PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Kraken

The Edmonton Oilers continue their pre-season schedule on Saturday night with a visit from the Seattle Kraken to Rogers Place on Saturday night.

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PREVIEW: Oilers vs. Kraken

EDMONTON, AB – As Oilers Training Camp inches closer and closer to completion, it’s time to start thinking about tying up loose ends before the start of the regular season.

Ahead of the Kraken's visit to Rogers Place on Saturday night, Friday’s midway point of the Oilers' preseason has the club’s players and coaches considering what they still need to accomplish in the remaining four exhibition matches and 12 days of Training Camp before Oct. 9’s season opener against the Jets.

“I think at this point and moving forward, we want to get some chemistry back,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who’s spent Camp on the wing next to Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman.

“Obviously, it's good to get your lines together. I'm sure D pairings feel the same, but definitely over this next week, we're going to ramp it up. The games kind of do that automatically, but I'm sure practices will get a little bit shorter and a little bit faster, and the games will pick up intensity too.

“It'll start feeling like regular season and that's what you need. This is the last little stretch here before we get going.”

As the competition for opening-night roster spots continues, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch and his coaching staff are focused on balancing the needs of those players still in Camp fighting to make an impression and the veteran players looking to get up to speed with more game action.

Among the veterans who'll dress on Saturday will be Viktor Arvidsson, Leon Draisaitl and Jeff Skinner making their first competitive appearance as Edmonton's projected second line to begin the regular season. The trio have spent the majority of time together during Training Camp and this will be their first chance at finding some chemistry outside of practice.

"Sometimes it's hard to really make a lot out of practice, so I think we're going to have to get into some games and see some game-like situations," Draisaitl said. "They're two really skilled players. I think the makeup of it makes a lot of sense and it could be a good line, but you've got to work it out. I'm looking forward to getting some games with them."

Knoblauch has a keen interest in solving the battle for fourth-line centre and on the right side of Edmonton's second and third D pairings, with Ty Emberson, Troy Stecher, Josh Brown and Connor Carrick currently competing for those spots on the back end.

Defenceman Darnell Nurse will remain out of the lineup on Saturday, Knoblauch confirmed, and will have a new partner to adjust to this coming season following the trading of Cody Ceci and a third-round this summer to the Sharks in the deal that brought Emberson to Edmonton.

Among the list of names vying for the fourth-line centre job, 2024 first-round pick Sam O'Reilly remains in Camp after impressing the coashing staff over his last two appearances – most recently in Wednesday's loss to Winnipeg where he went head-to-head against established NHLers like Mark Scheifele.

"I think he's been a strong player, reads the play and he's picked up on our systems really well," Knoblauch said. "He had plenty of opportunities to play in the defensive zone against some really good players in Winnipeg, and I thought he handled it really well. I don't think there was a time that I said he was out of position or that he didn't know how to read it because it's the NHL level. I thought he handled himself really well."

Following Friday’s practice, Knoblauch said that he hopes to get the best of both worlds with his lineup for the next two games, hoping to give some of his NHL regulars the ice time necessary to get up to game speed while providing other players with the opportunities they need to audition for roles.

“We'll look for two of our four lines [to dress] and two lines of guys who are on the cusp of making the team,” he said. “So it’ll probably be about half of our roster.”

Following Monday’s pre-season meeting with the Vancouver Canucks, however, the bench boss is keen to get his Training Camp roster – currently sitting at 41 with four goalies, 13 defencemen & 24 forwards – down to a more manageable number that’s closer to what they’ll begin the regular season with on Oct. 9 on home ice against Winnipeg.

“I think we're starting to transition into that,” he said. “Like I said, our next two games will probably have half our [NHL] lineup, but they'll be pretty much playing their role and their situations that they'll play. And then, as we play probably our last two exhibition games, we're looking at getting ready for regular season and we're almost at that stage of having our team.

"There'll be other guys that are still on the cusp of making our team and we'll still be evaluating, but it'll just be maybe two forwards each night and maybe one or two defencemen. We'll be really close on making our final roster there."