Preview: Ducks at Oilers

DUCKS (12-8-4) at OILERS (13-10-2)
10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, PRIME, NHL.TV

Ducks team scope

The Anaheim Ducks will look to have center Ryan Kesler matched up against Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid on Saturday. Kesler's line, with left wing Andrew Cogliano and right wing Jakob Silfverberg, kept McDavid, the NHL scoring leader (34 points), off the score sheet in a 4-1 in at Anaheim on Nov. 15. "My line did a good job of just staying above him and just eliminating his space," Kesler said. "He obviously got his chances in that game and he's going to get his chances again tonight. We just have to limit him and stay close to him and not let him carry the puck. … It's fun, it's the game within the game. It's not just my line, we all have little battles that is the game within the game and we have to win those tonight." The Ducks have won three straight and are 5-2-1 in their past eight games. "We've cleaned up some of the areas over the last little while that we felt, defensively, that we had to limit the opposition, and if we could, keep them to the outside," coach Randy Carlyle said. "Limit the number of scoring chances, don't give them so many opportunities on the power play, all those things, and just execute to a higher level and play faster."

Oilers team scope

The Oilers placed defenseman Darnell Nurse on injured reserve Saturday with a lower-body injury, sustained in Edmonton's 6-3 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. Defenseman Mark Fayne will replace Nurse for the Oilers. "He's a veteran, so he understands what the pace is going to be like and the intensity of the game," coach Todd McLellan said of Fayne. "He hasn't played for a while, so we'll take a look at how he's adapting in the game and manage his minutes." Edmonton has the best road record in the NHL (8-4-2) but is 5-6-0 at home. McDavid has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in a seven-game point streak after not scoring a goal in his previous 10 games (seven assists). "I'm pretty confident even when you're going through a slump and you haven't scored in 10 games," said McDavid, who has 11 goals and 23 assists. "I think sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't and right now, it's pretty lucky for me that stuff seems to be going in. I've definitely been playing some good hockey, and hopefully, I can keep that going, but ultimately the points don't really matter if you're playing good hockey."

Ducks projected lineup

Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie - Antoine Vermette - Ondrej Kase
Ryan Garbutt - Logan Shaw - Jared Boll
Cam Fowler - Sami Vatanen
Hampus Lindholm - Josh Manson
Shea Theodore - Kevin Bieksa
Josh Gibson
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched:Korbinian Holzer, Chris Wagner
Injured:Simon Despres (head), Nate Thompson (Achilles), Joseph Cramarossa (lower body), Clayton Stoner (lower body)

Oilers projected lineup

Milan Lucic - Connor McDavid - Leon Draisaitl
Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Tyler Pitlick - Drake Caggiula - Anton Slepyshev
Pat Maroon - Mark Letestu - Zack Kassian
Kris Russell - Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera - Matt Benning
Oscar Klefbom - Mark Fayne
Cam Talbot
Jonas Gustavsson
Scratched:Drake Caggiula, Jesse Puljujarvi, Dillon Simpson
Injured:Iiro Pakarinen (knee), Brandon Davidson (upper body), Darnell Nurse (lower body), Eric Gryba (undisclosed)

Status report

The Oilers recalled defenseman Simpson from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League to take Nurse's roster spot. … Fayne played one game for the Oilers before sustaining a lower-body injury Oct. 18 and missed the next 20 games … Cogliano, who never has missed a game in his NHL career, will play his 729th consecutive game Saturday.

Who's hot

Lucic has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in a six-game point streak. … Draisaitl has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in his past nine games after having one goal and one assist in his previous 12 games. … Vatanen has three assists in four games.