The Edmonton Oilers will play host to the St. Louis Blues tonight at Rexall Place. The Oilers are coming off an impressive yet rare win in Colorado, which saw the team post 5 goals at the Pepsi Centre.
The latest news coming from the Oilers camp is Nikolai Khabibulin who will sit out tonight's game with an eye injury. According to Tom Renney, the Oilers have called up Martin Gerber to play the back-up role behind Dubnyk.
"Nik had some type of an ice chip or something hit his eye," head coach Tom Renney explained. "He felt fine with it and played, obviously, and then having it looked at by an opthamologist, suggested that we should have it looked at again when we got home just to make sure everything was kosher. They found that maybe he should rest for a few days because there was a little bit of bleeding in the eye."
Dubnyk will look for his 3rd straight win after making 38 saves vs. the Avs a couple nights ago. It is speculated now that the 24 year-old will see more starts in the near future now that Khabibulin is on the shelf; and deservingly so. To put things into a broader perspective, the netminder has played a total of 28 games with 8 wins 7 losses and has save percentage of .914; on a team who sits in 30th spot.
While tonight's line up remains to be a mystery, Gilbert Brule could make his return to the line up. Though, Renney realizes that he has a lot of options at his disposal as to who he will dress.
"He's [Brule] got a great attitude. He's good, he works hard, he's kept his spirits about him which is not easy when you're not playing. We just can't wait much longer in fairness to him and us. We've got to get the kid going and we see this as the opportunity, so we'll make a game-time decision as to whether he goes tonight."
Last night the Blues lost to the Vancouver Canucks, which put them further back from play-off contention. They are currently 21st overall and sit 7 points back from the final play-off berth. In their last 10 games the club has earn 4 wins and 4 losses. Their current record clearly does not describe a team, who is hungry enough to make the post season. Centre, Andy MacDonald realizes the teams lack of effort, and hopes that the Blues can pick-it-up-a-notch or two down the stretch.
"We haven't been able to get that life, get that emotion and get that fire. Obviously that's not going to be acceptable if you want to get in the post-season."
*Hall been hot in his last 16 games. Currently the Rookie has 41 points and is now back in the Calder hunt with Canes' Jeff Skinner. Skinner is only 6 points ahead of Hall.
Oilers vs Blues 6:00 pacific time www.atdhe.me
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