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Ottawa finally start winning

The visiting Edmonton have had the worst start in the season, with seven losses in eight games, and a really poor performance. This is an opportunity for the strong Ottawa to earn points at home

After a six game road trip, Ottawa played their first home game this season and achieved their second consecutive win. They won over the struggling New Jersey Devils and made a statement they plan to earn points in all other home games to follow.
 
The final score suggests a convincing win, however the Devils out-shot the Senators by large (42-23), but their goalie Anderson was playing really good and saved a lot of shots. Ottawa went for 0 for 4 on power play, but on the other hand they allowed the Devils to convert only 1 of 7 power plays. We can draw a conclusion the defense led by the goalkeeper Anderson did an excellent job in this game. Goals were scored by Karlsson, Smith and first line Ryan, Spezza and Michalek.

- We were really happy with getting that last win at Phoenix (4-3 in overtime Tuesday) and we wanted to carry over some of that momentum into tonight. With the energy the building brought us with the opening ceremonies, et cetera, we built off of that and we were able to come out flying - goal keeper Anderson said.

There is still room for progress. They took a lot of penalties, but again, because the Devils aren't very good, the Senators were able to kill off the infractions. However, Edmonton are completely different than Devils this season, and regardless of their poor streak they are a threat to all teams. The second thing they need to improve is their power play, which is below all expectations.
 
Their roster is complete for the game and they need to use it and make up for all the defeats they suffered at the beginning of the season.
 
In the last round, Edmonton were defeated for the seventh time this season, fifth in a row. Their performance is still disastrous, although some improvements are present in their defense but it’s still not enough to win. All the praise on account of their immense talent and potential is useless. Their performance is the same as last season, really poor defense, with unreliable goalkeepers and the Oilers need to change things ASAP. 

In their last game against the Islanders they even took the lead (2-1) in the first period, with Hall scoring two times in eight seconds, which is pretty rare in hockey. However, at the beginning of the second period they received a short-handed goal, and later Tavares scored another one, which led to their defeat. They were unable to tie the score for the rest of the game, the offence was powerless and for now their future is not looking too bright.

They began to annoy everyone because it’s taking them forever to pay attention to details which might make their work easier. They took five penalties again, and in one of these situations they received the goal which tied the score and they immediately went off the rails. Penalty killing at only 69% is simply not good enough for the best league in the world, and although eight games is not enough to tell definitely, the Oilers do have a problem. What’s even worse, their loss to the Islanders could have been even heavier if Dubnyk wasn’t at his best. 

- This is where [Dubnyk] takes over and starts playing like we know he can. It would have been nice to get a win for him. A lot of guys were on their own page tonight. We can't do that and expect to win - said Oilers’ forward Tylor Hall.

There are no news with absences - Gagner, Joensuu, Maclntyre, Hamilton and Potter are still out, which of course additionally weakens the team. All of them except Gagner may be ready to play, but they  have been listed as such for a while. 

The odds are at least 0,30 higher then what I expected. Ottawa won the last two games, in the first home game this season, they beat the Devils 5-3. They played the previous matches well despite having lost. We can't say they deserved to lose, they were simply unlucky in some of them. They're doing great now, their scoring got better. Captain Spezza is playing at top level, and he's finally working well with Michalek and Ryan. Each of them scored in the previous match, and Spezza scored three time in the match before that one. Edmonton are a disaster. They can't beat anyone and their game is simply not good enough to stand up to the Senators. They are quite unpredictable, and if they open the match well, they can beat anyone. But that's pretty much the only argument for them in this match, and I expect Ottawa to win easily.