Pickard starting tonight.
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Scenes From Morning Skate: Nurse lines up with Stecher, McDavid and Draisaitl not playing against Jets
Photo credit: © Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Sep 26, 2025, 15:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 26, 2025, 14:46 EDT
The last morning skate went just as expected for the Edmonton Oilers, and yet, they fell 4-1 to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night in boring fashion.
Okay, sure, the Oilers were warming up key players for the first time this season while young camp invitees were playing for the second straight night, having also skated that morning—perhaps the glitch in performance could be excused?
Now those same invites, plus the superstars, have had a day of rest ahead of their second preseason showing against the Winnipeg Jets tonight, and the morning skate looked slightly different.
To start, the Oilers continued to move around their notable rookies—Isaac Howard, Matt Savoie, and Quinn Hutson—as training camp rolls along, but save for Alec Regula, they have introduced a new batch of defenseman, including Darnell Nurse.
The right-side defenseman watched the Oilers suffer against the Kraken from the press box two nights ago with Troy Stecher and now has the opportunity to make it 2-0 for the Oilers against the Jets this preseason as the top defensive pairings.
“He’s just a pit bull,” commented Nurse on Stecher. “He goes out there. He works each and every day—probably the hardest working guy on the ice each practice. And with him, you always know where he’s going to be.“He’s always going to bring 100% of his effort, and he’s a lot of fun to play with.”
It’s unlikely that the two will play together come the regular season, but Nurse did allude to the importance of these preseason games in determining how and with whom the Oilers need to start the regular season.
“I think, for us as a group, an area that we’ve preached but haven’t been good enough in is the start of our season,” deadpanned Nurse. “And you know, for us, it starts day one of camp.“It’s not getting through the season; it’s working our way through the season, dominating, and bringing our game that we want to bring to the playoffs, from day one.”
That’s not to say that the players the Oilers roll tonight are the ones that we’ll see on October 8th—after all, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will be watching tonight’s game to—but a healthy rotation of veteran players with the same camp invites tells fans how much “young blood” they could expect come that home opener.
“The juice that they bring to the ring, the smiles, the emotion, the enthusiasm, it’s infectious,” began Nurse. “So to have some young blood in your lineup, and then your room, it spreads throughout.”
Lines and Pairings
Mangiapane – Henrique – Savoie
Howard – Tomasek – Kapanen
Janmark – Philp – Hutson
Marjala – Samanski – Jarventie
Nurse – Stecher
Kulak – Regula
Dineen – Brown
Pickard
Jonsson
Notable Absences
Some might have expected that after Wednesday night’s showcase, McDavid and Draisaitl might want another chance to redeem themselves at home while the countdown to the regular season ticks on, and some would be reasonable.
What’s more, though? Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has yet to dress for a preseason game at home, though he did center the first line with Howard and Kasperi Kapanen in Winnipeg for their 3-2 earlier this week.
All three veterans were practicing at 10:15 this morning with head coach Kris Knoblauch while the morning skate carried on.
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