Music: {allcanada} OILERS (0-1-0) at CANUCKS (1-0-0)

Friday, October 10, 2014

{allcanada} OILERS (0-1-0) at CANUCKS (1-0-0)

Work From Home / Sons of Anarchy / How I Met Your Mother

OILERS (0-1-0) at CANUCKS (1-0-0)

TV: CBC, TVA2

Saturday, October 11, 2014

10:00 PM ET

Season series: The Vancouver Canucks will try to continue their recent dominance of the Edmonton Oilers, who are 3-10-1 at Rogers Arena during the past five seasons, including a 6-2 loss in the Canucks' 2013-14 home opener. Edmonton won the final two games last season after losing the first three by a combined score of 12-3. Ben Scrivens was in goal for both wins after coming to the Oilers in a trade, but Viktor Fasth is expected to start Saturday.

Oilers team scope: The last thing the Oilers can afford is a slow start and the constant reminders about last season's 4-15-2 stumble out of the gate that will come with it. After opening with a 5-2 loss against the Calgary Flames on home ice Thursday, coach Dallas Eakins focused on positives and tried to relax his young team. "It was just to breathe," Eakins said of his message after the loss. "This is going to take some time. I don't know how much time but I am worried about our team's mindset. I don't want last year and all the years before to turn this into a giant snowball rolling." Eakins conceded some of the familiar glaring defensive mistakes that led to Calgary goals, but insisted there were also several positives to draw on. "I didn't want them in there with their heads down, feeling terrible," he said.

Canucks team scope: After spending the summer trying to improve their forwards, the Canucks are facing early questions about a lack of quality depth on defense. Christopher Tanev, who had two assists on the top pairing with Alexander Edler in a season-opening 4-2 win against Calgary, missed practice Thursday and Friday with an undisclosed injury. "We're hopeful he'll play, but that will be decided [Saturday]," coach Willie Desjardins said Friday, sounding a lot like he did when talking about defenseman Kevin Bieksa on Wednesday. Bieksa did play in the opener despite missing the end of the preseason but his potential absence illustrated potential problems with a depth chart that falls off dramatically beyond seventh defenseman Yannick Weber and rookie Frank Corrado, who was injured in preseason and was sent to the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League on Friday.

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