At the Rink: Hurricanes at Oilers

EDMONTON -- Goaltender Cam Talbot will make his fourth consecutive start and sixth in the past seven games for the Edmonton Oilers, who host the Carolina Hurricanes (9 p.m., ET; FS-CR, SNW) at Rexall Place on Monday.

Talbot has regained the No. 1 role for Edmonton (16-21-3) after backing up Anders Nilsson earlier in the season. Talbot had one start in 12 games from Nov. 18–Dec. 11.

"Cam has played really well going all the way back to the Boston (Bruins) game where he entered and saved our bacon that night (in a 3-2 overtime win)," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "He's played very well, he'll get another opportunity to do that again tonight. He's confident, the team is confident when he's playing and it's a good marriage there."

Talbot made 34 saves in a 4-3 shootout win against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday to help the Oilers end a four-game losing streak. The game against Carolina is the fourth in a season-long, six-game homestand.

"The [consecutive] starts helps you build confidence and build consistency," Talbot said. "You feel more comfortable when you haven't been sitting around for a while. It's good to get some starts in a row and I'm going to continue to try and play well."

Goaltender Cam Ward will start for the Hurricanes (16-17-6). Ward has been sharing the net with Eddie Lack this season and was the backup for the Hurricanes' past two games.

"We've always mapped out what our thoughts were with goaltending and it's never really worked out that way, so we do really take it day-by-day," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "Ward played really well against Edmonton early in the year, so he's going to play this game and then we'll take it day-by-day."

Carolina beat Edmonton 4-1 on Nov. 25. Ward made 30 saves in the win.

"They don't get enough credit," McLellan said of the Hurricanes. "We could have played that game against the New York Rangers and everyone would have been giving New York credit for how well they played. They played a good game, they played a hard game, they're the No. 1 faceoff team in the League, they give up the fewest number of shots, their penalty kill is really good, and there is a lot of good things that the Hurricanes are doing there, and they deserve a lot of credit for that."

Despite their win against the Oilers earlier in the season, the Hurricanes are taking a cautious approach to the game Monday.

"They have a lot of good pieces," Peters said. "Their top six is very dangerous, they have a lot of skill that can hurt you in transition if you put pucks in bad spots. They're a dangerous team and they're never out of the game with their skillset."

Here are the projected lineups:

HURRICANES

Kris Versteeg - Eric Staal - Elias Lindholm

Joakim Nordstrom - Jordan Staal - Andrej Nestrasil

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask – Brock McGinn

Brad Malone - Jay McClement - Riley Nash

John-Michael Liles - Justin Faulk

Jaccob Slavin - Ron Hainsey

Noah Hanifin - Brett Pesce

Cam Ward

Eddie Lack

Injured: James Wisniewski (knee), Nathan Gerbe (lower body), Phillip Di Giuseppe (upper body)

Scratched: Michal Jordan, Chris Terry

OILERS

Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Teddy Purcell

Benoit Pouliot – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Matt Hendricks – Mark Letestu – Lauri Korpikoski

Jujhar Khaira – Anton Lander – Rob Klinkhammer

Andrej Sekera – Brandon Davidson

Darnell Nurse – Justin Schultz

Brad Hunt - Eric Gryba

Injured: Connor McDavid (collarbone), Nail Yakupov (ankle), Oscar Klefbom (finger), Andrew Ference (undisclosed), Iiro Pakarinen (upper body)

Scratched: Luke Gazdic, Mark Fayne

Status report: McGinn was called up from Charlotte of the American Hockey League and will fill in for Di Giuseppe, who was injured in a 2-1 loss against the Nashville Predators on Saturday. … McDavid and Yakupov took the morning skate for Edmonton, but are not ready to return to the lineup.

Who's hot: Eric Staal has three goals and an assist in his past three games. … Versteeg has three assists in his past three games. … Pouliot has three goals and two assists in his past four games. … Nugent-Hopkins has four assists in his past four games.