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EDMONTON, Alberta -- Opposing players are starting to take note of what could finally be significant improvement from the Edmonton Oilers.Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist as the Oilers won their second straight game in a strong start to the season, defeating the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Thursday night.They are not the Oilers of the last few years, Ill tell you that, Blues goalie Jake Allen said. They are a good hockey club and obviously made some good additions to their team.Tyler Pitlick and off-season free-agent signing Milan Lucic scored for Edmonton, which improved to 4-1-0 on the season.Starting 4-1, we couldnt ask for a better start, McDavid said. I think were feeling pretty good about ourselves, but I think its about keeping it on an even keel.Beating one of the best teams in the league was definitely a boost, according to Lucic.Its a huge win, he said. We talked about getting off to a good start, having a good first five games to get our team rolling and build some confidence before the Heritage Classic. It was great that we were able to play a really good game against a really good team.Nail Yakupov replied for the Blues (3-1-1) in his return to Edmonton since he was traded to St. Louis earlier this month.Blues coach Ken Hitchcock felt his team let one get away.Weve really wasted some great goaltending displays by Jake. Hes been outstanding and given us a chance to win both of these last two games, said Hitchcock, who watched his team lose 2-1 in overtime to Vancouver on Tuesday.Its unfortunate with the way he has been playing to only come out with one point from these last two games.There was no scoring in the first period, with the Blues getting 10 shots on Oilers goalie Cam Talbot and Edmonton directing eight shots on Allen.The Blues got on the board 3:37 into the second as a scramble allowed Joel Edmundson to feed it in front to Yakupov. It was the second goal of the season for the former Oiler.The Oilers pulled even three minutes later as Pitlick made a nifty deflection off a shot by Andrej Sekera while being knocked flying to score his third of the season.Edmonton made it 2-1 just 36 seconds into the third period as McDavid broke out of a two-game scoring drought by threading a pass through to Lucic in front. It was the big wings second goal of the year.Both goaltenders made big saves before the Blues came close to tying it up midway through the third. Yakupov had Talbot beat on a backhand shot, but hit the post.McDavid put the game away with his fourth goal of the season into an empty net.Tonight was a huge test for us, Talbot said. Any time you can beat a powerhouse like St. Louis, it goes a long way for the confidence in this group and moving forward thats what we need to have.Game notes It was the first of three meetings between the teams this season. . Yakupov spent four seasons with the Oilers, recording 111 points in 252 games. . Blues F Jaden Schwartz played his first game of the season after recovering from a hyperextended elbow. . Talbot made his fifth start of the season one day after his wife, Kelly, gave birth to twins.UP NEXT:Blues: Conclude a three-game road trip in Calgary on Saturday.Oilers: Are off until Sunday, when they play the Jets in the Heritage Classic outdoor game in Winnipeg. Buy Shoes Australia . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Fake Shoes Australia . Kozun faked to the forehand and beat Monsters starter, Calvin Pickard, pad side in the second round for the winner. Spencer Abbott also scored in the shootout for the Marlies (25-13-4). https://www.shoesaustraliaonline.com/ . Reassurance came from Paul Tesori, his caddie and close friend whose newborn son is in intensive care in a Florida hospital. "Paul sent me a text this morning, just told me he loved me and wanted to go out and fight as hard as I would any other day," Simpson said Sunday after doing just that. Shoes Australia From China . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Clearance Shoes Australia . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. Tempo Storms Sealed Deck format once again shone in last weekends Red Bull Team Brawl, the second significant tournament run in this Hearthstone format. And for the second time, the home team won, with Tempo Storm beating Team Liquid 3-1 after squeezing into the finals.What is Sealed Deck format? When developing a Hearthstone version of Sealed Deck, Tempo Storm borrowed from Magic: The Gatherings Sealed Deck format, one of my personal favorite limited formats in card games. Each team opens a series of virtual packs to form a 240-card pool from which they must build three decks with only those cards.What makes this a compelling format is that it highlights the deckbuilding itself, rather than simply piloting a constructed, refined deck, in which most players almost entirely know the majority of a players deck after a few turns, if not before. Forcing players to build decks from a random, limited pool, creates interesting scenarios. And as a team format, with the players miced up, you both get to see direct teamwork, fairly unusual in Hearthstone, and hear the players thoughts.Tempo StormAndrey Reynad Yanyuk Haiyun Eloise Tang Victor VLPS LopezTempo Storm may have won the tournament, but it was a very near thing, as they only advanced to the final match against Team Liquid by virtue of winning a tiebreaker as three of the four teams involved went 1-2 in the Round Robin (Team Liquid went undefeated).The team felt they had enough Mechs to put together a kind of hybrid Mech/Token Shaman that could swarm the board and make beneficial trades, with Thunder Bluff Valiant and Muklas Champion leveraging the tokens. Mech Shaman had been a thing in the past, a straight aggro deck during the days of Goblins vs. Gnomes, but without a Rockbiter Weapon or