EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers will have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the top line alongside Zach Hyman on Friday night when they host the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Place.
Head Coach Kris Knoblauch says the decision to load up the top line with the Dynamic Duo and their leading goalscorer is to account for Colorado's top unit of Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Mikko Rantanen and the ice time that they're going to command tonight.
"We have MacKinnon's line that's going to be playing 23-to-25 minutes tonight, and we want our best players out on the ice as much as possible," Knoblauch said. "Not necessarily head-to-head, but if we go with more of a four-line strategy, it makes it a little more difficult to get our guys on the ice as much as we want to."
Stuart Skinner is expected to be back between the pipes tonight to make his 53rd start of the season against Alexandar Georgiev, who leads the NHL in wins this season with 37 for Colorado.
The Oilers netminder made 40 saves while Georgiev stopped 32 shots to earn the win in their last meeting against the Avalanche, which ended with a 3-2 victory for Colorado in overtime back on Mar. 16 at Rogers Place. All four of their previous contests and six of their last seven matchups have gone overtime, with the Oilers owning a 2-0-5 record in those games.
