Perry promoted: Oilers shuffle forward lines against Blues
The Edmonton Oilers have once again brought out the blender ahead of tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues.
Team practice was held at the Enterprise Center this morning and, while they did not have any line rushes, there were a few interesting things that came out of it. The first notable change was Corey Perry, who was wearing a top-six white jersey while Warren Foegele was wearing bottom-six blue.
Tony Brar with OilersTV was one of the first to have this observation.
Corey Perry is wearing a top-six white jersey at Morning Skate.
Foegele in bottom-six blue. #Oilers
— Tony Brar 🚀 (@TonyBrarOTV) April 1, 2024
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch told the media after practice that they are going to be trying out Perry on the second line with Leon Draisaitl. Knoblauch did not confirm if the other winger would be Adam Henrique, who has been having some success on that line of late.
“We’re going to be altering the lines a little bit right through and into the playoffs,” Knoblauch said. “I think Warren Foegele and Leon [Draisaitl] have been a good pair throughout the year and they will be back playing together at some point, but right now we just wanted to give this a look.”
"Good teams tend to have good defensive play & good goaltending."
Coach Knoblauch checks in from St. Louis as the #Oilers get set to play the Blues.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/xaQZERrPhX
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) April 1, 2024
Presumably, Foegele will slide down to the third line alongside Ryan McLeod and potentially Evander Kane. McLeod and Foegele have played together quite a bit this season and have plenty of familiarity.
We won’t know the official line combinations until the team takes to warmups tonight.
On the blue line, it looks like the Oilers will be getting Cody Ceci back into the lineup after he missed Saturday afternoon’s game against the Anaheim Ducks with an illness. Brett Kulak was banged up in that game, but Knoblauch confirmed that he will also be playing tonight.
“Both of them are healthy and ready to play, and they will be in the lineup,” Knoblauch told reporters.
Stuart Skinner will be back between the pipes after Calvin Pickard gave him the weekend off. Skinner is looking to improve his record to 34-14-4 with a win tonight. The sophomore goaltender has a 2-1-1 career record in four games against St. Louis.
This game has the potential to be an important one for the Oilers. Though the team is comfortably in a playoff spot, a win against the Blues tonight would push their magic number to make the playoffs to just a single point. That means either a win or OT/SO loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday would punch their ticket to the postseason.
St. Louis, on the other hand, is desperately fighting for their playoff lives. The Blues are five points back of the LA Kings for the final wildcard spot and are coming off a surprising 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
Gametime is set for 7 pm MT on Sportsnet Oilers.