Oilers Preseason Gameday – @ Jets

The Oilers continue their preseason slate tonight with game number four against the Winnipeg Jets. The club enters tonight with a 2-1-0 record on the exhibition slate after their 5-3 loss at Vancouver on Wednesday night.

Edmonton made a number of cuts on Thursday, including assigning goaltender Nick Ellis to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Trin Protratz touched on the cuts earlier today, and you can read his thoughts here.

Cam Talbot will start tonight for Edmonton, while Laurent Brossoit will backup. It remains to be seen what the time split between these two will be, if there is one. The Jets, meanwhile, will have Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson dressed in this game.

The Lineup:

After the Lucic-McDavid-Eberle line made it’s debut on Wednesday night, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and his linemates will debut tonight against the Jets. After dominating the World Cup with his two-way play, I’ll be interested in seeing how Nugent-Hopkins looks in this tilt.

The Oilers are also going with a more NHL-heavy group of defenders than the one we saw in Vancouver. That’s good news because that unit, outside of Brandon Davidson, struggled mightily in the loss.

Here are the Oilers’ projected lines for tonight, courtesy of Jason Gregor.

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jesse Puljujarvi

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Zack Kassian

Kris Versteeg – Drake Caggiula – Iiro Pakarinen

Jujhar Khaira – Anton Lander – Anton Slepyshev

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Jordan Oesterle – Mark Fayne

Griffin Reinhart – Matt Benning

Cam Talbot, Laurent Brossoit

While the Jets lineup hasn’t be revealed just yet, we can expect to see Patrik Laine for the first time. The second overall pick from June’s draft is slated to make his preseason debut tonight after playing in the World Cup of Hockey for Finland. Kyle Connor, another star rookie, will play tonight for the Jets as well.

Veterans Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele will play up front, while Dustin Byfuglien and Tobias Enstrom will both suit up on defense.

Players To Watch:

Edmonton: Griffin Reinhart may have scored a goal on Wednesday night, but he struggled mightily in Edmonton’s 5-3 loss. If things run on merit, then Reinhart should be sent down tomorrow. That said, he’s going to get another look tonight and will be on his natural side, playing left defense with Matt Benning. I’ll be watching Reinhart closely to see if he can bounce back.

Winnipeg: It’s our first look at super rookie Patrik Laine, I mean how can’t he be the player to watch?! This is an extremely gifted offensive player and one who I think can score 30 goals as a rookie, the finish on this kid is THAT good. I’ll be keeping an eye on him to see how he adjusts to the North American pro game.

Other Tidbits To Watch:

Jesse Puljujarvi gets his first look with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tonight, which is a very interesting move by Todd McLellan. I’d rather start the rookie on a soft-minutes line or in the AHL, but the Oilers are going to give him a shot to play in the top-six right off the hop. A solid night tonight would go a long way for him.

Of course, it’ll also be interesting to see Klefbom-Larsson in their second game together. The two have looked good in practice and were very strong against Calgary on Monday night. This Winnipeg roster, however, is clearly a step above that split-squad Flames unit. This will be a nice test for them.

Drake Caggiula (2-0-2) will skate in his third preseason game tonight. Even more interestingly, he’s once again at center. Is this kid really about to make a push to make this roster as a center on October 12th? Will be very interesting to watch him tonight too.

Prediction:

The Oilers are bringing with them three NHL defenders and one clear scoring line, the RNH line. The Jets, on the other hand, are dressing a strong group tonight on home ice. I lean towards Winnipeg in this tilt, mainly because their lineup is a little deeper than the one Edmonton is bringing to town.

I’ll say the Jets take this one 4-3 tonight. Edmonton gets goals from Puljujarvi, Hendricks and Khaira, while Laine, Wheeler, Enstrom and De Leo find the back of the net for the Jets.