Edmonton Oilers had a full practice in Nashville today in preparation for their game against the Predators on Thursday night. New assignments were inevitable given the unavailability of captain Connor McDavid, and coach Kris Knoblauch didn’t disappoint with wholesale changes across the forward lines, defence pairings, goaltender, and powerplay unit.
Today’s lines and pairings
No surprise that the Leon Draisaitl line is listed first, even as it remains unchanged from what until recently was the second line. The new Line 2 features Ryan Nugent-Hopkins moving back to the middle of the ice where he’ll be flanked by Jeff Skinner and Zach Hyman. The Janmark-Henrique-Brown line has been reunited, while the four remaining forwards rotated on line 4. Don’t be surprised if Derek Ryan is odd man out in Nashville after a nightmarish game in Columbus.
Goals by line:
- Six goals, all by Draisaitl
- Three goals
- Two goals
- One goal
There were also changes on the back end, as there have been after every Oilers’ loss all season. Travis Dermott appears set to reunite with Darnell Nurse on the second pairing, while Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson remain the third pairing. Troy Stecher appears to be the odd man out.
In recent games the coaching staff have rotated in frequent shifts of Nurse with Kulak, in effect running four pairings.
Starting goalie
In a vacuum the Nashville game might be expected to be Stu Skinner‘s start, but Calvin Pickard won in the Music City a couple weeks ago, then delivered a strong performance in Detroit on Sunday. Skinner had a poor outing in Columbus so he will sit out tomorrow on merit.
Powerplay
An unexpected move on the first powerplay unit, which will run with 2 actual defencemen in Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. Another decision based on merit, given Ekholm has scored 2 of Edmonton’s measly 4 powerplay goals on the season. This despite his prior deployment on the second unit, which receives a small fraction of the minutes. With 2-6-8 through 10 games, Ekholm is objectively the only Oiler who has outperformed offensive expectations to this point of the season.
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