Line Change

The 0-2 Oilers travel to Nashville to take on the 1-2 Predators tonight. The Oilers are looking to get into the win column for the first time this season, and based on yesterday’s practice, it looks like the Oilers are going to roll out a new set of lines already in game 3. Also, this will be Mattias Ekholm’s first time playing against the Predators since being traded at the deadline last season for Tyson Barrie. Which means it’ll also be the first time Barrie plays against his former club where he spent a few seasons helping the Oilers have the best power play unit of all time. There will be a lot of emotions involved in this one for fans and players. Playing former teams always brings emotion, and the fact that if the Oilers lose and go 0-3, Edmonton might just explode! The Oilers are supposed to win the Stanley Cup this year, why hasn’t anyone told the team that!

Lines for tonight

Kane-McDavid-Draisaitl

Foegele-RNH-Hyman

Holloway-McLeod-Brown

Erne-Janmark-Ryan

It looks like we may get a bit of a shake up on D as well.

Ekholm-Bouchard

Nurse-Ceci

Kulak-Broberg

Things to Note

After two losses to open the season, the Oilers have gone nuclear with their first line to try and jump-start the offense. The Oilers have only scored one 5-on-5 goal so far through two games, which isn’t good enough. As much as the Oilers may need to work on having consistent lines to build chemistry, I like this decision from Woodcroft. We know the Draisaitl-McDavid duo works. The Oilers are in desperate need of a win, and if they can win tonight and calm the storm, then they can go back to their previous lines when they take on the Flyers later this week. It’s time to right the ship fast, and a McDavid-Draisaitl combo is the quick fix so they can get back to their regular jobs. It’s an amazing option to have when you need it. Hopefully, the Oilers get back on track and don’t need it too often throughout the rest of the season.

Having Kane stay on the 1st line is curious because he has struggled at finishing and struggled at 5-on-5 ever since coming back from his broken rib injury last year. Maybe this can also help jump-start Kane, get him fired up feeling confident. Your only other option if you wanted to keep some balance on the second line would be to elevate Holloway, which many fans (including myself) would like to see at some point. But maybe in what many fans feel is a must-win game, now is not the time. Kane has performed better than Brown, so you couldn’t keep Brown with Draisaitl-McDavid. If you left Hyman on the top line, which would be your super nuclear line, then the depth starts to peter out real quick.

Yesterday, in my article, I mentioned Foegele as someone who has stood out for the Oilers through two games. He has the most scoring chances on the team but is yet to score. It looks like the Oilers coaches have also noticed Foegele’s good performance and have given him a promotion to the 2nd line with RNH-Hyman, based on his performance. Hopefully, he can continue to put the puck towards the net and cycle the puck well. With more skilled linemates, perhaps he will score a goal today.

The fourth line will stay the same and they actually looked pretty good on Saturday, the first time the Oilers had a full forward lineup. Erne came out fresh off his new contract and made some big hits and impactful plays, he was noticeable.

On defense, it looks like the Oilers are going back to the Ekholm-Bouchard 1st pairing that worked so well last year. Ekholm played his first game of the season on Saturday but still looked a little out of place and slow, like he’s not quite fully recovered/ready yet. He is still getting back up to speed. This is Ekholm’s first time back in Nashville where he was drafted in 2009 and spent parts of his first 12 seasons with the Predators. It will be an emotional game for Ekholm, and there is sure to be a good tribute video for him partway through the game if it’s not at the start of the game. Hopefully, that provides a nice little boost of adrenaline for Ekholm so he doesn’t worry or feel his injury and can play through it confidently. It’s also been a few days, so Ekholm may have improved over the course of the weekend as well.

Broberg has been paired up with Kulak on the third pair. I expect this pair to crush the soft minutes and play very well. Broberg played great in this spot last season, but if he wants to find his place on this team, it needs to be in the top 4. Proving to his coaches that he can handle third pair minutes early this season will build trust and potentially lead to more ice time. The coach doesn’t trust him yet, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change 15-20 games into the season.

I would expect Jack Campbell to get the start. All the Oilers need is some league-average goaltending. Heck, even an .888 save percentage that he averaged last season would be a welcome change to the weirdly consistent .750 save percentage the Oilers have had through the first two games from both Campbell and Skinner. If they can get decent goaltending, the Oilers should win this game.

We’ll see you tomorrow with a game recap.