Oilers hope to end slide against rival Flames

The Edmonton Oilers are well aware of the success the Calgary Flames have had recently in the Battle of Alberta.

The Flames have won both games this season and haven’t dropped a contest to the Oilers since the opening night of the 2009-10 season.

Oilers coach Tom Renney hopes to remedy that tonight in Calgary.

“It seems every time we play these guys, with all due respect to the Flames, we have a tendency to beat ourselves,” Renney said. “If we eliminate that part of the process, I think we’ve got a shot of beating them tonight.”

The Oilers may do that with a more physical approach.

Darcy Hordichuk could draw back into the lineup for tonight’s Battle of Alberta in the place of finesse forward Magnus Paajarvi.

“I am going to make a game time decision on that,” Oilers coach Tom Renney said. “[Paajarvi] skated but he’ll also take the warm-up here and I’ll make a game-time decision on what I want to do there.”

The Oilers are coming off a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche last night. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulan earned the win and could be in line for back-to-back starts 24 hours apart.

“Let’s wait on that one,” Renney said on his goaltending situation.

OILERS

Sam Gagner – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle
Ryan Smyth – Shawn Horcoff – Ales Hemsky
Ben Eager – Eric Belanger – Ryan Jones
Darcy Hordichuk – Anton Lander – Lenart Petrell

Ladislav Smid – Tom Gilbert
Ryan Whitney – Jeff Petry
Theo Peckham – Colten Teubert

Nikolai Khabibulan
Devan Dybnyk

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