VANCOUVER, BC – As close to a dress rehearsal as you can get.
Oilers defencemen Darnell Nurse and Ty Emberson are expected to make their first appearance together as the Blue & Orange's second defensive pairing in their final pre-season tune-up at Rogers Arena against the Canucks on Friday night.
The two blueliners are projected to begin the regular season on Oct. 9 versus Winnipeg as Edmonton's second pair behind Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, but tonight will be their first shot at playing together for a full 60 minutes of exhibition action after Nurse's return to competitive action was delayed due to injury.
Nurse recorded a team-high 22:17 of ice time for the Oilers during his pre-season debut on Wednesday in Seattle and finished with six hits, three blocks and a -3 plus/minus skating next to professional try-out Travis Dermott in a 6-2 defeat to the Kraken.
"Hopefully there's some chemistry there," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said pre-game. "They've been practicing together, and hopefully, they can pick up and look like they've been playing years together. But there's going to be some getting used to each other, and to get over that, I think the most important part of it is the communication – talking after every shift... I think the more they can talk, the more the chemistry they can build and go from there."
Defenceman Brett Kulak was paired with right-shot Troy Stecher on the club's third pairing. Stecher signed a two-year extension with the Oilers this offseason after his trade-deadline deal from Arizona and is looking forward to contributing to a better defensive effort from the Oilers this preseason.
"I think a big emphasis has been keeping the puck out of our net," Stecher said. "I know it's preseason, but we've given up six, three and four different times, so the practice has definitely ramped up, and the competition level's a little higher.
"I think because of that, we've definitely worked on our D zone. So I think that's kind of the main focus of our group tonight is playing a five-man unit defensively and understanding that if we take care of our own zone, the offensive side is going to come."
