At the Rink: Flyers at Oilers

EDMONTON — Taylor Hall returns to the Edmonton Oilers lineup Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers after missing 23 of the past 24 games with a leg injury.

Hall sustained the injury being hit by a puck in the first practice back from the 2015 NHL All-Star weekend, Jan 24-25.

He missed three games and returned to play against the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 2. After re-aggravating the injury in San Jose, Hall missed the following 20 games for Edmonton (19-39-13).

“I’m excited to play again, get back with the boys and get in the battle again,” Hall said. “It’s been a long time and it’s been a tough year injury-wise and I’m excited to be playing again.”

Hall will start the game Saturday against Philadelphia (29-29-15) on the Oilers’ third line with center Anton Lander and forward Andrew Miller, who was recalled from the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.

Prior to sustaining the injury, Hall was skating on Edmonton’s first line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle.

“I think the thought process is that [Nail Yakupov] is playing so well with Derek [Roy] and Teddy [Purcell] (on second line) and [Eberle] and [Nugent-Hopkins] are playing so well with Benoit [Pouliot],” Hall said. “So I’m not too big of a personality that I can’t fit in elsewhere. If we’re going to be a good team, we’re going to have a few scoring lines and some depth. So to get other guys involved and to get Anton playing with someone like myself, it’s exciting for me and it’s exciting for him too.”

Despite missing 29 games this season, Hall is still third in Oilers’ scoring with 11 goals and 19 assists for 30 points in 42 games. Eberle leads Edmonton with 19 goals and 56 points; Nugent-Hopkins has 20 goals and 50 points this season.

“Taylor has great speed and is an impact player,” Oilers coach Todd Nelson said. “That gives us quite a bit of flexibility with the lines.”

Edmonton has lost eight of their past nine games (1-5-3). They were defeated 4-3 in a shootout against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

“I’m sure [Hall] will be fired up, he hasn’t played in a while,” Flyers defenseman Nick Schultz said. “He has tremendous skill and his speed is his biggest thing. His ability to get moving when he gets the puck is impressive. Those guys are hard to defend. He’s somebody you want to be careful with. You don’t’ want to give him too much room, because you want to try and take his time and space away, but when he gets a step on you, it’s tough to defend him.”

The Flyers have lost three straight (0-2-1) and seven of their past eight games (1-5-2). Saturday is the last of a four-game road trip in Canada.

“With Edmonton, we have to have a checking mindset right away in this game and we’ll get chances if we do that,” Flyers coach Craig Berube said. “We have to slow them down, we have to take away their speed and their play-making ability.”

Goaltender Ben Scrivens will start for Edmonton; Steve Mason will start in goal for Philadelphia.

Here are the projected lineups:

FLYERS

Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek

Brayden Schenn - Sean Couturier - Wayne Simmonds

Matt Read - Nick Cousins - Ryan White

Zac Rinaldo - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Chris VandeVelde

Nick Schultz – Mark Streit

Nicklas Grossmann – Andrew MacDonald

Michael Del Zotto - Carlo Colaiacovo

Steve Mason

Ray Emery

Scratched: Vincent Lecavalier

Injured: R.J. Umberger (abdominal surgery), Luke Schenn (lower body), Radko Gudas (knee), Chris Pronger (head)

OILERS

Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle

Teddy Purcell - Derek Roy – Nail Yakupov

Taylor Hall – Anton Lander – Andrew Miller

Matt Hendricks – Boyd Gordon - Rob Klinkhammer

Oscar Klefbom - Justin Schultz

Martin Marincin - Mark Fayne

Nikita Nikitin - Andrew Ference

Ben Scrivens

Richard Bachman

Scratched: Keith Aulie, Ryan Hamilton

Injured: Tyler Pitlick (lacerated spleen), Viktor Fasth (knee), Iiro Pakarinen (knee), Luke Gazdic (illness), Matt Fraser (head).

Status report: The Oilers decided to keep Miller in Edmonton, despite Hall’s return to the lineup. Miller had been recalled on an emergency basis on Wednesday and made his NHL debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets. … Read returns to the Flyers lineup after missing two games for the birth of his daughter.

Who’s hot: Roy has three goals and one assists in his past four games. … Eberle has four goals and eight assists in his past six games. … Voracek has a goal and two assists in his past three games.