Ladies and gentlemen, we have National Hockey League action set to grace our eyes.

The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are getting together tonight for some split-squad action, which will be Edmonton’s lone game of the sort. Last year, the Oilers’ lone split squad game was their second, so it’s nice to see them get it out of the way early.

Things will return to a more normal routine after today. The Oilers will head to Winnipeg to visit the Jets Tuesday, before three straight home games against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, the Jets on Friday and the Vancouver Canucks next Saturday night. Things will wrap up quickly as next week, after a Wednesday trip to Seattle and a Friday stop in Vancouver, the pre-season will be over.

The Oilers will keep most of the powder dry for their big guns tonight. No Connor McDavid, no Leon Draisaitl, no Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, no Evan Bouchard, no Mattias Ekholm, no Stuart Skinner, no Andrew Mangiapane — but no worries, as they’ll get into more games starting soon.

Edmonton will have some NHL regulars in both cities. Mattias Janmark, Trent Frederic, Darnell Nurse, Vasily Podkolzin, Troy Stecher, Jake Walman and Calvin Pickard will be in Edmonton, while heading south on the highway will be Kasperi Kapanen, Curtis Lazar, Noah Philp, Brett Kulak, and Ty Emberson.

Lots of eyes will be on a pair of rookies tonight, with Matt Savoie taking to the ice in Edmonton and Ike Howard down the highway in Calgary.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said he wants to see them keep their games simple.

“Ultimately, we just want them playing good hockey, getting the puck out, good defensive hockey and being able to make a play under pressure,” he said. “Both of them will have opportunities to play on the power play… they need to contribute playing their game, and do they complement the other guys that they’re playing with? I’ve seen a lot of third lines that outscore the second lines and so it’s not necessarily. Yeah, I don’t know. I just think too much is looked into what line you’re on.”

We’re still waiting for any look at the lines from the Oilers, but here are the players Edmonton is keeping at home and sending on the road.

Forwards: Trent Frederic, Seth Griffith, James Hamblin, Mattias Janmark, Tommy Lafreniere, Viljami Marjala, Matvey Petrov, Rem Pitlick, Vasily Podkolzin, Matt Savoie, Brady Stonehouse and David Tomasek.

Defence: Cam Dineen, Mason Milman, Darnell Nurse, Alec Regula, Troy Stecher and Jake Walman

Goalies: Calvin Pickard and Matt Tomkins.

Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Martin Frk
Ryan Lomberg – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka
Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Lucas Ciona
Jacob Battaglia – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell

Kevin Bahl – Axel Hurtig
Yan Kuznetsov – Brayden Pachal
Ilya Solovyov – Daniil Miromanov

Ivan Prosvetov
Arsenii Sergeev

Forwards: Connor Clattenburg, Jayden Grubbe, Ike Howard, Quinn Hutson, Roby Jarventie, Max Jones, Kasperi Kapanen, Curtis Lazar, David Lewandowski, Noah Philp, Rhett Pitlick and Josh Samanski.

Defence: Beau Akey, Josh Brown, Ty Emberson, Brett Kulak, Arto Leppanen, Luke Prokop and Riley Stillman.

Goalies: Nathaniel Day and Samuel Jonsson.

Matvei Gridin – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Sam Honzek – Justin Kirkland – William Stromgren
Aydar Suniev – Sam Morton – Andrew Basha

Nick Cicek – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Zayne Parekh

Devin Cooley
Owen Say

GAME DAY PREDICTION: We continue counting down the days until the pre-season is over.

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers win both games.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Rookies Ike Howard and Matt Savoie mark their marks, each scoring a goal.

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 X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.