The blender is out again.

With the Edmonton Oilers coming off a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon, head coach Kris Knoblauch made multiple changes to the team’s lines.

The changes made up front are familiar ones. Leon Draisaitl has been moved off Connor McDavid’s line and back down to the second-line centre spot with Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson on his wings. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman are on the top line with McDavid.

The changes on the blueline are brand new. Darnell Nurse and Travis Dermott are playing together on the second pairing again, but this time, Nurse is the one playing on the right side while Dermott is on his natural left side. Troy Stecher is playing alongside Brett Kulak on the third pairing.

Edmonton’s top defensive pairing of Mattias Ekholm has remained intact through the team’s first six games of the season but the other two pairings have already been shuffled around multiple times. Nurse spent most of his time playing with Cody Ceci over the past few seasons and the Oilers haven’t found a long-term replacement for the veteran, who was shipped out for salary cap purposes in the summer.

So far this season, Nurse has played 40 minutes at even strength with Stecher, 34 with Dermott, and 14 with Ty Emberson, the young defender who was brought back in exchange for Ceci. None of the three combinations have yielded positive results in terms of goal differential, though Nurse’s shot attempt numbers are best with Dermott.

Playing on the right side will be new for Nurse, as he’s spent his entire career with the Oilers on his natural left side. It’s unlikely that the team views Dermott and Nurse as a long-term solution for the second line, but Nurse being able to handle playing on his off-side would open up more options for them when the trade deadline rolls around.

We talked about the line shuffling, Nurse on the right side, and more on Oilersnation Everyday…