The Edmonton Oilers will try to deal with one of the hottest teams in the NHL Tuesday night when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets are coming off a loss Saturday to St. Louis but had won 10 straight prior to that.
“They’re a big, heavy team,” Oilers defenceman Matt Benning said. “They come with a lot of speed. They have a lot of forwards offensively who are threats.”
The Oilers have the worst power play in the NHL, despite getting a goal from rookie Ethan Bear Saturday against Anaheim. After two poor power plays in the first period of that game, the Oilers rolled out their regular line combinations on the man advantage for the rest of the night.
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“We’ll start that way,” head coach Todd McLellan said. “As I told the players between periods when we were going to do it, we need to learn to work on the power play again. We get a little too cute, too fancy. The players responded well in the second and third and we’ll give them another opportunity to do it that way.
“There’s no given. There’s no jump over the boards just because you’re a certain player. The groups will go out. Let’s see what they do when they work.”
Zack Kassian will return to the Oilers lineup after missing the last five games with an injury. The Oilers expected lineup is:
Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Rattie
Caggiula – Draisaitl – Aberg
Lucic – Strome – Puljujarvi
Slepyshev – Khaira – Kassian
Nurse – Larsson
Russell – Bear
Sekera – Benning
Talbot
Defenceman Adam Larsson is the Oilers nominee for the Masterton Trophy, awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship & dedication. Larsson’s father passed away earlier in the season.
Catch the Oilers and Blue Jackets on 630 CHED with the Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m. The game starts at 7 p.m.