The Edmonton Oilers will get a boost to their lineup Thursday night against the Boston Bruins as Viktor Arvidsson will play his first game in over a month.

The winger last played on November 12th against the Ottawa Senators, suffering a lower-body injury that sidelined him for 15 games — three more than he played prior to getting hurt.

Arvidsson revealed Thursday that he had been playing through the injury before stepping out of the lineup.

“I played through it for probably two and a half weeks and it got to a point where it felt like it’s going to hurt myself even more, so we took some time off and… made sure it’s good to go,” he said.  “I haven’t played a lot of hockey in the last two years, so I’m happy to be back. It’s been a grind.”

Arvidsson will skate on the Oilers’ third line alongside Adam Henrique and Connor Brown, bumping winger Jeff Skinner to the fourth line, where he will flank Mattias Janmark, who shifts to centre, and Corey Perry. Derek Ryan will draw out of the lineup.

This means that the Oilers’ top six will remain intact. Zach Hyman, sporting a broken nose, two shiners and heavy bruising, will play with Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the top line. Leon Draisaitl will see Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen remain on his wings.

The Bruins come into Edmonton tonight on a 9-4 run after replacing head coach Jim Montgomery with Joe Sacco, capping off a five-game road trip that began with an 8-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 10th, before falling to the Seattle Kraken 5-1 two days later.

Boston beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Dec. 14th, and the Calgary Flames 4-3 on Tuesday.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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