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Sunday, 13 March 2011 09:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Oilers.

When and where: 3 p.m. Consol Energy Center.

TV: FSN Pittsburgh, SportsNet.

Record: 23-37-9, 55 points. The Oilers are in last place in the Western Conference and Northwest Division

Leading Scorer: Taylor Hall, 42 points (22 goals, 20 assists).

Last Game: 2-1 overtime road loss to the Red Wings, Friday. Devan Dubnyk made 42 saves for the Oilers.

Last Game against the Penguins: 3-2 home loss, Jan. 14, 2010. Jordan Staal had three assists for the Penguins.

Oilers Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Shawn Horcoff (above). He has five goals in six career games against the Oilers.

Ex-Penguins on the Oilers: Ryan Whitney, D; Kelly Buchberger, assistant coach.

Ex-Oilers on the Penguins: Mike Comrie, C; Todd Reirden, assistant coach.

Useless Oilers Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: As a member of the Oilers, former Penguin Paul Coffey set the NHL record for goals by a defenseman in playoff season with 12 in 1985.

Best Oilers Video We Could Find: If you know EN, you know we love using this video of the pregame ceremonies of Game 3 in the 2006 Stanley Cup final between the Hurricnes and Oilers:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (30-17-5, 2.37 GAA, .917 SV%) and Nikolai Khabibulin (10-27-2, 3.37 GAA, .892 SV%).

Injuries: For the Penguins, forwards Arron Asham (concussion), Mike Comrie (hip), Sidney Crosby (concussion), Nick Johnson (concussion), Evgeni Malkin (knee), Eric Tangradi (concussion) and defenseman Brooks Orpik (finger) are on injured reserve.  For the Oilers, defenseman Theo Peckham (head) is day today. Forwards Sam Gagner (hand), Taylor Hall (ankle) and Ales Hemsky (shoulder) are out. Defenseman Taylor Chorney (knee) and Ryan Whitney (ankle) are on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins's primary lines and defensive pairings against the Canadiens yesterday were:

James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Dustin Jeffrey - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy - Deryk Engelland

-The Oilers primary primary lines and defensive pairings against the Red Wings Friday were:

Magnus Paajarvi - Shawn Horcoff - Jordan Eberle
Alexandre Giroux - Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Jones
Linus Omark - Gilbert Brule - Liam Reddox
Jean-Francois Jacques - Colin Fraser - Steve MacIntyre

Ladislav Smid - Tom Gilbert
Jason Strudwick - Kurtis Foster
Jim Vandermeer - Jeff Petry

Notes:

-Cooke has 299 career points.

-Kovalev has 348 career points with the Penguins.

-Letang has 96 career assists.

-The Oilers have only won one game in Pittsburgh in the past 18 years.

-The last time the Oilers won in Pittsburgh (a 3-1 victory, Jan. 10, 2006) this happened:

-Our live blog begins at approximately 2 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Comments (1)

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written by Pendawg, March 13, 2011 - 11:10 AM

My life has turned into a scene from Groundhog Day. Every morning, I wake up, check the site for news on Sidney's return, find nothing, and go on about my business a little more down than the previous day. Watching hockey and following the Pens was a whole lot more fun with 87 on the ice.

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