Oilers shuffle up lines at practice ahead of Stanley Cup Final series

The Edmonton Oilers trotted out a few different forward line combinations in their last practice at home this morning.

With the team set to fly out to Florida tomorrow morning, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch took the opportunity to shuffle up three of his four lines. The only line that remained together was the top one of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid, and Zach Hyman, while the others saw at least one change.

#Oilers HC Kris Knoblauch ran the following forward lines at practice this morning:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Foegele*-Draisaitl-Holloway
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
McLeod-Ryan/Carrick-Perry

We'll see if those stick when the team touches down in Florida later this week.

— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) June 5, 2024

The biggest change made was on the Oilers’ second line. Edmonton eliminated the Dallas Stars, with Leon Draisaitl anchoring the second line with Ryan McLeod and Corey Perry. Now, the German power forward will be reunited with Dylan Holloway. Warren Foegele skated on the other side, but it’s believed he was a place-holder for Evander Kane.

That’s a trio that Knoblauch told media he has a lot of confidence in.

“Between the three of them, they provide a little bit of everything,” Knoblauch said this morning. “Leon can do pretty much everything, but he’s ultimately the play-maker, the driver on that line. You got Dylan with some speed in on forecheck, disrupt things, and Kane, obviously, is a little more of a finisher, a little more power, physicality type player.

“The three of them have played really well.”

Things get a little cloudy in the bottom six as it’s unclear which line will act as the third or fourth line. Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown are typically fourth-liners, but the fact that Adam Henrique is centring those two seems to suggest otherwise.

McLeod and Perry are staying together on a line, but it appears they will slide down the lineup with one of Sam Carrick or Derek Ryan acting as their pivot. Those two were rotating in line rushes at practice.

On the backend, things stayed static at this morning’s practice, with Mattias Ekholm manning the top pair with Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse skating with Brett Kulak on the second pair. There is some chatter that Vincent Desharnais will come back into the lineup, but Philip Broberg was still skating with Cody Ceci on the third pair.

Stuart Skinner will almost assuredly get the start in net for the Oilers on Saturday for Game 1. The sophomore goaltender has a 2-0-0 record against the Panthers in his career. It was Calvin Pickard who was in the net for the two regular-season losses against Florida this season.