PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers at Red Wings

DETROIT, MI – Calvin Pickard will start the first of back-to-back games for the Oilers on Sunday when they begin a four-game road trip at Little Caesars Arena against the Detroit Red Wings.

Pickard will make his third start of the season tonight before Stuart Skinner is expected to return to the crease on Monday for the second half of Edmonton's back-to-back against Columbus after he made 27 saves for the shutout in Friday's 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Place.

"As I've said before, practice is huge for me," Pickard said. "I didn't love my first game. I liked my second game and played well. With our situation, I will go some spurts without games, so practice is key for me. I feel ready to go and feel sharp."

After a tough opening loss this season to Chicago, Pickard responded back on Oct. 17 with 25 saves in a 4-2 road win over Nashville and will be aiming to follow up that performance tonight in Detroit and make it consecutive victories for both himself and the Oilers.

The 32-year-old netminder spent three seasons in the Red Wings organization from 2019-22 before joining the Oilers last summer, rising into the backup role behind Stuart Skinner and making 23 appearances (20 starts) for a 12-7-1 record, including a .909 save percentage and 2.45 GAA.

For his career, Pickard is 3-1-0 against the Red Wings, owning a .913 SV% and 2.20 GAA against his former club.

"I like this building. It's a fun building to play in," he said. "I loved my time in Detroit. It's a really good spot, and there are a lot of good friends over there, so it'll be fun to get out there and compete with them."

Pickard stopped 16-of-18 shots in a 3-2 overtime victory the last time he faced the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena, recording his third consecutive win in what would become six straight victories for the veteran between Dec. 21, 2023 and Feb. 17, 2024.

"It was a good game. It was a tight game. It was competitive. We played really well. Their goalie was great," Pickard recalled. "It kind of went back and forth in the third period, and I remember after Nursey scored in overtime, it was a really good feeling."

The Oilers will keep the rest of their lineup status quo from Friday's complete victory over the Penguins where they received good goaltending, strong defence and plenty of offence with four goals on 50 shots to help improve their overall record to 3-4-1 this season.

Viktor Arvidsson recorded his first three points as an Oiler – all assists – and will want to keep the momentum going tonight on the second line next to Vasily Podkolzin and Leon Draisaitl.

"It was a complete effort," Pickard recalled. "We had good goaltending. The penalty kill was good. The power play got one. We were playing fast, moving pucks fast and getting a lot of pucks. We could've had a lot more goals scored in that game, but it was a good game. It was one game and we're looking to build off that."

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch doesn't want to get too carried away with Friday's shutout, saying that despite the positive trends he noticed in different areas, there's still a lot of work left to do – particularly on special teams with both the power play (14.3 percent) and penalty kill (58.3 percent) near the bottom of the League.

"There are a lot of things that I like about our game, especially our five-on-five," Knoblauch said. "There's room for improvement, but I think, just like I mentioned before, the special teams are so important right now. We know our special teams are going to be better."

View the Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Detroit below:

Forwards

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Skinner - Henrique - Brown
Janmark - Ryan - Perry

Defence

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Kulak - Emberson

Goalies

Pickard
Skinner