At the Rink: Jets at Oilers

EDMONTON -- They will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, but the Edmonton Oilers are living vicariously through teams still in the hunt.

Playing against the Winnipeg Jets at Rexall Place on Monday, the Oilers are looking to influence the race by playing a spoiler role.

"We relish these games a bit, knowing that they're going to be playing their best hockey and that can help raise our game," Oilers forward Matt Hendricks said. "We want to be as competitive as we can these last 10 games and steal as many points as we can. We want to win hockey games and a lot of the teams we're playing right now are fighting for playoff positions or trying to get into the playoff picture. We want to win as many as we can."

Winnipeg holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, four points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings.

Edmonton is 13th in the Western Conference, three points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes.

"There is going to be that desperation in their game," Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "They work hard in general every game and they're going to push the pace even more tonight; we know that. We just have to prepare ourselves for an intense game and we just want to play well to finish off the season and just worry about ourselves."

The Jets are on a four-game winning streak and the game against Edmonton is the first of two-game road trip; they play the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

Winnipeg won its first two games against Edmonton and is looking for the season sweep. But they are not taking the Oilers lightly.

"They're not dealing with not making the playoffs; they've already dealt with that," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Now they are dealing with where they're at, how they're feeling on how they're playing recently. They are playing hard and they should feel good about themselves. This isn't a team that is carrying the start of the season; those questions have already been answered and they'll get answered again after the season is over. But right now, here, tonight, they just won a big game, an overtime win, which makes you feel good about yourself. And they played really hard against us, really well against us in Winnipeg [a 3-2 overtime win Dec. 3]. This is going to be a hard-fought game here against us."

The Jets are missing defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, center Bryan Little and forward Mathieu Perreault, who are out because of injuries.

Oilers left wing Taylor Hall will play his second game after returning from Saturday because of a leg injury that had kept him out of 23 of the previous 24 games.

"More than anything we know this is going to be a hard game and those are easy to get up for," Hall said. "It's a Canadian team and they'll have fans in the crowd and it's an important game for them. Even though we'd love to be in their spot, it would still be fun to knock off a team like that and derail them from getting the two points."

Goaltender Ben Scrivens will start for Edmonton; Ondrej Pavelec, who was named NHL First Star on Monday, will start in goal for Winnipeg.

Here are the projected lineups:

JETS

Andrew Ladd - Adam Lowry - Michael Frolik

Drew Stafford - Mark Scheifele - Blake Wheeler

Jiri Tlusty - Jim Slater - Lee Stempniak

Chris Thorburn - Eric O'Dell - Matt Halischuk

Toby Enstrom - Tyler Myers

Mark Stuart - Jacob Trouba

Adam Pardy - Jay Harrison

Ondrej Pavelec

Michael Hutchinson

Scratched: Keaton Ellerby, TJ Galiardi, Anthony Peluso

Injured: Dustin Byfuglien (upper body), Ben Chiarot (upper body) Grant Clitsome (back), Bryan Little (upper body), Mathieu Perreault (lower body), Paul Postma (lower body)

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, Luke Gazdic

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

Status report: Scrivens will make his seventh consecutive start. He has played in 14 of the past 15 games. … Oilers forward Ryan Hamilton was returned to the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League after clearing waivers Monday. … Byfuglien and Little skated with the Jets on Monday morning but are not expected to play during the two-game road trip.

Who's hot: Eberle has five goals and nine assists during his seven-game point streak. … Nugent-Hopkins is on a five-game point streak. He had two goals and one assist in the win against the Flyers on Saturday, including a goal in overtime. … Wheeler has six goals and six assists in his past nine games. … Stafford has three goals and four assists in his past five games.