Whirling Zap-o-Matic, Tempo Storm couldnt go a straight-up with the aggression.Tempo Storms Mage did manage to get a Mad Scientist, useful to exploit the Duplicates, and the two Flamestrikes were key to making the deck work. The only thing really missing was direct burn damage to the face outside of the two Forgotten Torches; there was no Fireball in this deck. But the two Flame Lances came in handy several times over the weekend -- an important thing to remember about Hearthstone is that there are a lot of cards that never see play in Constructed, but only because there are cards that are simply a smidgen better.Druid was the deck Tempo Storm worried the most about, a deck full of large minions and not a lot of ways to catch up.Im going to play the most expensive thing in my hand every single turn until hopefully my opponent dies. The only thing thats missing is any kind of decision-making, commented Reynad before the tournament started on how theyd win with the deck. In the end, they went 3-3 with it.After going 6-7 in games during the Round Robin, Tempo Storm tinkered with all three of their decks (they were allowed to make changes before the finals using the same card pools), making them more aggressive, notably including Bloodlust in Shaman to push the token theme. The Bloodlust proved to be a key card in the final against Team Liquid, as the team didnt get too greedy and used Bloodlust for important minion removal rather than simply for the burst damage to face.Team LiquidJeffrey Trump Shih David Dog Caero Janne Savjz MikkonenTeam Liquids deck all shared in a theme in that their card pool was really suffering for lack of area-of-effect clears, the type that could help the games if they fell behind. So they focused on decks that built a solid curve that could maintain board control with minion-on-minion combat.You could see this issue in Team Liquids Mage deck, which had very high minion quality, but no Flamestrikes, no Fireballs, and only Blizzard for a dependable board clear, albeit one that would likely need some kind of board presence.Team Liquid was also fortunate to draw both Reno Jackson and Lordd Jaraxxus, enabling them to put together a fairly decent Renolock deck with a bit of Dragon synergy.dddddddddddd One problem which didnt hit them early: the lack of board clear in the form of Hellfire, Shadowflame, or Twisting Nether. But if they could survive and get to Jaraxxus, they stood a good chance of winning. In practice, it proved tricky and the deck only was around .500 in the end.During the round robin portion, the general deck plan proved effective, the team going 9-3 over the course of their three preliminary matches. As it turned out, the quick aggressive decks that would punish the decks early were nowhere to be seen. Tempo Storm going for a smaller curve in the finals proved to be their undoing.Team BMKBrian Kibler Rumay Hafu Wang Tom MartellWith one of the best Arena players in Hearthstone in Hafu to go along with two very experienced Magic players, this seemed like an ideal format for this makeshift team.The deck that worked out the best for Team BMK was their Priest deck, the only Priest played in the tournament. While the class has been the whipping boy of Constructed for the last six months or so, they were able to collect many of the elements for a Resurrect Priest, with many of the standard cards for that archetype being available without substitutions. The Priest went 2-1, so wasnt the problem.Nor was the problem the Shaman deck, which went 3-1 with some powerful late game cards, a total of nine minions of five-or-more mana. Without a lot of aggressive decks to play against, they were able to reach that endgame more often than not.What sunk Team BMK was the Mage deck, a deck that get out-tempoed early if they couldnt get a Fallen Hero or Stormchugger, easily their best early-game minions, to stick. And thats a problem as with no Fireball, Frostbolt, or Blizzard, the team fell regularly behind and would lose if they didnt happen to have Flamestrike. Even with two Flamestrikes, this happened quite a bit, leaving the Mage deck to go 1-6, the worst performance of any deck for the day.The other problem turned out to be the secrets. While Tempo Storm had two Duplicates to go along with their Mad Scientist, Team BMK had two of the weakest secrets -- Id argue the absolute weakest -- in Vaporize and Spellbender. After the initial surprise in their first match given that these cards are never played in Constructed, both Tempo Storm and Team Liquid were able to play around the secrets quite easily.Cloud9James Firebat Kostesich Cong Strifecro Shu Andrew TidesofTime BiessenerCloud9s plan for their Druid was simple: put as many giant minions, preferably with taunt, on the board as possible and dare the opponent to have enough removal to get them all. And it worked out more often than not, the deck winning three of its five games. With Dark Arakkoa, Captured Mormungar, two Ironbark Protectors, and two Volcanic Lumberers, their opponents tended to run out of removal.But against a fearless, aggressive opponent with a bit of reach, the deck ran into trouble. Tempo Storm didnt have spell options to remove Cloud9s big minions in their mirror match, so the former used their two Savage Combatants to use their heros health pool as a removal tool. And they did this to the tune of 25 self-damage just to retain board.Like Team Liquid, Cloud9 got a Lord Jaraxxus to use, but the combination of a smaller curve without enough aggression to put the game away early, they had a harder time geting to their Jaraxxus.Cloud9s last deck, yet another grinding-style Mage was a deck we didnt get to see a lot of, only geting two games in. Which is kind of a shame as they were able to work in five Dragons and two Blackwing Technicians, something that caused Team Liquid a great deal of trouble in the very first game of the day. ' ' '