If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
That’s the idea the Edmonton Oilers are bringing with their lineup for their pivotal Game 6 against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Connor McDavid will remain flanked on the top line alongside Leon Draisaitl — nominated Thursday for the Hart Trophy — and Corey Perry, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will centre the second line with Evander Kane and Zach Hyman. Adam Henrique will have Trent Frederic on his left and Connor Brown on his right, while Mattias Janmark will continue to man the centre ice spot on the fourth line with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson.
Tuesday’s Game 5 was arguably the best the Oilers have had all season, rolling four lines with ease against a Kings group that looked like they were struggling to keep up.
After the Oilers could do so, Knoblauch said that was something they could do with ease.
“I think everyone was just ready for the challenge,” he said after Game 5. “Coming into this building, playing against a good team, but also that we kind of challenged every line to bring something tonight in there is no line that we’re hiding — we can have our fourth line play against the other teams top line.
“We feel very confident in that, and in doing that, we don’t have to worry about matchups. We can just roll our lines.”
Edmonton’s blue line will too remain the same, with Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard together, Jake Walman and John Kingberg together, and Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson together. Calvin Pickard will start his fourth straight game.
The Kings, meanwhile, will look to do what Edmonton did to them in stealing a game on the road.
“They took it away from us, we’ve got to go win a hockey game and take it back,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller said via L.A. Kings Insider. “It’s just the way it goes. There’s no tricks. We’ve proven we’re a pretty good hockey team, go there and take it back, because they just took it away from us.”
Tonight’s Game 6 is set to start at 8:00 p.m. MST in Edmonton.
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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