EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers are putting two of their best players together in an effort to snap a six-game winless streak.
Against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, the Oilers will use David Perron and Taylor Hall on the same line for the first time this season.
"It's interesting. It's the first time I get a chance to play with [Hall] in 35 games," Perron said. "I'm interested to see what's going to happen. I'm excited about it. He's obviously a guy that you can give the puck to in the neutral zone and he can use his speed through the zone. That's something I'm going to try to do. We've already talked about how we want to play in the offensive zone, moving the puck quickly and working hard in the corners."
Perron and Hall have been two of the Oilers' best offensive forwards this season.
Acquired in a trade from the St. Louis Blues during the offseason, Perron has 14 goals and 13 assists in 34 games. Hall leads the team in scoring with 13 goals and 17 assists.
"You can count the shifts we've had together this year on one hand," Hall said. "At this point in the year there is not a lot of practice time. We had a couple of reps in practice [Sunday] and now we're thrown into a game. It should be fun. He's a skilled guy, he's a guy that's really come in here and played well for us and I'm looking forward to playing with him."
The Oilers enter Monday on their longest winless skid of the season, including a 6-0 loss at home against the Blues on Saturday.
A fan threw an Oilers jersey on the ice following the loss, which did not sit well with coach Dallas Eakins.
"You've seen the creed up on the wall," Eakins said. "The one thing that stands out in big, huge letters is, 'I am never out of the fight.' Whoever threw that jersey on the ice, they're out. They've given up. They're a quitter. We don't want that here. This city, the people that work in the oil industry, they're not quitters. They work hard, they build a great city with a great industry out of hard work and not quitting. And I do not ever, ever want our players to quit, no matter where we're at."
Ilya Bryzgalov will get the start in goal for the Oilers against the Jets. Bryzgalov gave up all six goals in the loss to the Blues.
"We want to get him right back in there," Eakins said. "He wasn't happy with his play. That loss was certainly not on him. It was 3-0 before it went sideways for him. He's veteran guy. He's not rattled by the last game. He wants to get back in the game and give us a chance to win.
Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal for the Jets, who go into the game having lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. The Jets have been hovering around the .500 mark all season.
"We'd like to get a bit more consistency in trying to get wins," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "Winning in this League is not easy first of all, and it doesn't come easy for us. We're in a lot of one-goal games and the difference in one-goal games is a mistake or a special-teams goal that you gave up."
Here are the projected lineups:
OILERS
Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - David Perron
Jesse Joensuu - Sam Gagner - Jordan Eberle
Ryan Smyth - Boyd Gordon - Ales Hemsky
Luke Gazdic - Anton Lander - Nail Yakupov
Andrew Ference - Justin Schultz
Scratched: Philip Larsen
Injured: Mark Arcobello (ribs), Ryan Jones (head)
JETS
Andrew Ladd - Bryan Little - Blake Wheeler
Evander Kane - Mark Scheifele - Michael Frolik
Devin Setoguchi - Olli Jokinen - Chris Thorburn
James Wright - Eric O'Dell - Anthony Peluso
Tobias Enstrom - Zach Bogosian
Scratched: Keaton Ellerby, Eric Tangradi
Injured: Jim Slater (sports hernia), Paul Postma (blood clot), Matt Halischuk (arm)
Back to top |