By Gene Principe,
SPORTSNET.CA
Fernando Pisani will be back in the Edmonton Oilers lineup. He hasn’t played since breaking his left ankle in a game against Detroit on Nov.17. Pisani missed 42 games because of the injury.
There may be more good injury news on the way for Edmonton. Dennis Grebeshkov is close to coming back. Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish ruled him out for tonight vs. CBJ but hinted that he could be ready to go Saturday against Minnesota. Grebeshkov suffered an ankle injury on Feb.11th and will miss a seventh game tonight.
Edmonton and Columbus will wrap up their season series this eveing. The Oilers have won 2 of the three games. They’ve outscored the BlueJackets 15-10 but have been heavily outshot by a 100-67 margin. Columbus is 7-18-6 all time against Edmonton and 3-10-2 at Rexall Place.
It’s never too late for Edmonton to get going at home. Despite the fact they have only won 14 of 29 home games. They are starting to play better at Rexall Place and are 2-0-1 in there previous three home games. Including tonight they have 12 games left at Rexall Place.
Watching Rick Nash will be imperative for the Oilers tonight. He is the BlueJackets leader in points, goals, assists, shorthanded goals and game winning goals. He also, in 22 games versus Edmonton, has scored 11 goals and added 9 assists.
Three games and no powerplay goals for Edmonton. Against Dallas, Calgary and Tampa Bay the Oilers have gone a combined 0 for 16. If they don’t score tonight with the man advantage against the Jackets they will tie a season high for consecutive games, four, without a pp goal.
It’s a milestone game for Ales Hemsky this evening as he will play his 400th NHL game. Hemsky was drafted 13th overall by Edmonton in 2001 and made his Oilers debut against Philadelphia on Oct.10, 2002. In his first 399 games Hemsky has 89 goals and 227 assists for 316 points.
Sheldon Souray is riding a five game scoring streak coming into tonight’s game. Souray has. 6 points in the five games and he is two games shy of tying his career best when he went 7 games with a point from Feb.14-Feb.26, 2007 when the blueliner was with Montreal.
Andrew Cogliano has a nose for the net when the game is on the line. Cogliano scored the game winning goal against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. It was his 4th game winning goal of the season which is tied for second on the team with Sheldon Souray and one back of team leader Dustin Penner. I’m fact each of Cogliano’s last three goals have been game winners.
CBJ head coach Ken Hitchcock will be after his 501st NHL win tonight. If he gets it against Edmonton it would move him past Toe Blake and into sole possession of 12th place all time for coaching victories. Hithcock won his 500th on Feb.19 in a 4-3 shootout win in Toronto. His first NHL win came January 22nd of 1996 when he was the bench boss for the Dallas Stars and they beat Vancouver 6-4.
