Projected Lineup: Oilers Regulars Wrap Up Road Trip

Back to basics.

After a few weeks of constant line shuffling, the Oilers are icing what could be considered their "regular" lineup tonight as they visit the Canucks in Vancouver.

That means Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are back to centering their own lines after playing together in Minnesota and Colorado. Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique, and Connor Brown are reunited on the third line after Jeff Skinner saw some time there in Colorado.

Skinner sticks around in the lineup, however, seemingly entering a rotation with Corey Perry and Kasperi Kapanen on the fourth line. Noah Philp will centre the two veteran wingers while Kapanen gets the night off.

It's also status quo on the blueline, though that should change as soon as John Klingberg joins the team after signing a one-year contract yesterday. Stuart Skinner gets the start in net, looking for his sixth win in seven starts.

As for the Canucks, the expectation yesterday was that they wouldn't make any changes to their lineup against Edmonton. They've lost their last two games to Los Angeles and Winnipeg by a combined score of 11-2.

Despite that, Rick Tocchet said today that he doesn't know whether rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki will play tonight, so we could see another lineup come game time. Thatcher Demko will start in net. He has a dismal .872 save percentage in nine games since returning from injury.

These two teams come into tonight's game on vastly different trajectories. The Oilers own the league's best record since December 1st, at 16-4-1, while the Canucks have won just seven of 22 games since then, their record propped up by seven overtime losses. That's the least of their worries, however, as the Elias Pettersson/J.T. Miller drama reaches its boiling point.

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The Oilers are at the end of a gruelling stretch in which they'll have played nine games in eight cities in sixteen days. Already 7-1 during this stretch, another win tonight over the floundering Canucks would cap off their most impressive stretch of the season to date.

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