After a brief stint as a trio with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Pat Maroon, Oilers winger Jordan Eberle returned to the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Milan Lucic.
"I like playing with Ebs a lot," said McDavid. "He brings a lot of different elements to a line and he's one of the most lethal players around the net. Definitely happy to be back with him and hopefully we can find (chemistry) again."
Eberle talked about making the change from playing with Nugent-Hopkins to McDavid.
"For one, Connor's speed is a big factor," he said. "You got to get him the puck quick. I think in the offensive zone, we were starting to get a good cycle going before we switched line and we were trying to get back to finding areas where we can get open. We're obviously not the biggest of guys but he's quick and shifty and we got to find open space that way."
McLellan noted a multitude of reasons for shuffling his top six.
"We start with our team and we look at - I talked about pairs in the past - pairs, combinations," he said. "Where production is coming from, where it's lacking. Who's taking their games up, maybe who's falling a little bit. Then we look at opposition, what might be coming at us from the opponent and how we might play against them.
"There's a number of different factors that go into it."
Eberle has eight goals and 15 assists so far through this year's campaign. McDavid (39), Eberle (23) and Lucic (22) are all among the top four in scoring for the Oilers. As a line, the three players have a total of 84 points.
BLOG: Eberle back flanking top line
Head Coach Todd McLellan shuffled his lines Friday
