New goalie, news lines, new d-pairings, but will it work for Edmonton Oilers?

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This in from Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now, the Oilers lines in practice this morning:

Draisaitl-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-RNH-Arvidsson
Kane-Henrique-Brown
Frederic-Janmark-Perry
Skinner/Jones-Ryan-Kapanen

D rotating:
Klingberg-Bouchard
Nurse-Emberson
Kulak-Walman
Brown-Stecher

Pickard
Skinner

My take

1. I’m not sure these lines are any better than the ones for Game 2, which didn’t go with established combinations. But there seems to be more of an effort to group players who have often played together.

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On the top line, these players have regularly played together on the power play for years, for example. All three have demonstrated they can work well together. That’s not the case with the other three lines, but Podkolzin and Arvidsson regularly played together this past season, as did Brown and Henrique. RNH did centre Podzilla and Arvidsson in a few recent games, but only with OK results, six goals for, six against in 294 minutes.

2. One thing I love — that line of McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman saw just 294 minutes together at even strength this year, but when they were a trio, they crushed it. They were one of the best lines in the NHL. They scored 32 goals and gave up just 14 for a 70% Goals For Percentage. That is awesome performance and it’s all the better because the Oilers are on home ice. Knoblauch can throw them out there against the match-up that he prefers.

3. The defence pairings — if these pairings make it to game time — are puzzling. Why would you pair two right shot players in Klingberg and Bouchard together? Why would you pair two left shot players in Kulak and Walman together? I know Klingberg and Walman are versatile and often play their off-side, but why not go with Walman and Bouchard on one lefty-righty pairing and with Kulak and Klingberg on the other?

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Plus the players on these respective pairings are new to each other, playing only a handful of minutes together in the regular season. If they went with Walman and Bouchard as a pair at least they played 130 minutes together at even strength this year, with five goals for, five against.

Nurse and Emberson did play together, but the team didn’t have good results when they were on the ice, four goals for, seven against in 97 minutes.

4. Finally the change in net makes sense. Stuart Skinner didn’t let in any outrageous stinkers in the first two games (given he was screened on the sixth L.A. goal in Game 1), but he also didn’t come up with enough big saves. The Oilers are desperate for a big save. Perhaps Pickard can give them that.

Did I mention the Oilers are desperate for a big save? They are. That could be the difference in this game, if Pickard thwarts the Kings on a few 5-alarm shots in the first period.

5. One key for Pickard is not to let in the first or second shot of the game. He had a bad habit of doing so earlier this year. Tonight would not be a good time for that kind of thing.

More to come….

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