The Edmonton Oilers are taking on the St. Louis Blues on home ice tonight, rolling with Stuart Skinner in net, and potentially mixing up their defence pairs.
At practice today, Oilers reporter Tony Brar confirmed Skinner would get the starting nod against the Blues. In the Oilers last game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, they went with backup Calvin Pickard.
At yesterday's practice, the forward lines remained the same as the win over Columbus, but defenceman were rotating throughout in different combinations. It's possible Coach Knoblauch and Coffey could be looking to adjust the pairs tonight.
Stuart Skinner Starts for Edmonton, Defence Pairs Potentially Shaken up by Oilers Coaches
It'll be interesting to see if the Oilers decide to tweak their defence pairs tonight.
Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm will likely stay together, being one of the NHL's best pairings. If there could be a significant change, Brett Kulak could be permanently elevated to the second pair, or perhaps depth defender Travis Dermott gets into a game.
Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse has actually been playing noticeably improved hockey this season, at least since the month of November.
Nurse has struggled to live up to his $9.25M contract, but if he keeps up this level of play, the Oilers and their fans will be thrilled.
Tonight will also be the return of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to Edmonton since leaving the team via offer sheets last offseason. Oilers fans are currently divided on booing or not booing the two young players.
Puck drops tonight at 8:00MT against the Blues as the Oilers look to win their second game in a row, and build more momentum to climb the standings.
