The Edmonton Oil Kings will have a new face in their lineup when they face the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday Night Hockey.
The Oil Kings added over-age forward Tyler Maxwell in a trade with the Everett Silvertips on Thursday. Maxwell played his entire career in Everett prior to requesting a trade two weeks ago. His addition will help a young team and bring a new dynamic to the Oil Kings' forward core.
"Tyler brings a legitimate goal scoring threat to our hockey club and brings a lot more speed," explained head coach Derek Laxdal. "That's one thing we were looking for is to build on a little bit of our foot-speed up front and try to bring a legitimate threat every game to our hockey club."
Catch the Oil Kings as they host the Tigers on Sportsnet ONE at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.
Maxwell's first game will come against Medicine Hat goalie Tyler Bunz, who was unable to play in Game 6 of the Subway Super Series last week. Bunz was struck in the head by a puck while on the bench for Game 5 of the series, but is no worse for wear after starting the last two games this week. He was announced as the starter against Edmonton by head coach Shaun Clouston on Thursday.
"He's been great for us all season," Clouston said. "He just gives us a chance every night."
Can the Oil Kings slow down Emerson Etem?
Few players started the season with such a hot streak as the product of Long Beach, Ca. Etem scored a goal in 16 of his first 17 games this season before opposing teams began figuring him out. He scored three goals in his last eight games, but still leads the Canadian Hockey League in goals scored with 26 so far this season.
"I think that teams are really focusing on him and being very aware and coming up with strategies to minimize him and his scoring chances," Clouston said. "He's got tremendous speed -- he could be the fastest guy in the league -- but he's got very high-end, top-end speed and he's able to kind of pick his spots and use that and he's challenging to defend."
Etem scored a hat trick the last time the Tigers were in Edmonton on Sept. 30, with his final two goals giving his team the winner and insurance goals in a 5-3 win. Laxdal plans on neutralizing Etem by making him play on the defensive side of the puck and through physical play, hoping Etem won't be able to burn his team in the process.
"It's just simple hockey," he said. "You want to keep pucks in deep. You don't want to make any critical errors in the neutral zone.
"He's got great straight-away speed. He'll beat you to a loose puck and he's not scared to go to the net. He'll drive hard to the net. He's a big, strong kid."
How much will Edmonton's defensive core play a factor?
The Oil Kings' defence is among the best in all of junior hockey when healthy. Injuries on the back end derailed some of their momentum, but they received some good news with the return of Griffin Reinhart on Wednesday. Team captain Mark Pysyk is listed as day-to-day and could be a game-time decision.
"It's a good, calming effect on our back-end," Laxdal said of Reinhart's return. "He was really good (on Wednesday)."
Edmonton's 68 goals allowed in 24 games are third-lowest in the Eastern Conference. Laxdal preaches the team's overall play in addition to the ascension of goaltender Laurent Brossoit.
"We're pretty deep on the back end," Laxdal said. "We've got eight defencemen that can play night in, night out. We feel we're only going to get stronger as the year goes on."
How will the Tigers' power-play fare against the Oil Kings' penalty kill?
Medicine Hat's power-play is among the league leaders with a 23.3 per cent rate of efficiency while Edmonton's penalty kill is operating at 81.5 per cent. Both are the fifth-best in each category.
Clouston split up Etem and sophomore forward Hunter Shinkaruk at even strength, but reunites them on the power-play.
"I think they're still very dangerous in those situations," Clouston said. "You have to be willing to make adjustments. If you work hard and if you work as a group of five, are willing to make some adjustments then I think that's been some of the reasons for our success on the power-play."
One of the reasons the Tigers' man advantage works so well is because it gets so many opportunities. The Tigers are strong in drawing penalties, having the second-most chances up a man so far this season. Although they allowed just one goal down on the penalty kill last meeting, the Oil Kings took 10 consecutive penalties to close out the game, a 4-3 shootout loss on Oct. 1 after leading 3-0.
"The games that we've lost, we've taken eight or nine penalties," Laxdal said. "We got into penalty trouble and they scored on the power-play. We have to make sure we play a real smart game and stay out of the box."
Can the Oil Kings take advantage of the Tigers' penalty kill?
Special teams have been vital to the resurgence of the Oil Kings and their power-play isn't far behind Medicine Hat's. The advantage is that the Tigers are not a strong team while down a man, killing off just 76.3 per cent of their penalties, an area that favours the home team on Friday.
"With Maxwell coming in it will only help us," Laxdal said. "We have to make sure when we get a power-play we take advantage of it."
The Tigers are still trying to find a combination that will work after the graduations to key penalty killers Wacey Hamilton, Linden Vey, Thomas Carr and Jace Coyle.
"It's been a work-in-progress," Clouston said. "We've had stretches where we've felt good about our penalty kill and then we've had stretches where it's been a struggle. There's a real fine line on the (penalty) kill."
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