)