The Edmonton Oilers have had a devil of a time in the City of Angels. The Oilers are 0-11- 1 in their last 12 visits to Los Angeles. They’ll try to end that ugly slump when they visit the Kings Saturday night.
For the second straight game, forward Patrick Maroon will sit out with a lower-body injury. Maroon is expected to be dealt before Monday’s trade deadline, but head coach Todd McLellan said that has nothing to do with Maroon being held out of action. McLellan hopes Maroon will play Sunday at Anaheim.
Maroon and Mark Letestu are both unrestricted free agents in the summer and are leading candidates to be traded. However, as seen by the trade of Brandon Davidson to the New York Islanders, McLellan knows other players could be taken off his roster at any minute.
“We have to be on our toes. Anything can happen,” said McLellan. “There are other hockey deals. You never know if they’re going to come into play over the next day or two. We are very fluid. We have two or three different game plans based on the knowledge that we have.”
The Oilers expected lineup is:
Lucic-McDavid-Draisaitl
Cammalleri-Strome-Slepyshev
Caggiula-Khaira-Pakarinen
Puljujarvi-Letestu-Kassian
Nurse-Larsson
Klefbom-Russell
Sekera-Benning
Talbot
Andrej Sekera returns to action after missing seven games with an injury.
Catch the Oilers and Kings on 630 CHED with the Face-off Show at 6 p.m. The game starts at 8 p.m.