Reuniting a dominant trio, the Oilers hope to get McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins going offensively.
The Edmonton Oilers appear to be stacking the top line in preparation for Game 3 tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. Based on this morning’s practice, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch appears to be going with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid, and Zach Hyman.
This line has been dominant in the past, and with the top line's struggles lately, Knoblauch hopes that by reuniting them, he can find lightning in a bottle and get all three going offensively.
Both Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid remain pointless in the series. "We're very confident. It's about doing it, sticking with it and trusting that we can do it," Nugent-Hopkins said when talking about the belief that still exists inside the locker room.
Things haven't gone the way the Oilers would like them to go, but they've stayed in games and won one of two, even though their top guys haven't been anything close to their best.
As expected, the Oilers will keep the second line of Leon Draisaitl, Kasperi Kapanen, and Vasily Podkolzin together. They've been clicking and have easily been the team's most dangerous trio.
There were some questions about McDavid's health coming into the game. He rolled his ankle in Game 2, and while he didn't seem to be bothered by it for the rest of that game, or in the post-game media scrum, fans and media wanted to see how he looked when he took the ice Friday morning.
“He's always flying around,” Knoblauch said on Friday. “Very often, even if he does have something, it still looks like he's flying around. So yes, he'll be able to play and yeah, he's good."
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