The Edmonton Oilers return to Rexall tonight to face David Perron’s old squad, the St. Louis Blues, in what will be the first of three meetings between the teams.

The Trade

Craig MacTavish hasn’t had a perfect start to his tenure as general manager, but he’s done some nice things and been willing to make improvements when opportunity has come along. One of those opportunities was Perron, who became available as the Blues needed to cut salary to re-sign players like Alex Pietrangelo.

Thus far, the deal’s been awfully lopsided:

David Perron (Edmonton): 33GP, 14G-13A-27PTS.

Magnus Paajarvi (St. Louis): 15GP, 2G-0A-2PTS.

Second round pick in 2014 (St. Louis): Shaping up to be in the 30-35 range.

Once Paajarvi finds his legs and if that second round pick pans out this should get a little better for St. Louis, but it’s a move that made Edmonton a better team right now, and that’s important. If MacTavish can find three or four more of these the Oilers will be in great shape.

The Opposition

Edmonton hasn’t played the Blues so far this year, but the Blues are a good team and Edmonton has trouble with good teams. Many will focus on them being big and strong and tough but the fact that they’re in playoff position right now is what makes them scary. Take a look at the Oilers’ record this season against teams currently sitting in the top-eight in either conference:

Team inside the top eight: 2-17-2

Team outside the top eight: 9-6-1

Edmonton’s been pretty good against bad teams, but has been getting hammered by the good ones (an 8-2 win over Colorado notwithstanding).

The Lineup

Top #Oilers line (4-93-14) the same but other three are 94-27-57, 20-89-64 and 6-51-83. On defence, it's 21-19, 77-2 and 15-44.

Some interesting items there. With all of 12 healthy forwards, Dalls Eakins hasn’t got much in the way of choices, so he’s put together a power-vs.-power line, a tough minutes line and done what he can with the rest. With Luke Gazdic on the wing it’s a good bet that Sam Gagner and Nail Yakupov are the “fourth” line and will be spotted against the weakest available opposition; maybe it will help. The other line is super interesting, because Lander has struggled so far and finally gets a skilled guy (and a guy a lot like his AHL sidekick Linus Omark) on his wing. Jesse Joensuu isn’t exactly a prize as the other winger, but he’s comparable to one guy Lander’s been playing with and better than the other.

On defence it’s just nice to see Philip Larsen, the team’s seventh-best defenceman, taking a seat.

Predictions

Game day prediction: A 1-0 St. Louis Blues victory

Obvious game day prediction: Dallas Eakins gets many opportunities to work on his facial expressions. They range from incredulous (really, that's a penalty now?) to disgusted (the power play bobbles the puck at the blueline because of course it does) to resigned (well, they were going to score eventually) to a clear desire that he had stayed in the AHL.

Not-so-obvious gameday prediction: While this will be a one-sided and boring game, it won't be the most boring game of the season. That's coming in March when Edmonton next plays the Los Angeles Kings.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

This team had died and given up. Do Eakins a favour and let him go. Mercy firing. He has a ton of potential and is getting dragged through the krap here. Of the 7 years this is as low as it has ever gotten. How did it get so bad? What the heck happened?

This team had died and given up. Do Eakins a favour and let him go. Mercy firing. He has a ton of potential and is getting dragged through the krap here. Of the 7 years this is as low as it has ever gotten. How did it get so bad? What the heck happened?

One thing they did was get rid of all of their tough, hard nosed players that had bad advanced stats, Brown, Smid, and Fistric.

Gadzic has been a welcome addition, but he can't do it on his own and his a rookie himself.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. I need a break from this Oilers misery. Read you after boxing day. Maybe I'll get a deal on a new flat screen where I can watch in smooth detail how the Oilers get pummeled night in and night out.

