The Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues made coaching changes

The Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues made coaching changes roughly 12 hours apart last month.Only one team has responded well to a new voice.The Oilers go for their seventh straight home win when they meet the Blues on Tuesday night.Article continues below ...Edmonton dismissed Todd McLellan on Nov. 20 Jason Pominville Jersey Kids , less than a day after St. Louis did likewise with Mike Yeo. With Ken Hitchcock behind the bench, the Oilers have gone 9-3-2 and are unbeaten at Rogers Place.Perhaps the biggest reason for the that home success is in net. Mikko Koskinen, who started the season backing up Cam Talbot, is 7-0-0 with three shutouts and has turned away 223 of 230 shots for a .970 save percentage at home.But the 30-year-old Finn lost for the third time in his last four road starts following a 4-2 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. The Edmonton matched a season high by allowing three power-play goals.“It felt like we’ve been trending up in that direction for a while and we had a bit of a setback tonight, but we’ll get back on it,” center Kyle Brodziak said.The Oilers are 10-4-1 in northern Alberta going into a five-game homestand that includes a tough matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning before the league’s Christmas break.“Go home, get a little confidence and play a good game,” defenseman Matt Benning said Sunday about facing the Blues.After St. Louis (12-15-4) was blanked for the third time in a four-game stretch last month, Craig Berube was tapped to replace Yeo Womens Johan Larsson Jersey , but the team continues to sputter. The Blues gave up four first-period goals in a 7-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday.“We were terrible in the first period. Every player. Terrible. … Couldn’t make a play. Couldn’t check. No composure. No team play,” Berube said after the team dropped to 5-6-1 under his leadership.The Blues are 13th in the Western Conference as they start a three-game Western Canadian trip prior to the league break. St. Louis has been outscored 16-9 in five road games under Berube, but he’s expecting more on both ends of the ice regardless of where the team is playing.“Guys got to look in the mirror. It’s up to each individual to prepare himself to play the game the proper way. You’re in the NHL. That’s your job,” he said.Tuesday’s contest also marks the return of Blues winger Pat Maroon to Edmonton, where he enjoyed his greatest success. In 2016-17, Maroon collected a career-high 27 goals, including five game-winners.After posting career bests in assists (26) and points (43) with the Oilers and New Jersey Devils last season, Maroon joined his hometown team but he’s missed time with an upper-body injury and has just one goal and seven assists in 25 games.Though he said after Sunday’s loss that there are no answers anymore for why the team is playing so poorly, Maroon added that the team is not giving up.“We come in and put our pads on every night and we go out there and try to play our best every night Authentic Justin Bailey Jersey ,” he said.The Oilers needed to a shootout to beat the Blues, 3-2, on Dec. 5. Edmonton is looking for its fourth win in five games on home ice versus St. Louis.Oilers captain Connor McDavid’s next assist will be the 200th of his career. A two-time scoring champion at just 21, McDavid has six goals and 10 helpers in a nine-game points streak. SEA ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Seattle is one step away from landing an NHL franchise.Team and city executives have already secured more than 30,000 season-ticket deposits, got an arena plan passed through local government and wowed the executive committee of owners. It all pays off Tuesday when the NHL Board of Governors is expected to approve Seattle as the home of the league’s 32nd franchise.“Seattle’s one of the fastest-growing cities in the country,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said recently. “It gives us a geographic balance. It creates a nice geographic rivalry with Vancouver. I know Vancouver’s particularly excited about the possibility. The ownership group, the plans for the arena — it’s all of the above. It’s never one factor. If you’re going to have a successful expansion application Kyle Okposo Jersey , all of the bases need to be touched and all of them need to be checked off as being appropriate and right.”Timing is the only question.Renovations to the downtown arena that will be the team’s home are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2020. The uncertainty could lead the NHL to leave the door open to a 2020 or 2021 start or push it back just to be safe.“Right now everything we’ve done is kind of geared toward 2020,” Seattle Hockey Partners senior adviser Dave Tippett said. “If we can do it in 2020 (we will), but the other thing is you don’t want to start it being a month on the road or something, either.”It’s more about when than if, given the success of the Vegas Golden Knights‘ expansion and the $650 million the new owners will pay to join. Seattle is the largest U.S. city without a major winter sports team since the NBA’s SuperSonics left in 2008 and it gives the NHL another big TV market.“It’s a big city now. It’s a relatively wealthy place. There’s an awful lot going on between Boeing and the whole computer industry and all the rest of that stuff,” NHL Players’ Association executive director Don Fehr said. “It nests very nicely with the teams that are already in the Pacific Northwest. And it gives us 32, which gives us the balance that you would want. In addition to that, when you’re looking at markets, if you really want to be a North American league http://www.officialsabres.com/authentic-adidas-rasmus-ristolainen-jersey , you want to be in the markets that matter when you can figure out a way to do it, and Seattle is certainly one of those.”Tippett could feel the excitement building when he was back in Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday, noting that people told him on the golf course they hoped Seattle would get a team.The board’s executive committee voted unanimously in October to push the expansion bid forward and Bettman said he anticipated the full board doing the same. Approval requires a three-quarters vote.“This can work long term,” Seattle Hockey President and CEO Tod Leiweke said. “We have the right building plan, we have the support from the city, the fans are there.”Fans will be watching Tuesday morning at a Seattle tavern when the board is expected to give final approval. Next steps will include moving forward on arena and practice facility plans and piecing together a hockey operations department that Tippett will likely be in charge of.Before considering expansion, the board opens its annual two-day December meeting Monday with updates on the state of the league’s business and hockey operations. The board is also expected to be briefed on collective bargaining talks and the tentative settlement of a concussion lawsuit involving retired players.