Chicago Blackhawks-Edmonton Oilers Live Streaming, Prediction & More

The Chicago Blackhawks are on the second half of a back-to-back and will host the Edmonton Oilers at the United Center

After the Chicago Blackhawks laid an egg against the St. Louis Blues last night, we’re all ready to get the taste of that defeat out of our mouths. And so we get a chance to right away, though not a particularly easy one, with the Edmonton Oilers hitting town tonight.

The Oilers won on opening night and haven’t been victorious since, starting 1-4-0. Don’t let their record fool you, though — this is still a Western Conference contender. It’s also a team with a lot of speed. We’ve seen how well the Blackhawks have handled that of late.

Blackhawks fans are getting a little squirmy despite the team’s 4-2-1 record, as Chicago has not looked all that great even in its recent wins. A victory against one of the conference’s top clubs (record aside) would set aside some worries for at least a short time.

Projected lineups

We won’t start with that of the Chicago Blackhawks, as it’s the second half of a back-to-back. Thus, there was no morning skate to draw potential lines and pairings from. However, it appears we’re going to see a Blackhawks regular-season debut tonight.

Courtesy NBC Sports Chicago’s Tracey Myers, all signs point to defenseman Jordan Oesterle finally drawing in after seven games. Why the Blackhawks have carried Oesterle on the roster this long only to just bring him in now is beyond me, but at least he’s finally getting a shot. Who it’s in place of, I’m not sure. The working theory on social media is Michal Kempny due to handedness.

More from Analysis

• Blackhawks: Three Noticeable Improvements in Comeback Win vs Blues
• Blackhawks: Key Takeaways from 3-2 win over the Blues
• Blackhawks: Grading Connor Murphy and a position comparison
• Blackhawks: Shuffling the lines to try and spark offense at 5 on 5
• These Lineup Changes could Solve the Blackhawks’ Scoring Problem

As the above tweet mentions, Tanner Kero is also returning to the lineup after an absence last night. The guess is he slots in for Tommy Wingels, but I could be wrong.

Anton Forsberg will get the start in net as well. Corey Crawford was very good in St. Louis last night despite the negative ledger, and now Forsberg gets his second start of the season. The other was against another speedy outfit in Toronto, and Forsberg had to do a lot of standing on his head there. At least tonight’s game will be at home.

Let’s turn to the Oilers side, courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Patrick Maroon–Connor McDavid–Kailer Yamamoto

Milan Lucic–Ryan Nugent-Hopkins–Ryan Strome

Jussi Jokinen–Brad Malone–Zack Kassian

Iiro Pakarinen–Mark Letestu–Anton Slepyshev

Oscar Klefbom–Adam Larsson

Kris Russell–Yohann Auvitu

Darnell Nurse–Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot–Laurent Brossoit

McDavid is obviously the main threat here, though it helps the Blackhawks that his usual partner in crime, Leon Draisaitl, appears to be out with an injury. Same goes for Drake Caggiula at forward and Andrej Sekera on defense.

Only McDavid has more than three points with six, but this is some false advertising. The Oilers have just three guys over 10 percent shooting early on (for reference, the Blackhawks have eight), and 14 (!) of their guys have a shooting percentage of zero (Blackhawks have nine).

More from Analysis

• Blackhawks: Three Noticeable Improvements in Comeback Win vs Blues
• Blackhawks: Key Takeaways from 3-2 win over the Blues
• Blackhawks: Grading Connor Murphy and a position comparison
• Blackhawks: Shuffling the lines to try and spark offense at 5 on 5
• These Lineup Changes could Solve the Blackhawks’ Scoring Problem

But even if the Oilers experience a course correction tonight, that won’t matter if Talbot isn’t better. He’s off to a brutal start, and his defense hasn’t been Blackhawks levels of bad, by any means. Talbot is seeing 25 shots per game and has a .880/3.96 statline. For reference, Crow is at .947/1.83 seeing 34 shots per game. Yeah.

Viewing information and prediction

Puck drop: 7:30 p.m. CST

TV: WGN

Radio: WGN 720-AM

TV stream: WGN-TV

Radio stream: WGN Radio Online

Prediction: I don’t like this matchup for Chicago. Even with the Oilers missing three key guys, they’re not coming off a game last night and they have an element the Blackhawks have struggled to contend against: speed.

The Blackhawks are going to have tired legs, and I’m not sure all the motivation in the world from getting waxed by the Blues can overcome that. Having last change will be nice, but Forsberg is going to need to be Crow-like to keep Chicago in it.

I don’t enjoy picking against the Blackhawks in these posts, but I’m going with a 4-2 Oilers win. I’ll say the Blackhawks get goals from Saad and DeBrincat.

Next: Blackhawks-Blues Features NHL, NBC Ignorance

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