Out of country for holidays so glad I didn't record the misery. What a joke of a franchise

Everyone here urges a boycott of oiler games-don't forget to boycott rexall drugs-get your painkillers( oiler fans need them) at Safeway, IDA, Superstore- anywhere but Rexall-,hurt Katz where it hurts since fan outrage means squat to him as long as he keeps selling his drugs! F off Lowe!

I think its time for Fan Protests. It's the only way this management will finally get the message. I just don't see people not going to games as a sign of protest. I think we need to embarrass the Oiler management.

1. Paper bags on heads
2. Oiler jerseys turned inside out
3. Maybe somebody down in the golds should take a white Oiler jersey and pull a Rodger Neilson or something

I don't know, but this fanbase has to do something to get the attention of Oiler management and get the message out that we are tired of being crapped on.

I am a Kansas City Chief fan and last year I donated a fair amount of money to help fly a plane over the stadium demanding change and that the GM be fired. He was. They came in and cleaned house. New GM, New Coaches, New Co-ordinators everybody. Not a shuffling of the deck chairs like we get here in ol Edmo.

I think something similar has to happen here, except K Lowe should be the target.

8 years of Season tickets and I have probably watched a handful of somewhat meaningful games. I am disgusted with this Oiler management. Trash me all you want, I don't care. I guess I am probably just dreaming if I expect anything to change. Rant OVER, for now.

The oilers management has obviously throwing in the towel to this season. Don't be stupid and fix this mess. Let's suck again next year and draft Mcdavid. That's managements Christmas present to the fans

The gesture of throwing oil jerseys onto the ice seems good but what is being accomplished? Katz would collect them, stay up all night making his brats mend any holes in them and then try to sell them as game worn jerseys.

I have no idea what needs to be done at the senior levels, truly. I don't know if Lowe does anything anymore. I don't know about getting rid of MacTavish (tough to trade when you only have 3 or 4 guys anyone would want). Eakins....ANOTHER coach down the crapper?

What I do know is this...if Rexall Pharmacies continually got prescriptions wrong, had their stores falling apart, staff sleeping at the till, I'm pretty sure Batman would do something about it....

Six Rings use to post on this website under the name Jasmin.........Jasmin where are you? You alter ego is looking for you.

This team has been instructed to play bad for Ekblad........I have to believe this as there is no logical explanation for just how bad we can play. The whole hockey world knows why we can win ( too small, too many of the same players, not tough enough) except Six Rings and Mac T.

1. Yak needs to be sent to OKC. He is adding nothing to the team and makes the mantra of accountability a farce. I hope the Oil management (and I use the term loosely)are not influenced by Larianov's whining from last month. If Yak pouts about the demotion and bolts to the KHL, better to get rid of the cancer now than let it continue to fester.

2. I also suggest that Yak will want a 6 millionish contract similar to RHH to be offered next year. The Oil have set a precedent with No.1s when they gave RNH the money for what was it, 4 goals last year.

3. When the HNIC panel was filling time waiting for Hall to take the fall for the team on After Hours, they got into a heated debate about whether the Oil should de something now or "be patient". The exchange became quite heated. Freideman was up his you know what
when he stated the Oils shouldn't trade any of their young talent because they "might be great somewhere else". This topic gets kicked around all the time on this site. Oil cannot be afraid to trade any asset they have, they cannot be paralyzed by fear of what might be.

4. I wonder if the Oil made a mistake when they decided to keep Gagner in stead of Cogs. The Ducks have done a great job with Cogs, giving him a defined role he can thrive on. Oil never really knew what to do with Cogs. They did a good job finding out what his deficiencies were, but didn't seem to understand his strengths.

Cogs needed a new environment. Lots of guys need new environments after being in this poison

We all love hockey so you can't be blamed for wanting to see it. just don't buy anything while your there. Sneak in water. Give those Pri*&s as little of you money as possible. Unfair that they can hold us hostage because we love the game

So since this gets trashed we should throw more money at this team as fans? Show our displeasure by feeding the ineptitude?