Game Day: Oilers vs Bruins **UPDATE**

 

Edmonton (9-3-2) vs Boston (6-7-0)


Time:      5:00pm
Where:   TD Garden Arena
Watch:    Sportsnet One
Listen:    630 Ched

Projected Line Combinations

Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle

Smyth - Horcoff - Hemsky

Jones - Belanger - Gagner

Petrell - Lander - Eager

No word as of yet, if they'll be any lineup changes but I can't see it. While Magnus Paajarvi's speed would be a nice edition to the lineup, it would be at the expense of either Ben Eager or Lennart Petrell and I can't see the Oilers taking a bigger body out of the lineup, against a very physical Boston team. The top three lines remained the same at practice on Wednesday but the fourth line saw the three wingers and tough guy Darcy Hordichuk, rotating in and out with Lander being the constant in the middle.

This will be the first battle in Boston between Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin and look for Hall to make a point of putting on a show in Beantown. Hopefully he doesn't try and do too much on his own, which has been the case of late. I am guessing he would like nothing more, then to have a statement game in Seguin's home rink.

    


Defence Pairings
 
Gilbert - Smid
Potter - Peckham
Barker - Petry

This will be the final game of Andy Sutton's five game suspension so look for Colten Teubert to be sent back to Oklahoma City after tonight's game. All three pairings were solid, for the most part, against Montreal on Monday night and they can expect a heavy hitting affair from the Bruins tonight.

**UPDATE**

The Oilers re-claimed Taylor Chorney off waivers from the St.Louis Blues and have assigned him to Oklahoma City. Tough break for Chorney but he wasn't playing in St.Louis. He will play major minutes on the farm and will be a nice addition to the Barons defence. With Chorney and Teubert both heading to OKC, the clubs thin backend all of a sudden looks a lot better.

**UPDATE** 

Netminder

**UPDATE**

Change of plans as it looks as though Devan Dubnyk will get the nod tonight against the Bruins. They must want to save Khabibulin for the Western Conference team and the possibility of a four point game. Dubnyk needs to have his "A" game tonight, if he wants to keep a spot in the rotation.

**UPDATE**

Nikolai Khabibulin will once again get the call in goal for Edmonton, after stealing two points for his club against the Canadiens on Monday night. The Oiler netminder can expect a full out attack from the Bruins and he will need to be as good as he was in Montreal, for Edmonton to continue their winning ways. Look for Devan Dubnyk to get the call on Friday night against Detroit, with Khabby going back in between the pipes against his former mates in Chicago.



 Boston Notes 

• Tyler Seguin has started to take his game to the next level, after playing a minor role with the Bruins during the 2010-2011 season. So far during the 2011-2012 campaign, Seguin leads the team with 8 goals and 15 points. The youngster has been consistent all year long and is coming off a hat trick performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday night, on Hockey Night In Canada. 

• Goaltender Tim Thomas doesn't have the greatest win/loss record this season, at 5-4-0 but his overall stats are solid again. In ten games the veteran netminder has a stingy 2.00 GAA and a solid .930 SV%, while not as good as Khabibulin's number, they are not that far off.

• Blueliner Zdeno Chara just continues plugging along doing what he does, night in and night out. The hulking defenceman already has ten points on the season but continues playing his hard nosed style. Chara has delivered 32 hits on the season and accumulated thirty-one minutes in penalties. The mean streak that seemed to be missing at times in the towering defenceman's game last season, has returned with a vengeance.