The Edmonton Oilers had a new look when they hit the ice in sunny South Florida Sunday, most notably with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins absent, and a new look on the blue line.

Whatever ails Nugent-Hopkins, Knoblauch said, has left the Oilers ‘ serving member of the team a game-time decision for Game 3.

Jeff Skinner slid in alongside Connor McDavid and Corey Perry on the top line, filling in Nugent-Hopkins’ spot. Edmonton’s other forward lines remained the same as they did in each of Games 1 and 2, but the swap on the blue line is notable.

The top pairing saw Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard on the top pairing, Brett Kulak and Jake Walman on the second pairing, while Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg manned the third pair.

Nurse and Bouchard have played 91 minutes so far in these playoffs, but the results haven’t been great, getting outscored 8-3. Much of that came in the Oilers’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings, where in 57 minutes they were outscored 7-3 at five-on-five, despite controlling 52.3 percent of the expected goal share.

The sample size on the second pair is very small, just 11 minutes so far in the playoffs, and while breaking even in goals 1-1, they’ve controlled 78.2 percent of the expected goal share. It’s too small of a sample to really glean much from, but Nurse and Kulak, with the latter on his offside, have struggled through the first two games.

The third pairing is also an unknown. Ekholm had been stapled in his usual spot beside Bouchard all throughout the regular season, and after getting hurt, the defenceman is just starting to find his game now, set to play his third of the post-season.

Nonetheless, the Oilers clearly felt the need to shuffle things up on the blue line after two incredibly tense games against the Panthers. The series is tied up at 2 ahead of Monday night’s Game 3, set for 6:00 PM MT.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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