NHL Grind Down: Sunday, January 10th - Page Two
Florida Panthers at Edmonton Oilers – 09:30 PM EST
| Florida Panthers | Edmonton Oilers | ||||||||
 | Roberto Luongo |  | Ben Scrivens | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 25-12-4 | 17-22-3 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.66 | 2.12 | 16.80% | 82.00% | Team Stats | 2.40 | 2.98 | 16.70% | 80.50% |
Okay, so how long can the Florida Panthers keep this up? Some thought that the last game against Ottawa would be the trap game so you can imagine what those same people are saying tonight as the Panthers roll into Edmonton. The top line of Jaromir Jagr, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau have faced stronger defensive teams in this 11 game stretch so it’s not out of the question that they may have a hand in a few goals tonight. In the last ten games Huberdeau has 11 points, Barkov has ten and Jagr has nine making this a very productive line during their current winning streak. After that the Panthers are tough to figure. By being on the road you can look to the second line of Vincent Trochek, Reilly Smith and Jussi Jokinen as your GPP play tonight. Aaron Ekblad and Dmitry Kulikov both get the top power play minutes and both have three points in their last six games.
The more that things change, the more they stay the same. Edmonton comes into this one as being the third worst team in the league with just 37 points. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres have less points in the standings than they do and even then 34 points are not that far off. Everything stacks up against the Oilers tonight all the way down to the 18 goals they have scored over the last 11 games. The question is do we trust the top line of Taylor Hall, Teddy Purcell and Leon Draisaitl to break out of their two goals in the last seven game slump or do we put our faith in the second line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Benoit Pouliot who have been responsible for seven goals over that same time frame. After a hot start the young Draisaitl may be dragging the more seasoned Hall down a bit so going with the hot line may be the play here. It looks like the Brad Hunt experiment has hit yet another rough spot which makes defenseman Andrej Sekera your defensive play if you are stacking Oilers.
Elite Plays
FLA: Aleksander Barkov
EDM: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Secondary Plays
FAL: Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov
EDM: Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot, Andrej Sekera