What a mess the NHL is.

First, they scrutinize the Edmonton Oilers and Evander Kane over their usage of the Long-Term Injured Reserve, likely a reason he wasn’t in their Game 1 lineup against the Kings. But no stress for the Florida Panthers, so it seems, as Matthew Tkachuk returned from his long stint on the LTIR Tuesday night for Game 1 of their series against the Lightning, scoring two goals and three points in a 6-2 win.

If Kane is good to go for Game 2 tonight, the question becomes who draws out of the lineup. It’s easy to think Jeff Skinner might be the one to sit, given his turbulent season, but the truth of the matter is he continued to see more ice-time down the final month of the season and played a modest 11:01 at five-on-five in Game 1. The Oilers need offence, and in the final 14 games of the regular season — where one of, or both of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were out — Skinner led the team in five-on-five goals (four) and was second in points (six).

I’m not convinced he’s the one who comes out, and there’s nobody else in the top-nine who could be an option to exit the lineup.

So let’s look at the fourth line. For as much as Mattias Janmark has struggled this year, he scored a goal in Game 1 and Kris Knoblauch clearly loves this player. I don’t think he draws out. Corey Perry? Doubt it. He was arguably the Oilers’ most consistent forward this season in terms of health and regular contributions, and scored in Game 1, so I don’t see him drawing out.

That leaves one other player: Adam Henrique. There’s no denying his game took a step backwards in his new bottom-six role, and his ability to drive offence plummeted this year from contributions offensively at a one percent rate above league average in 2023-24 to a six percent rate below league average, according to HockeyViz, a seven percent swing.

In a time where the Oilers needed players to step up down the stretch run of the season, it didn’t feel like he did so.

The argument for him staying in the lineup is he’s a natural centre — a fair argument, for sure, — but he took eight faceoffs in Game 1, going 2-2 in the offensive zone, 2-5 in the defence zone and 0-2 in the neutral zone. 50 percent on all draws. Janmark went a similar 50 percent, going 0-1 in the defensive zone, and 2-3 in the neutral zone.

The Oilers really brought out the line blender in Game 1. As noted by Natural Stat Trick, Knoblauch deployed seven lines that played over 1:25 in ice-time at five-on-five. McDavid was on four of those lines, and Draisaitl was on three, with both taking tons of faceoffs, with McDavid going 7-12 (58 percent) and Draisaitl 12-24 (50 percent). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also found himself on three lines, going 9-16 in the dot (56 percent).

Knoblauch and co. seemed comfortable loading up the minutes for these three in Game 1, especially as the game wore on, and that’s a reason why I could see Henrique being the odd man out in Game 2. They can play Janmark up the middle on the fourth line and rotate the other three centres through that spot, limiting how many faceoffs Janmark takes, and get one of the Big 3 C’s out on a line with Evander Kane and Corey Perry.

Who would you take out of the lineup when Kane is able to return?

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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