The Oilers have had a disappointing first half to the season as they have fallen way short of preseason expectations as many had the young Oilers pegged to make the jump into a contender but with this game marking their midway point of the season and the team sitting two games under .500 they have to make changes and quick. Edmonton continues their road trip in Nashville a night after getting blanked in Detroit and with teams beginning to make a push towards securing their playoff spots the Oilers are getting left behind and could wind up drafting in the top five once again. However, if Edmonton is struggling right now than the Predators have hit the bottom as they’ve dropped their last three contests and have shown no signs of turning things around which could be the break the Oilers needed.

Nashville has built a reputation of being a very tough team to play against and over the last three or four years they have blossomed into a Western Conference power that prides itself on defensive hockey and sound goaltending. While the main structure of the Predators nucleus remains intact the main difference this season is that Nashville can’t seem to generate any offense at all and as such they find themselves dropping low scoring affairs and are on the outside looking in when it comes to the Western Conference postseason picture. This is a very tough game to call as both teams are playing very poorly at the moment and while my main inclination is to side with the home team to rebound the value lies with the Oilers who despite not playing their best have the ability to put up a fury of goals in an instant. With Pekka Rinne playing mediocre at best of late and Edmonton getting blanked last night I think they’ll be eager to generate some offense and that is a bad sign for the Predators.